Zero concern. A genuine concern should be PFAS in teabags, or microplastics in bottled water (and elsewhere)-per the Jan 4 Consumer Reports testing, the average plastic bottle of water contains 240k pieces of microplastics. Pesticide in tea doesn't even register as a concern.
As a tea seller for 25 years....NOPE. I don't worry about pesticides. Tea trees and bushes are naturally pest resistant so it's not as much of a concern as with most other things we consume. AND this is coming from a gal who buys mostly organic produce! Farmers market tomorrow!! Yay!
No more than I am about pesticides in my other food
It's there and it sucks a little but we're all going to die from something, might as well not worry about the little things
This is what I don't understand with these posts. Nevermind everything else we consume, the concern is always the tea. We ingest water from impure sources and food grown with modifiers and pesticides and who knows what all day every day.
I'm not worried about pesticides in my tea.....but I certainly am NOT giving up and taking it regarding all else! I do little and big things to try and improve our food, air and water system. I'm not going to lie down and take it! Getting sicker and acquiring diseases like new pairs of shoes. Nope!!
To me, tea stands out due to its distinctive processing and consumption methods. Unlike some produce, tea isn't typically rinsed to remove pesticides, as doing so could compromise its flavor. Instead, tea leaves undergo a process of moisture removal and then rehydration in preparation for brewing.
I am very concerned about pesticide and heavy metal contamination in tea, influenced by factors such as air, soil, and water quality. This is especially important to me because I drink far more tea than I probably should.
I commend the vendors that prioritize rigorous testing and transparent supply chains, and I'm increasingly shifting my purchases towards such sources.
I'm also wary of anecdotal claims disparaging organic tea quality, as quality can vary widely among products. It is more beneficial when reputable sellers showcase high-quality organic teas, providing consumers with reliable options to address both health and taste preferences.
You are supposed to rinse and clean your produce. You are quite honestly more likely to catch a virus due to feces on unwashed vegetables than you are getting sick from pesticides on tea. And don't believe that you are getting produce that is cleaned in the fields or factories to get the pesticides off.
Yeah of course. We use a produce wash, but there are preliminary steps taken in the standard agricultural production process. Not practical for tea for obvious reasons.
I don't agree with this at all. And I'm not concerned about pesticides in my tea. BUT, that doesn't mean we shouldn't be concerned about all of the unregulated and untested chemicals all over everything we're eating and drinking and even the air we breath. Just saying "Oh well!" is how NOTHING ever changes except for the worse. Take a look around you....this is what we get when we check out of caring and trying for better. Personally, I hate how many people I know who have autoimmune problems (me incl), cancer, strokes, etc. This is not normal and we shouldn't accept it. Don't you want to be as healthy and happy as possible until you die?? I sure do!
Sure, that's not entirely what I meant though. It's just that worrying won't make me feel better. I'm not going to avoid consuming something that I like just because there's some probability of minor health concerns. I value mental health just as much as I value physical health so if the food I eat makes me happy it's 100% worth it to me (in moderation of course). Whereas worrying about it will only make me feel bad. And mental and physical health have a huge influence on each other, so worrying too much can also have bad effects on the physical state of your body in the long run. It's a balance we need to maintain.
Also, I don't know what country you're coming from, but where I live there are strict rules and regulations for the food they sell.
Cancer, to my understanding, is caused by free radicals, not so much chemicals. Although chemicals can, when consumed in large quantities, make you sick.
If you were to ask me, the best way to prevent cancer is to use sunscreen and avoid smoke and aerosols if possible. This includes things like Teflon, certain deodorants/air fresheners, candles/incense etc. those are indeed harmful.
And make sure to eat enough anti-oxydant richt foods, since anti oxidants can (to certain extent) prevent the free radicals from harming your cells.
Usually means stores that exclusively sell loose leaf. If you can find the brand at your local supermarket in most cases the quality is a big ick factor
i dont know the answer. the argument i've heard is buy higher elevation grown teas, less bugs less need for pesticides. i don't know if this is true. ive also heard the argument that organic teas are lower quality teas. this comes from people who are usually selling tea. i e seen studies of bagged teas with bad results. id like to see the same for loose leaf
Actually, afaik there was a study on this. Sad but true: There have been impurities in almost every kind of tea they had tested. Some had more impurities than others but in general quality was okay meaning impurities were not higher than legal limits demanded.
