Found a FEATHER in my Teavana tea!

I found a wild bird feather in my Dosha Chai tea this week. Omg. How gross. Called customer service— they sent me a new pound of the tea (it contains the exact same lot # as the original batch. And a coupon for 10.00 off of a 50.00 purchase. AND… They want ME to drive to a UPS store to return the remaining tea. Great customer service. They are horrid.
So… I went to my local Teavana store today…. And they are completely fed up with the company. They have pulled ALL OF THEIR Dosha Chai AND ALL OF THEIR Cha Yen Thai Tea because the company has found FEATHERS in both of these teas. Teavana pulled BOTH OF THESE TEAS AND DIDNT CARE TO INFORM THE CUSTOMER OF MAJOR QUALITY ISSUES.
Are you freaking kidding me. So…. It’s a company wide quality issue…. Not just some random feather in my tea. My friends at Teavana said they wouldn’t buy any tea from the store right now. I have hundreds of dollars of their tea that makes me gag just looking at it.
I just wanted all of my fellow tea friends to be aware!

22 Replies
carol who said

I’ve noticed that their website has been closed for at least 12 hours. I wonder what all this means? But it seems like they have a real problem!
By the way, I just mean “down for maintenance” not actually closed.

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Sami Kelsh said

Eww, that’s gross.

But yeah, if they’re having to pull teas because of feathers, they should post a recall notice for anybody who’s bought tea from that lot number before it was pulled. They might think it looks bad to announce it, but customers trust and respect that kind of transparency, and word travels fast these days.

Looks like the website’s back up, though, so I doubt it had to do with the recall.

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carol who said

The website is not up here (at least for me). And I remember that they had a recall in 2011 or 2012 because of salmonella contamination. And I agree this should be announced or it gets pretty hard to trust them.

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Kat said

Wow, this is bad, and also disappointing. I was going to purchase some of the Cha Yen Thai Tea this week. I guess I won’t do that.

They seem to have updated their website, and made it even uglier than before, so I assume that was why it was down.

How in the world do feathers even get into tea? What a weird contamination problem. It sounds like they’re going to have to find new suppliers, which will likely affect the costs. I guess we’ll see what they do.

My first thought is that a bird might have gotten trapped in whatever they store their tea in and died :|

Kat said

I was thinking they are using an overseas supplier, and somehow the feathers got cross contaminated. Your theory is a lot less baffling. This could be a huge health hazard, and I’m surprised the company isn’t forced to do something about it. I always err on the side of liking Teavana, because it started in Atlanta where I’m from, and I’m proud, but wow. (And an Atlanta based company should know better! We have the CDC. That logic makes no sense, but I’m disappointed.)

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Confused said

I just found a feather in my teavana tea too! I purchased the rooibos sevenberry sangria today in Sudbury on.

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carol who said

OMG! Again!

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cmgrady said

well I just found one in my Yunnan Golden Tea today – it’s white and an over an inch long – so disgusting. I pay over $7.00 for 2 oz of that tea. The corporate office wants me to return tea and wanted to send me a gift card and I said, for what to buy more tea with bird feathers in it. I can’t believe how lightly they are taking this. I asked to have someone from senior management call me from Corporate and took pics and send it to them.

cmgrady said

Well update as of 5/15 – I received this response via email from customer service Manager at TeaVANA – this is equally disturbing that they can make such irresponsible statements and claims..

Hello Ms. Grady,
Thank you for contacting Teavana. We sincerely apologize that a feather was found in your loose leaf tea. From time to time foreign objects such as feathers are found in loose leaf tea as the tea leaves are harvested in an outdoor open air environment. I have spoken with our Quality Assurance Department and they have assured me that there is no health/bacterial risk as the hot water that was used to brew the tea will kill any bacteria that may have been present.

Due to the circumstances, we are happy to refund you for your purchase. I have been informed that a refund has been processed for you in the form of a corporate check. Again, I offer my sincerest apology and please feel free to contact me should you have any further questions. Have a great day!

Kind Regards,

LaTonya Savoy
Teavana Corporation
Manager, Customer Support
3630 Peachtree Rd., NE
Atlanta, GA 30326

No…. just no. Have you see the lovely tea picking videos? or the once of tea processing facilities? This should not be happening. Sounds more like a bird fell into a huge cauldron of tea leaves and got mixed in. or birds sit in the rafters above the tea and drop feathers into it. . and the advice of "don’t worry boiling water will kill any buggy contaminants " now fear they are knowingly letting tainted/contaminated tea past quality control simply because it will be boiled first. (who among us boils their tea for 10 minutes before drinking?) don’t they know better? that would be like letting known salmonella chicken into the grocery store simply because it will be cooked first?!

I agree – they should be more worried about it. And boiling the tea didn’t help the people who got sick in that Teavana shop. Some teas are not boiled anyway!

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!!! STILL feathers?!?! And even in a plain tea that isn’t a blend? I thought it would just be blends. I don’t think I’m drinking teavana anymore.

Oh no.. I just realized the Yunnan Golden is the last Teavana tea I had a couple months ago.

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SarsyPie said

Thank you all for sharing your experiences. I am down to the last few tsp. of my Teavana teas, and will not be repurchasing. There are way too many companies with better prices, better selling practices, and better quality!

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If this feather thing is still happening, shouldn’t somebody call the health inspector? They have a major sourcing problem.

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