can tea go bad

[jessica31876]

tea bags that is. We make alot of tea and my husband made a pictcher this morning and immediately after drinking it he got really sick. He said the tea tasted kinda off so he dumped it out. That batch was the last out of the box so he opened a fresh box and it tasted the same way so he opened our last box of tea bags and made a fresh batch and he said it tastes fine.

[lauren grier]

it can get bitter-- well it depends what your tea was i guess. lol.. but i've had tea blends my mom makes for us go bitter and ick before.

[jessica31876]

it was tetley iced tea blend. Just traditional southern iced tea. Looking online on a bunch of different sites it said if a batch goes bad and it is in a plastic pitcher it can spoil the next batch and to bleach the container before using it again so he did that and then rinsed it really well and he said it tastes ok again.

[AmyM]

yes, really nasty bad. Kassi got some at a restaraunt and we didn't know it. Halfway into the glass she said she felt sick and we had to leave. Hubby took a sip and figured out why she felt bad.
No food poisoning or anything, but the poor kid was feeling crummy the rest of the day.

[DawnMarch]

Yes, and I would think especially if it has sugar in it like a sweet tea.

[CraftTeaLady]

I would say, if you made the tea and it sat out, yes. Like days. Because there is bacteria and you can grow mold on tea. (Learned that by leaving a pot on the counter when we went out of town).

If you are talking bags, I suppose it depends on how old, where they were kept, etc.

Its much better to be safe than sorry. Toss that box and head to the store for more.

Cause who can ever have too much tea?

[jessica31876]

we always put the tea right in the fridge immediately after it is made. I really dont know what happened because it turned out that three batches were bad one of them my son actually made the night before I did not know about because he dumped it right after making it. He said he washed everything really well BEFORE making the tea too so I dont think it was cross contamination from the pitcher like some websites suggested it might be. We all love sweet tea so we drink alot of it and Tetley is the only kind we really buy and never had this happen before so it was kinda weird how several batches were bad. And they were bad like immediately after being made.