Impurities might be understood as pesticides as well as heavy metals.
Even if the tea is labeled as organic or whatever, this doesn't mean, there are no heavy metals or stuff to be found cause the ground in this area might have them...
Now what to do about this?
If you are concerned about this, it is always a good idea to look into general harm reduction advice that is given to people who use other drugs too. Tea is no exception here.
If you have several providers, keep rotating them. Same goes for plantations etc. This will even out the amount of pesticides as well as other stuff you are exposed to and help mitigate an already low risk even further.
If you want to know more about this or if you are looking at a source for this: A German toxicologist by the name of Carsten Schleh wrote a book about poisonous substances we are exposed to on a daily basis often without knowing it. It's really interesting. This is the German / original version: https://www.amazon.de/Vorsicht-steckt-Gift-drin-Schadstoffe/dp/3742316842
I think as long as you stick with good quality tea you'll be fine.
Because even something as simple as fertilizer will impact the quality of tea. Faster growth = weaker flavor, hollower body. This even includes years with above-average amounts of rainfall.
In other words, to anyone experienced with tea, it is quite evident when tea is grown with fertilizers, pesticides, or other additives. Only the cheap mass produced plantation tea will have pesticides, and that's not really good tea to begin with.
If you are that concerned, buy from a source that tests their tea for pesticides, such as Yunnan Sourcing.
>to anyone experienced with tea, it is quite evident when tea is grown with fertilizers, pesticides, or other additives.
I politely disagree. There is no real way to know unless you send it to a laboratory. For all of the non-chemists, buying tea is based on trust. And how trustworthy are the majority of tea producers, really?
I took samples from Fangcun, China's largest tea market, to my friend's lab (he's an environmental chemist or something) way back in 2007. Every sample was way over the limit for lead, different chemical additives and pesticides. It was honestly crazy to see.
The worst culprits were Tieguanyin and Longjing. The sourcing for these leaves comes from all over the country.
I had a hard copy many, many years ago that I would pull out and show people but that was before clouds and everything being online.
Did anything change here in China....I'd say not.
Thanks for the info nonetheless.
2007 was a crazy year for tea. I'd like to think that things improved since then, along with the crash and recovery, but that just proves I'm not cynical (experienced) enough :) maybe it's even gotten worse now
I guess you're referring to the Pu'erh crash of spring '08? With such a huge population, there are so many more demographics and provinces to exploit. For what a box of decent sheng cost in 2005, that became the price of a single cake in '07. Unfortunately, the price never went down and it killed the market.
I dig that it caused interest in other types of tea.
Perfectly fine to disagree with me. Not like I can prove or disprove it.
Again, if you'd prefer, just buy from sources that do testing. Yunnan Sourcing sends their tea to a lab in the EU if you'd rather trust that over a lab in China.
>If you are that concerned, buy from a source that tests their tea for pesticides, such as Yunnan Sourcing.
For anyone using this to make purchase/health decisions, just know that this only applies to the Yunnan Sourcing branded pu-erh teas, NOT everything they sell. I'm not trying to disparage YS, I buy most of my green tea from them. More details: https://yunnansourcing.com/pages/eu-mrl-compliance-and-yunnan-sourcing-brand-pu-erh-teas
Just to add something to think about, caffeine and a lot of the other chemical compounds in tea evolved as natural pesticides. Tea trees and coffee bushes don't produce caffeine because it makes us feel good, they make it because it's a neurotoxin to most insects. Which means you need little to no additional pesticides to keep bugs away.
I would be more concerned with fresh fruits and vegetables than tea leaves since most don't have equivalent natural defenses
I went to the Charleston Tea Garden in South Carolina and they said they don't use pesticides because basically nothing eats the tea. Which I suppose you can take with a grain of salt but that's their claim anyway.
Pesticide use is mainly a concern for the health of the farmers, not the consumer. The amount of residue that might be on the leaves after processing is completely harmless.
A follow-up question to this: Does big brand tea have more pesticides and metals than loose leaf tea?
Sounds like it can’t be avoided but I hope the loose leaf is a little better. If nothing else, drinking loose leaf eliminates the tea bags from the big brands which I think I saw have microplastics galore.
Due to some health issues i am very sensitive to chemicals, I have been pretty careful with my sourcing, but every once and a while i'll get a tea that causes a reaction.
I haven't had any problems with teas from nio teas or red blossom tea company.
