Linda Cobrien Tea Blog

How can you tell if pesticides were used to grow The Tea you are drinking?

I recently watched the docusmentary, “All in this Tea”, and the man who is traveling to China and buying artisan teas from rural areas sometimes will smell the tea and immediately refuse it because he can tell that it was grown with pesticides. Is there any way to tell if the tea that you are buying has been grown with pesticides at face value? Can you smell it, can you taste it? I know that all teas will taste very different because of how they are made, environment they are grow in, etc., etc., but are there any tell-tale signs?

Rishi Tea’s teas may not be certified organic but they are grown according to organic standards. In Rishi’s case there are often special circumstances that arise in which case the teas are not certified.

Teas coming from Taiwan, such as the Jade Oolong, are not certified organic because there has not been a demand for Organic Teas from that country. The farmers there have been growing teas organically but have not needed to certify their teas because no one demanded that they do. In some cases it is far too expensive to certify a tea. Teas from the high mountains often come in very small batches that would cost so much to certify that the farmer would lose money on the crop or the tea would be so expensive that no one would buy it.

Rishi takes great care to Buy Teas that have been grown according to organic standards. Even if a tea is not certified you can bet that the tea is organic. Rishi’s founder and tea buyer has built great relationships with farmers all over Asia and he makes sure to buy teas that are grown organically. He visits the farms he purchases from and looks at every step in their growing, harvesting, and processing system.

Rishi Tea – Organic Compost Pile in Japan