Crystals on Krumovgrad

[OakBayou]

I recently received a 7-type sampler from WLT to start my whole leaf journey. Couldn't be more happy with the quality and am quite enjoying prepping and processing leaf for cigarettes and experimenting with a pipe for the first time.

I noticed that my Krumovgrad is covered in tiny crystals, especially while opening the stacked leaves and separating them to shred. On close inspection, they are squarish and flakey, with a shine that reminds me of bits of mica (the mineral). Most of the leaves seem to be covered in it.

Any idea of what this is? Should I try to mist and raise the case on this? Brush it off? Leave as is? So far, I've shredded some as is and smoked in blends. Seems to taste and smoke just fine, but it does tend to leave a crystalline dust behind after shredding/blending.

Thanks for your thoughts!

 

[deluxestogie]

Photo?

 

[OakBayou]

 

[OakBayou]

There's less here than the leaf I've shredded, but I think you can see them here. It was hard to get good light and focus.

 

[deluxestogie]

I just inspected each leaf of the tiny bit of WLT Krumovgrad B2 (2019) that I still had tucked away. I usually hand-shred small Oriental leaf as a wad, so I had not previously separated the leaves. I do see a few, tiny, sparkling bits on a few of my leaves. My sparkles appear to be a mineral salt of some sort. Since I've already smoked (in pipe blends) most of it, I can say that I never noticed anything amiss.

The leaf is shipped from Bulgaria, as a tightly compressed bale. At the WLT warehouse, they often have to bring the baled leaf back into case to sort and separate it. My assumption at this point is that it is, indeed, what you thought all along, and resulting from its being dried-down for repackaging at WLT. What specific, flaky mineral crystals it might be, I couldn't say. It does not raise any safety red flags in my brain. If I encountered a greater concentration of crystals on my leaf, I would be inclined to just brush it off, and smoke the leaf.

Bob