Bugs!

[vnero323]

Bugs!

by vnero323 » Jul 4th, '06, 10:15

About a year and a half ago, I bought a large tin of chamomile tea and drank it voraciously. As summer came though, my tea drinking habits dropped off a bit (simply because I was too hot to drink hot liquids, and I am not a huge iced tea fan). Anyway, once the weather cooled down again, I opened up the tin of chamomile and it was INFESTED (as in moving and crawling) with small little bugs, and the tea was noticeably smaller in volume. I am in NO way trying to accuse Adagio of selling bug-contaminated tea, but I am just curious as to how these critters could have otherwise gotten in my tea, since it was always stored in the tightly sealed tin and was only opened momentarily each time I would get a spoonful out for brewing a cup. I still continue to buy Adagio quite frequently, as I consider the possibility that the bugs got into it at my house, and have never had any such similar problem. I was just curious if this has happened to anyone else with their tea or storage tins, and if so your solutions. I now store all of the tins in a sealable Rubbermaid-type container as a double-protection for my beloved Adagio products.

Thanks for any responses, and happy drinking.

Vanessa

[TeaFanatic]

by TeaFanatic » Jul 4th, '06, 11:08

That has not happened to me yet, and I'm really glad that it hasn't. I've heard stories of dead insects getting into teas and such, but usually that happens at the plantations.

What interests me though is how the insects lived in the container if it was air tight. Perhaps your tin had a defect that allowed some bugs to get in. Or maybe when you opened it one time, a couple jumped in.

I don't know, you got me.

[studio271]

by studio271 » Jul 4th, '06, 19:00

That has not happened to me yet, and I'm really glad that it hasn't. I've heard stories of dead insects getting into teas and such, but usually that happens at the plantations.

Slightly off topic, but I once got a pound of "organic" perppermint and found a dried ladybug in it one day while brewing up a cup. UGH!

I ended up going through the whole batch for an hour and found four more of them, along with a few pieces of wing, some dirt clumps, sunflower seeds, and a small feather.

Really turned me off of "organic" products, because it seems like it's often (read: not always) just an excuse for producers to put out lesser quality products and charge more for them, especially when it comes to large crops of easily grown plants such as peppermint. But I dunno.

[chadg]

by chadg » Oct 19th, '08, 21:15

I found bugs in my Chamomile also. I got an herbal sampler a few months ago and tonight i opened the tin up and found brown flying bugs. They are alive and thriving very well.

I almost did not notice them at first. I opened the tin and smelled it, then i noticed the bugs when i was looking closer. I have used this tea just one time and the lid has been on it the entire time

I searched the internet to see if this was a common problem with Chamomile, but found nothing.

Pretty Gross to think i steep bugs the first time i tried it.

[edkrueger]

by edkrueger » Oct 19th, '08, 21:41

That has not happened to me yet, and I'm really glad that it hasn't. I've heard stories of dead insects getting into teas and such, but usually that happens at the plantations.

Slightly off topic, but I once got a pound of "organic" perppermint and found a dried ladybug in it one day while brewing up a cup. UGH!

I ended up going through the whole batch for an hour and found four more of them, along with a few pieces of wing, some dirt clumps, sunflower seeds, and a small feather.

Really turned me off of "organic" products, because it seems like it's often (read: not always) just an excuse for producers to put out lesser quality products and charge more for them, especially when it comes to large crops of easily grown plants such as peppermint. But I dunno.

That is what you get for buying organic...

[Riene]

by Riene » Oct 19th, '08, 23:09

Oh, EWWWWWWW.

Now I'm going to be paranoid every time I open a tin.

[Chip]

by Chip » Oct 19th, '08, 23:31

I read somewhere that the average person eats 8 live spiders in their life, unless the first one is a brown recluse.

Food for thought.

[Space Samurai]

by Space Samurai » Oct 19th, '08, 23:44

It happens with pasta, rice, and grains all the time. Organic or not.

[Carnelian]

by Carnelian » Oct 19th, '08, 23:45

With the organic peppermint, it actually makes sense that organic tea would have ladybugs in it, since ladybugs are released over organic crops to eat aphids before the aphids eat the plants. That doesn't make the discovery any less disgusting though.

[Victoria]

by Victoria » Oct 19th, '08, 23:56

Very astute!

Consider this when you have that lovely chocolate with your buggy tea -

The U.S. Department of Health publishes a pamphlet The Food Defect Action Levels available to the public which lists the acceptable amount of "natural and unavoidable defects in food".

The current acceptable level for chocolate is "1 rodent hair and 16 insect parts."

[kymidwife]

by kymidwife » Oct 20th, '08, 00:05

"1 rodent hair and 16 insect parts."

Ahhhh but WHICH parts are they?

[Victoria]

by Victoria » Oct 20th, '08, 00:14

Parts are parts.

[Riene]

by Riene » Oct 20th, '08, 00:28

We should rename this the Diet thread.

As in, I don't feel like eating anything right now...

[Vulture]

by Vulture » Oct 20th, '08, 01:04

Reminds me of when I lived with my dad. It was just me and him and he had a bad habit of leaving things open. He would then close and put things away later in the day while I was away on weekend or something.

I opened the cereal box one morning and poured out maggots instead of cereal. I will tell you that since then I don't eat cereal that much

[Trioxin]

by Trioxin » Oct 20th, '08, 01:19

Wow. This thread is nearly as bad as the hotdog water pu-erh thread.