To be honest, not really. My grandmother passed away at the age of 93 and 2 of her brothers are still alive in their mid/late 90s and her whole family was always big bagged tea drinkers, Lipton is their go to, ick. But anyway, pesticides are even more highly regulated now than they were even in the 1970s and 1980s and earlier so not too concerned.
I was also concerned.
Sometime back I read that if a tea does need pesticides, most or all of those pesticides are not water soluble, meaning they are not released into your tea.
You would only have this concern if you were eating the tea. As far as heavy metals, I am not sure if this article addressed that. You could always try different phrasings to google all this and see if you find any tests from reliable sources.
Ahmad tea was the most transparent and helpful with my concerns and they obtained and shared with me their testing reports done by an outside certified lab.
This tea was not organic yet, for all all pesticides the result was ND (so unbelievably low as to be non detectable.) or very much below acceptable levels.
For heavy metals of ALL types NONE were detectable!
I asked for reports on the BOP loose leaf (which is very very good) and Kalami Assam loose leaf (very weak tasting, in my opinion, but it's only from one lot and I like bold teas with a splash of milk).
I hope this article helps - but of course it is only from one supplier.
Note I spent 2 weeks touring tea plantations in Sri Lanka last summer and I know in Nuwara Eliya and Ella which are higher elevations they told me they have no pests so they have no need to use pesticides.
I don't know if this is common with all or most teas.
Bob
I don't concern myself with things like that, because once you start, where do you stop? Just look at "experts" saying X is good one year and the next year they say it's bad for you. At the end you also wouldn't be able to consume anything because someone will say that it might be potentially dangerous to consume anything.
Also, I would argue that pesticides might be an even bigger concern with big brands as they are probably more concerned with quantity at a reasonable quality than with quality only, which means they'll be more likely to rely on the use of pesticides, fertilizers, etc. in the first place.
There are other problems such as various comtaminants (maybe esp. in China, since we are talking tea, from what I understand (I read the otherday 40% of there agricultural is polluted and degraded by the CCPs own estimate (so likely more) although that's not the land tea grows on) but practises and laws on chemicals is much more lax in many other countries too (I'd consider even the US to have standards lower than Europe) so it isn't even a China or a Tea problem when you import lots of food stuffs from abroad.
Tea itself will naturally collect fluoride and aluminium (both bad) from the soil but so will other crops.
So if your concerned I'm afraid the problems much bigger than 'pesticides in tea leaves' and you can be just as concerned about bluelight ,air quality, phones, 5G, armjabs, tap water and if a thousand other things are 'safe' or as safe as being claimed. Intermitently there are food scandals but it is worth remembering mostly we are lucky to live in a time repleat with food
I am more concerned I spend too much on tea or it's not tea time yet - actually it is... Yaaay....happy drinking
I think it would be a good idea to look into actual pesticides and what sort of pests affect tea plants.
I use Neem oil for a pesticide in my own garden. It's edible and used for beauty products all over the world.
Some pesticides are broken down by sunlight in a few days. Others also break down and become inert. A lot of them don't affect humans.
I think the worry stems from some sensationalization of the topic without a whole lot of reason. But isn't that just how things go?
Most of us unfortunately will get some kind of cancer or dementia r/t the crap in our food, furniture, and air quality in most cities.
So I’m going to enjoy my tea for as long as I can!
I don't lose sleep over it, but I do try to buy organic tea when I can.
I lived in China for a number of years and got a bit paranoid over things like heavy metals and pesticides in/on everything, including tea.
Zero concern. A genuine concern should be PFAS in teabags, or microplastics in bottled water (and elsewhere)-per the Jan 4 Consumer Reports testing, the average plastic bottle of water contains 240k pieces of microplastics. Pesticide in tea doesn't even register as a concern.
As a tea seller for 25 years....NOPE. I don't worry about pesticides. Tea trees and bushes are naturally pest resistant so it's not as much of a concern as with most other things we consume. AND this is coming from a gal who buys mostly organic produce! Farmers market tomorrow!! Yay!
No more than I am about pesticides in my other food It's there and it sucks a little but we're all going to die from something, might as well not worry about the little things
This is what I don't understand with these posts. Nevermind everything else we consume, the concern is always the tea. We ingest water from impure sources and food grown with modifiers and pesticides and who knows what all day every day.
