What kind of mold is this? (is it mold?)

I went on a week long vacation and when I got back, my kombucha was covered in little black specks — almost like super fine coffee grounds were sprinkled all over it. I threw it all out, boiled my jug, and tried again with a culture from a clean batch. Obviously I didn't sterilize the container enough and the black specks appeared again. I'm fairly certain this must be a kind of mold, but does anyone know what kind it is? I've never seen it before.

I'm not sure that's mold at all. Mold on a SCOBY is nearly always green or blue in roughly circular patches. Make a test batch and see if it tastes ok. KT made from a moldy culture tastes really "off." And SCOBYs are not always creamy white. Mine look pretty gnarly, in fact.

Mold is fuzzy, have seen white-green-black-orange-pink, you name it across the KT community. Is this tea by chance? What type of cover is on your container? Just really hard to get a better visual.

Yup, this is ginger tea. I've used the same tea in the past, but never had any problems. I'm using a piece of thin cotton cloth for the cover. It's weird, huh? I'm mostly curious if anyone has ever seen anything like it before.