The question is, how?
Do they put the herbs to soak in huge vats? Do they hose them down with water? with some other liquid? Do they scrub each leaf by hand, one by one? Do they dry them by a process that causes other substances to fall off? Do they separate herbs from nonherbs during the grinding and pulverizing and stem-removal process?
Do they manage to grow them in a completely bug-free environment?
I’ve just brought in some bay leaves from a bay laurel tree. The backs of the leaves were covered with dots of insect eggs or poop or whatever bugs like to keep in their little encampments. The stuff did not come off easily. I had to wash each leaf pretty vigorously with a sponge. A rinse would not have done it.
I’ve bought bay leaves in a jar before, and now I’m wondering what sorts of bonuses came with them.
So I’m asking not Do they but How do they?—assuming that they do something.