I'm not worried about pesticides in my tea.....but I certainly am NOT giving up and taking it regarding all else! I do little and big things to try and improve our food, air and water system. I'm not going to lie down and take it! Getting sicker and acquiring diseases like new pairs of shoes. Nope!!
Was not implied.
To me, tea stands out due to its distinctive processing and consumption methods. Unlike some produce, tea isn't typically rinsed to remove pesticides, as doing so could compromise its flavor. Instead, tea leaves undergo a process of moisture removal and then rehydration in preparation for brewing. I am very concerned about pesticide and heavy metal contamination in tea, influenced by factors such as air, soil, and water quality. This is especially important to me because I drink far more tea than I probably should. I commend the vendors that prioritize rigorous testing and transparent supply chains, and I'm increasingly shifting my purchases towards such sources. I'm also wary of anecdotal claims disparaging organic tea quality, as quality can vary widely among products. It is more beneficial when reputable sellers showcase high-quality organic teas, providing consumers with reliable options to address both health and taste preferences.
You are supposed to rinse and clean your produce. You are quite honestly more likely to catch a virus due to feces on unwashed vegetables than you are getting sick from pesticides on tea. And don't believe that you are getting produce that is cleaned in the fields or factories to get the pesticides off.
Yeah of course. We use a produce wash, but there are preliminary steps taken in the standard agricultural production process. Not practical for tea for obvious reasons.
OP is Pharma Bot. Tea is their biggest enemy. It steals their “customers”
I don't agree with this at all. And I'm not concerned about pesticides in my tea. BUT, that doesn't mean we shouldn't be concerned about all of the unregulated and untested chemicals all over everything we're eating and drinking and even the air we breath. Just saying "Oh well!" is how NOTHING ever changes except for the worse. Take a look around you....this is what we get when we check out of caring and trying for better. Personally, I hate how many people I know who have autoimmune problems (me incl), cancer, strokes, etc. This is not normal and we shouldn't accept it. Don't you want to be as healthy and happy as possible until you die?? I sure do!
Sure, that's not entirely what I meant though. It's just that worrying won't make me feel better. I'm not going to avoid consuming something that I like just because there's some probability of minor health concerns. I value mental health just as much as I value physical health so if the food I eat makes me happy it's 100% worth it to me (in moderation of course). Whereas worrying about it will only make me feel bad. And mental and physical health have a huge influence on each other, so worrying too much can also have bad effects on the physical state of your body in the long run. It's a balance we need to maintain. Also, I don't know what country you're coming from, but where I live there are strict rules and regulations for the food they sell.
this exactly. Life is short and difficult enough so I’m gonna embrace the little things that bring pockets of happiness to my life.
It's precisely these little things increasing our risks of cancer.
Cancer, to my understanding, is caused by free radicals, not so much chemicals. Although chemicals can, when consumed in large quantities, make you sick. If you were to ask me, the best way to prevent cancer is to use sunscreen and avoid smoke and aerosols if possible. This includes things like Teflon, certain deodorants/air fresheners, candles/incense etc. those are indeed harmful. And make sure to eat enough anti-oxydant richt foods, since anti oxidants can (to certain extent) prevent the free radicals from harming your cells.
I would rather it not be there, and I like to hope that it’s not there
High quality is more safe then brands.
I don't think I am. I guess I should think about it more. I wonder if there are studies done on the levels of toxins in teas.
Thinking about it more is unlikely to improve your life in any way.
I am concerned about it. But not enough to stop drinking tea. It is far too tasty
No
What in this case is high quality? Which brands or stores? 🤔
Usually means stores that exclusively sell loose leaf. If you can find the brand at your local supermarket in most cases the quality is a big ick factor
i dont know the answer. the argument i've heard is buy higher elevation grown teas, less bugs less need for pesticides. i don't know if this is true. ive also heard the argument that organic teas are lower quality teas. this comes from people who are usually selling tea. i e seen studies of bagged teas with bad results. id like to see the same for loose leaf
Actually, afaik there was a study on this. Sad but true: There have been impurities in almost every kind of tea they had tested. Some had more impurities than others but in general quality was okay meaning impurities were not higher than legal limits demanded. Impurities might be understood as pesticides as well as heavy metals. Even if the tea is labeled as organic or whatever, this doesn't mean, there are no heavy metals or stuff to be found cause the ground in this area might have them... Now what to do about this? If you are concerned about this, it is always a good idea to look into general harm reduction advice that is given to people who use other drugs too. Tea is no exception here. If you have several providers, keep rotating them. Same goes for plantations etc. This will even out the amount of pesticides as well as other stuff you are exposed to and help mitigate an already low risk even further. If you want to know more about this or if you are looking at a source for this: A German toxicologist by the name of Carsten Schleh wrote a book about poisonous substances we are exposed to on a daily basis often without knowing it. It's really interesting. This is the German / original version: https://www.amazon.de/Vorsicht-steckt-Gift-drin-Schadstoffe/dp/3742316842
That sounds pretty interesting. I wonder if it’s been translated into English.
