Nettlesome

Some time ago a friend served me some tea and I asked her what kind.  She said it was nettle leaf.  Later, I looked for nettle leaf tea and found it at Whole Foods.  It was part of a line of herbal teas from Traditional Medicinals. (They claim it's good for you, but that's not why I drink it.  They also note it's non-GMO, which means less than nothing to me.)

So for months I was making nettle leaf tea.  Not every day--I don't drink tea that much, just occasionally.  Then, not that long ago, I went into my local Whole Foods and could not find any.  No big deal.  I figured they were temporarily out.  But the next time I checked, they were out again.  Meanwhile, all the other teas were there.

So I went to another Whole Foods. (This is Los Angeles--there are a whole bunch of Whole Foods in a ten-mile radius.) They were also out, while every other flavor seemed to be available.

Over the past couple weeks, whenever I was near a Whole Foods, I'd check it out, and every single one was missing Nettle Leaf.  And not just missing it. Often the row that promised nettle leaf was empty. This was no coincidence.

So I have to ask, what's going on?  Has Traditional Medicinals stopped making Nettle Leaf? Did Jeff Bezos say "we'll stock every flavor but nettle leaf--I hate nettle leaf"? Was there a recall of the product when they found out it was, in fact, GMO? Did scientists discover nettle leaf is actually deadly, and there was a rush to withdraw it?

I checked the internet to see if anyone is covering the nettle leaf story, but came up with nothing.  The mystery continues.