Popping a cold, fresh strawberry in your mouth is super satisfying. Strawberries are yummy on cake and ice cream, or with chocolate (and yes, with champagne, casanova) but they’re just as tasty on their own.
Thing is, not everyone really thinks of washing strawberries before eating. We’re not talking about simply rinsing them under running water either.
Everyone rinses strawberries but no one ever really washes them well. That is, until TikTok users made us realize why we should take extra time to do it.
So before you start snacking, first fill a bowl with water and add some salt. After the salt has dissolved, soak your strawberries.
Why?
Because you need to bring out the teeny-tiny critters living way inside the strawberries you’ve been casually tossing in your mouth.
Some users even suggest adding in a bit of vinegar. There’s also the question of how long you should let strawberries soak in salt water. Others insist five minutes will do, while some believe a good half an hour is best. It’s really up to you as long as you rinse the strawberries well after.
TikTok user Thatnatchats shares,
“I always ask my fan base for suggestions about what I should look at next and I’ve been getting a lot of comments about strawberries. I believed they wanted to see the seeds up close so I was very surprised to find bugs when looking at strawberries under a stereomicroscope. I didn’t learn about how to properly wash the strawberries until my comment section became very fearful and asked how to wash them. Other people replied and I’ve heard salt water, vinegar, and many different methods I have never heard of before.”
After posting a video about strawberries, the TikTok enthusiast was surprised to see that her post reached over 2 million people the very next day.
“I was astonished that I had so many people seeing what I have seen. My family was taken aback as well. When I went to school the next day, I had a couple of people approach me and say that they had no idea I was so popular on Tiktok. My fans jumped from 40k to 300k. It was crazy, to say the least, but everyone around me was very happy and proud that my passion for science and microscopes was being recognized.”
What was supposed to be an interesting and educational video immediately went viral, prompting more users on the social networking platform to record their own versions of the strawberry washing experiment.
While Thatnatchats says its perfectly understandable why people are now more hesitant to indulge in strawberries, she also believes it’s all natural.
“These strawberries we eat grow out of the dirt and we shouldn’t avoid them. After all, I love strawberries! I do plan to try out all the methods of washing strawberries that TikTok has recommended.”
More than getting rid of the bugs hiding in strawberries, thorough washing with white vinegar is also recommended because it minimizes the amount of chemicals you’ll ingest from strawberries that aren’t organically grown.
Don’t worry about getting it done right, either. There are no strict rules. Some users suggest using warm water to help the salt dissolve faster, while some say cold water will suffice. And as previously mentioned, you can opt for a five-minute cleanse or a thirty-minute soak for your berries, so long as you rinse them well after.
Don’t let the bugs stop you from enjoying yummy, juicy strawberries!
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