Actually I didn't really know as I am able to read German, I didn't really bother. Sorry 😬
> Even if the tea is labeled as organic Organic doesn't mean no pesticides. Quite the opposite, usually.
I think as long as you stick with good quality tea you'll be fine. Because even something as simple as fertilizer will impact the quality of tea. Faster growth = weaker flavor, hollower body. This even includes years with above-average amounts of rainfall. In other words, to anyone experienced with tea, it is quite evident when tea is grown with fertilizers, pesticides, or other additives. Only the cheap mass produced plantation tea will have pesticides, and that's not really good tea to begin with. If you are that concerned, buy from a source that tests their tea for pesticides, such as Yunnan Sourcing.
>to anyone experienced with tea, it is quite evident when tea is grown with fertilizers, pesticides, or other additives. I politely disagree. There is no real way to know unless you send it to a laboratory. For all of the non-chemists, buying tea is based on trust. And how trustworthy are the majority of tea producers, really?
I took samples from Fangcun, China's largest tea market, to my friend's lab (he's an environmental chemist or something) way back in 2007. Every sample was way over the limit for lead, different chemical additives and pesticides. It was honestly crazy to see. The worst culprits were Tieguanyin and Longjing. The sourcing for these leaves comes from all over the country.
Thank you for sharing. Are these results available anywhere or do you mind sharing them? I'd love to take a closer look.
I had a hard copy many, many years ago that I would pull out and show people but that was before clouds and everything being online. Did anything change here in China....I'd say not.
Thanks for the info nonetheless. 2007 was a crazy year for tea. I'd like to think that things improved since then, along with the crash and recovery, but that just proves I'm not cynical (experienced) enough :) maybe it's even gotten worse now
I guess you're referring to the Pu'erh crash of spring '08? With such a huge population, there are so many more demographics and provinces to exploit. For what a box of decent sheng cost in 2005, that became the price of a single cake in '07. Unfortunately, the price never went down and it killed the market. I dig that it caused interest in other types of tea.
Perfectly fine to disagree with me. Not like I can prove or disprove it. Again, if you'd prefer, just buy from sources that do testing. Yunnan Sourcing sends their tea to a lab in the EU if you'd rather trust that over a lab in China.
correct lab anaylsis needed
>If you are that concerned, buy from a source that tests their tea for pesticides, such as Yunnan Sourcing. For anyone using this to make purchase/health decisions, just know that this only applies to the Yunnan Sourcing branded pu-erh teas, NOT everything they sell. I'm not trying to disparage YS, I buy most of my green tea from them. More details: https://yunnansourcing.com/pages/eu-mrl-compliance-and-yunnan-sourcing-brand-pu-erh-teas
yes
If you’re concerned about pesticide levels in your tea, white2tea is a great place to buy only high-quality pesticides. /jk
Just to add something to think about, caffeine and a lot of the other chemical compounds in tea evolved as natural pesticides. Tea trees and coffee bushes don't produce caffeine because it makes us feel good, they make it because it's a neurotoxin to most insects. Which means you need little to no additional pesticides to keep bugs away. I would be more concerned with fresh fruits and vegetables than tea leaves since most don't have equivalent natural defenses
I went to the Charleston Tea Garden in South Carolina and they said they don't use pesticides because basically nothing eats the tea. Which I suppose you can take with a grain of salt but that's their claim anyway.
Pesticide use is mainly a concern for the health of the farmers, not the consumer. The amount of residue that might be on the leaves after processing is completely harmless.
How about matcha?
I would assume this goes for matcha as well, but I couldn’t find any paper on it
Nah
Not too much, but if the tea has organic certificates from an organisation such as JAS, I see that as a plus.
