The Gross Reason Redditors Are Refusing To Drink Arizona Iced Tea From The Can
Can you dig AriZona Tea cans? Many Redditors cannot. While the $0.99 AriZona Iced Tea cans get continuous praise for its consistent pricing, formerly loyal customers scold the brand for inconsistencies in the product. Redditors share complaints — some with pictures — regarding their canned AriZona iced teas containing what they believe to be mold, with dozens of commenters echoing the same sentiment.
On one thread, a Redditor reports slurping down a floating substance (which they thought was mold) in their iced green tea with ginseng and honey. The redditor describes it as "like worms in my mouth." In agreement with this user, several others share having the same experience, with many saying they've stopped purchasing AriZona Tea cans altogether because of it. On another thread, a user iterated a similar experience, but with a can of AriZona Sweet Tea. While mimicking the original poster's sentiment, dozens of commenters revealed their concerns with getting sick from consuming the allegedly-moldy product. Of course, AriZona had something to say. AriZona Tea moderators on the site have commented on several threads regarding the moldy cans, shifting blame onto "unsafe storage practices by vendors or defects by the manufacturer" and advising consumers to report the "defects" on AriZona's official website rather than on Reddit.
While this has erupted a flurry of worries online, tea experts have weighed in on the matter. Many Redditors who dabble in the tea and kombucha industry proclaim the substance floating in several AriZona Tea cans to not be mold, but rather a SCOBY. SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) is an inherently harmless growth produced from fermented sweetened tea.
They may look a little scary, but SCOBYs are harmless
Unless your SCOBY has fuzzy black or green spots (which would indicate mold), consuming a SCOBY is harmless. Gelatinous in nature, SCOBYs are typically round, opaque, and dense with a slight vinegary odor. Because SCOBYs form in warm climates, it is likely that somewhere down the line a pack of AriZona Tea cans containing a SCOBY were not refrigerated during their manufacturing or storage process. Aside from this, AriZona Tea cans are the perfect formation site for any SCOBY. Why? Because they're tea (duh), sweetened with sugar, have a long shelf life, and are air tight — all the ingredients needed to make a SCOBY from scratch. Once the tea's carbohydrates (sugars) are fermented into an alcohol or acid, poof! A SCOBY appears. At this point, your tea has basically become kombucha. The SCOBY is what provides kombucha with its many health benefits.
Even after some connoisseurs revealed this information on Reddit, people still weren't pleased. One Redditor highlights, "That doesn't really help anyone when we purchased Arizona TEA and not Arizona KOMBUCHA. Paying for one thing and getting something else is the problem, not the lack of knowledge." While this person has a point, the lack of awareness around the truth of the matter only fortifies the already-widespread group panic. As many people still live under the assumption the SCOBY is actually mold, and with several Reddit threads affirming this theory, it just goes to show how something stated on the internet can be taken for truth and spiral out of control. If I were AriZona Tea, I would set the record straight ASAP.