Thursday, September 9, 2010
News Don't Get the Peach Tea, Man: Tazo Exploding at Whole Foods?
Posted by Nicki Wood on Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 8:06 AM
Boutique tea Tazo really packs a punch, according to a lawsuit filed in Davidson County this week.
Tazo drinker and Whole Foods customer Bernie Bublick claims a Tazo Giant Peach green tea purchased from Whole Foods exploded at his home, hurling glass into his hand and damaging a tendon. The suit reports that he's undergone two surgeries to repair the hand and has lost income from his work as a jeweler because of the damage.
The incident occurred April 5. On April 19, Bublick purchased another bottle. which exploded in his shopping cart.
Bublick's suit seeks unspecified damages from Whole Foods for its negligence in selling the tea, and Tazo manufacturer Starbucks for manufacturing the exploding product.
Read the whole story and get a link to the lawsuit in our sister-in-journalism, The City Paper, at this link.
Comments (4)
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So, he has a bottle explode in his hand on the 5th causing severe damage and goes back for more on the 19th? You would think he would have learned his lesson...
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Not only did he go back for more, he had the misfortune of choosing the only other bottle that would explode. What are the odds? Probably none. What are the odds that this tea didn't explode during the manufacturing process, didn't exploded during delivery, didn't explode when the employees stocked the shelves, and didn't explode for other customers? The first bottle didn't explode during the car ride home, but it waited until he was ready to drink it. Next, the tea 'waited' until it was in that same shoppers cart to explode again. Uhm...I don't believe any of it!
Looks like the Whole Foods/Snapple propaganda team was out in force this morning.
Jennifer, haven't you ever gone back to confront a fear? Ridden a bicycle after crashing it? What were the odds you would crash in the same place? You can't have it both ways. You first say "What are the odds?" The man probably went back for another Tazo thinking just the same thing as you just did. Well, apparently the odds are higher than either of you predicted.
Unintentional fermentation can cause pressure in bottles, and there might be something unique to both Peach Tazo and/or the manufacturing or storage of this particular batch of it, which exceeded the pressure-limit of the Tazo bottle-glass.
One thing for certain, people in big corporations learn to feel insulated, untouchable, and arrogant. Money is the only thing to get their attention. I would not be surprised if someone has already done a cost analysis estimating the cost of changing the product versus settling future injury lawsuits.
