8 Kislev 5770
November 25, 2009
example of two dairy flavors
I feel that with winter upon us, we generally drink more hot beverages. As such, I would like to remind readers that we must check hechsherim on such products, for coffees and teas today are somewhat more sophisticated than we have known in the past, and the list of ingredients, while possibly not evident to the consumer, may contain surprises.
One such case would be some of the Bigelow teas, bearing a Kof-K hechsher from the United States. I for one would never suspect that a tea might be dairy, yet they are indeed, and they are clearly marked, but we must remember to look. We often serve tea after a meat shabbat meal and one must take the time to check at be absolutely certain the status on a product is what we believe.
JKN would like to thank subscriber Yonah Engel for taking the time to photograph and report on the product, seeking to alert the public. This assists the ongoing JKN effort towards heightened kashrut awareness.
6 Comments
Posting for an email subscriber – I just wish to add a note about dairy teas, it’s not just Bigelow.
We always knew that celestial seasonings herbal teas flavor cinnamon apple spice used to be dairy (I haven’t seen it in a while here) but now we just noticed that the strawberry flavor herbal tea of celestial seasonings is also dairy
If I’m not mistaken, the Star-K will not give their hechser on Celestial Seasonings teas that are milchig. I don’t recall the other hechsher that’s on Celestial’s certified milchig teas.
It is hard to see the ingredients in these photos. What about these teas make them “dairy?” In the Chai Tea, where the ingredients are somewhat visible, I would be shocked if anything dairy in the tea wouldn’t be batel b’shishim. As such, one could have it at the shabbos meal at dessert, when tea is traditionally served, with no problem whatsoever.
I wrote the Kof-K concerning these teas and will share the answer with JKN when I receive it.
Interestingly, I went to the Kof-K site and found this in their FAQ section:
Q: Are Bigelow Teas really dairy?
A: The KOF-K certifies several RC Bigelow products as Dairy. These items can be made with dairy flavor components and are therefore considered kosher dairy. If the tea was used in “meat” cup please call KOF-K information for assistance.
I’m still interested to know the true status of these teas, since if it was really mamish dairy then why would one need “assistance” if they used the tea in fleishigs keilim.
I’ll keep everyone posted, bli neder, iyH.
One needs to check more than the pareve or dairy status. Some Beglow teas such as Pomegranate Pizaz are not certified and are not kosher.
I followed up with the KOF-K and got a response (see text below). The milchiks are batel in the mixture and therefore can be used l’chatchila at your fleishigs shabbos table (they didn’t say that last part explicitly, but the Rema and Shach say it explicitly Yoreh Deah 99:6 in Rema, Seif Katan 22 in the Shach).
B’shalom,
Yehoshua
***QUOTE***
Dear Rabbi. Coren,
Some R.C. Bigelow Teas contain a minute amount of milchiks and are certified as KOF-K Dairy. The percentage of actual milchiks is batul, and while it will not affect keilim the teas must be certified as Dairy.
Regards,
Noam Goldberg
Rabbi N.Goldberg
KOF-K Kosher Supervision
Ph: (201) 837-0500 x136
Fx: (201) 661-2890