Water or tea? Customer puzzled by bland chrysanthemum tea

A woman was puzzled after taking a sip of her chrysanthemum tea -- it tasted nothing like it.

Zheng, who bought a carton of Yeo's chrysanthemum tea from NTUC FairPrice at White Sands shopping centre on Feb 1, later found that the drinks inside four of those packets tasted like water. 

The 56-year-old told Shin Min Daily News that she opened the first packet on Feb 10. 

"I thought it was a manufacturing error as they might be rushing the production of drinks for Chinese New Year, so I didn't think too much about it." 

Zheng's husband also encountered the same problem the next day when he reached for a packet of chrysanthemum tea. 

"I took out a third packet from the same pack, cut it open and poured the drink out. It was clear, almost like plain water," said the woman. 

Thinking that the packets of tea in that pack were defective, Zheng tried opening a drink from another pack in the carton on Feb 18, but the tea still tasted bland. 

On Feb 21, Zhang brought the remaining packets of drinks back to the supermarket and informed the staff about the tasteless drinks. 

The supermarket staff said they would return the carton to the drink manufacturer and would keep Zheng updated. 

The beverage company told Shin Min they are aware of the incident and are investigating the matter. 

In response to AsiaOne's queries, a spokesperson from Yeo's said on Wednesday (Feb 28) that the diluted tea was due to an abnormal technical glitch in the manufacturing process.

This resulted in the excess water content in the particular batch of chrysanthemum tea.

The spokesperson added that this was an isolated incident, and Yeo's has since apologised to the customer for the inconvenience caused.

The customer is also satisfied with their explanation, the spokesperson said.

"We reaffirm our unwavering commitment to maintaining the highest standards of quality and transparency throughout our brewing processes." 

claudiatan@asiaone.com