Comment by rendaw
3 years ago
Many bacteria have mechanisms for surviving dry periods, ex: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00294-019-01036-z
3 years ago
Many bacteria have mechanisms for surviving dry periods, ex: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00294-019-01036-z
Unfortunately the bacteria that can survive drying-out are also the ones that survive boiling, so unless you're going to boil your tea in a pressure cooker it's not much help.
We'd be drinking gamma ray sanitized tea if that had really been a problem. Honestly it sounds like mercury scare in seafood and pourover rice cooking for arsenic reduction, just not-invented-here behavior.