I’m Guessing This Is Mold

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MarcosEZLN

Starting to Get Obsessed
Mar 20, 2021
171
660
Birch Bay, WA, USA
I've only had mold on flakes and shag, which tends to grow into big fluffy spiderwebs that most of us would immediately recognize as mold. However, doing a Google image search for "kajun kake mold" brings up images that look just like yours (some even from this forum". Maybe this is just how mold tends to grow on cakes/plugs. That's a bummer, sorry to see it.

Examples:
Img_2022_10_01_09_10_35.jpeg
FjG9HG5.jpg
 

timt

Lifer
Jul 19, 2018
2,844
22,730
That'd be tough to smoke. There are lines that are hard to cross. I recently opened a tin of 2017 Quiet Nights that had quite a bit of a white powdery residue throughout the tin (a lot more than I've seen on anything before) along with the always welcome crystals, but no stink. I was a little hesitant at first and maybe I'm nuts but I've been smoking it over the past couple weeks. It's great and I've have had no noticeable ill effects on my health. Whatever that is on your tobacco though.... it really took off.

I too have always associated mold with fuzz but maybe it's advanced past the fuzz stage....I don't know. Sounds like a good project for someone - confirmed crap on tobacco to avoid, (with lots of pics).
 
Jul 17, 2017
1,712
6,334
NV
pencilandpipe.home.blog
This definitely looks off. I can't say if it's mold or not, but I cracked a 10yo tin of Kajun Kake back in 2018. The tobacco was jet black and covered in sparkly white/translucent crystals. No white or yellow opaque stuff anywhere to be seen. I personally wouldn't smoke it. The one time I've had mold issues with c&d (8oz tins of SOTE flake) I emailed a picture and was advised to throw away the tins and replacements were quickly sent. Hopefully you'll have a similar experience. A fresh tin wouldn't be as nice as the aged one, but better than nothing. 😒
 
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Chaukisch

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 31, 2021
535
3,568
34
Northern Germany
I've had heavy mold on my raw tobacco leaves before but always in dark gray or green and always in an even and fluffy layer of fuzz. The green mold seemed to prefer to grow in flat round spots that stay close togeher.

I guess your brick has started to mold some years ago and these little cauliflower like buttons are the result.
The mold may be dead by now but I'd throw it away.
Sad thing too, a tobacco from 2014 sounds like a real special treat to me.

I think this might be a good reason to take it out of the tin and put it into a glass jar. At least you can still look at the tobac without disturbing its environment too much. And it will spare you the shock of pulling something like that out when you were hoping to retrieve something special that's good and ready for you to enjoy.
 

craig61a

Lifer
Apr 29, 2017
5,820
48,295
Minnesota USA
That’s mold that has passed it’s prime…

Shitcan it.

Whether or C&D will replace it or not remains to be resolved. They most likely would.

Tobacco is manufactured to be consumed in a reasonable amount of time. In many cases it can be cellared for many years without having any ill effects. However, the manufacturer has no control over storage conditions after it has left the factory. So if you do cellar, you have to accept the risk of something going off with your cellared tobacco. Nobody offers a lifetime warranty on perishable agricultural products.

Now just waiting for the “Cornell & Diehl Mold” fortnightly rants…
 

pantsBoots

Lifer
Jul 21, 2020
2,137
7,547
Terra Firma
It did not smell bad at all. In fact, it smelt great. I’ve never seen mold look like this but I’ve also never seen plume look this either.

I will send an email to C&D to see what they think and report back.

It looks like mold because of how evenly it's distributed throughout the cake. If you've ever grown shiitake or other mushrooms at home, you may have inoculated a block of sawdust and noticed how the colony started growing in one area, but eventually took over the whole block. If what you have was something benign left behind as part of the curing process (bloom, plume, sugars, mineralization), I don't know that it would be so evenly distributed.

There is a dizzying variety of molds out there in the world. I don't know that it's fair to only watch out for white molds or green molds or black molds.
 
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woodsroad

Lifer
Oct 10, 2013
11,794
16,147
SE PA USA
Personally, I would slice off the fruiting bodies and smoke it. Then I'd smoke the stuff that I sliced off just to see what happens. There may be an added bonus there. YMMV.
 
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