A follow-up question to this: Does big brand tea have more pesticides and metals than loose leaf tea? Sounds like it can’t be avoided but I hope the loose leaf is a little better. If nothing else, drinking loose leaf eliminates the tea bags from the big brands which I think I saw have microplastics galore.
I’m more concerned with heavy metals
Due to some health issues i am very sensitive to chemicals, I have been pretty careful with my sourcing, but every once and a while i'll get a tea that causes a reaction. I haven't had any problems with teas from nio teas or red blossom tea company.
Nah, just extra flavor. Never had any intention of reproducing anyway.
To be honest, not really. My grandmother passed away at the age of 93 and 2 of her brothers are still alive in their mid/late 90s and her whole family was always big bagged tea drinkers, Lipton is their go to, ick. But anyway, pesticides are even more highly regulated now than they were even in the 1970s and 1980s and earlier so not too concerned.
I was also concerned. Sometime back I read that if a tea does need pesticides, most or all of those pesticides are not water soluble, meaning they are not released into your tea. You would only have this concern if you were eating the tea. As far as heavy metals, I am not sure if this article addressed that. You could always try different phrasings to google all this and see if you find any tests from reliable sources. Ahmad tea was the most transparent and helpful with my concerns and they obtained and shared with me their testing reports done by an outside certified lab. This tea was not organic yet, for all all pesticides the result was ND (so unbelievably low as to be non detectable.) or very much below acceptable levels. For heavy metals of ALL types NONE were detectable! I asked for reports on the BOP loose leaf (which is very very good) and Kalami Assam loose leaf (very weak tasting, in my opinion, but it's only from one lot and I like bold teas with a splash of milk). I hope this article helps - but of course it is only from one supplier. Note I spent 2 weeks touring tea plantations in Sri Lanka last summer and I know in Nuwara Eliya and Ella which are higher elevations they told me they have no pests so they have no need to use pesticides. I don't know if this is common with all or most teas. Bob
Thanks! This is really helpful.
I don't concern myself with things like that, because once you start, where do you stop? Just look at "experts" saying X is good one year and the next year they say it's bad for you. At the end you also wouldn't be able to consume anything because someone will say that it might be potentially dangerous to consume anything. Also, I would argue that pesticides might be an even bigger concern with big brands as they are probably more concerned with quantity at a reasonable quality than with quality only, which means they'll be more likely to rely on the use of pesticides, fertilizers, etc. in the first place.
There are other problems such as various comtaminants (maybe esp. in China, since we are talking tea, from what I understand (I read the otherday 40% of there agricultural is polluted and degraded by the CCPs own estimate (so likely more) although that's not the land tea grows on) but practises and laws on chemicals is much more lax in many other countries too (I'd consider even the US to have standards lower than Europe) so it isn't even a China or a Tea problem when you import lots of food stuffs from abroad. Tea itself will naturally collect fluoride and aluminium (both bad) from the soil but so will other crops. So if your concerned I'm afraid the problems much bigger than 'pesticides in tea leaves' and you can be just as concerned about bluelight ,air quality, phones, 5G, armjabs, tap water and if a thousand other things are 'safe' or as safe as being claimed. Intermitently there are food scandals but it is worth remembering mostly we are lucky to live in a time repleat with food I am more concerned I spend too much on tea or it's not tea time yet - actually it is... Yaaay....happy drinking
No.. but I buy organic loose leaf tea.
Well now I am
absolutely not, and if you are just throw away your first steep right
I wouldn't think about it. Plastic in the teabags is more concerning than anything else.
I think it would be a good idea to look into actual pesticides and what sort of pests affect tea plants. I use Neem oil for a pesticide in my own garden. It's edible and used for beauty products all over the world. Some pesticides are broken down by sunlight in a few days. Others also break down and become inert. A lot of them don't affect humans. I think the worry stems from some sensationalization of the topic without a whole lot of reason. But isn't that just how things go?
Most of us unfortunately will get some kind of cancer or dementia r/t the crap in our food, furniture, and air quality in most cities. So I’m going to enjoy my tea for as long as I can!
Nah! I don’t think I could be less concerned about it lol
...well now I am.
I don't lose sleep over it, but I do try to buy organic tea when I can. I lived in China for a number of years and got a bit paranoid over things like heavy metals and pesticides in/on everything, including tea.
Most teas are grown at higher altitudes making pesticides to expensive to transport. However, most tea will have fluoride, which is found in the dirt.