Organic vs. Conventional?
What is your opinion about organic vs. conventional tea? Do you think there is any health benefit with organic tea? Do you notice any difference in flavor? If all else were equal, which would you choose?
1. Prefer USDA organic if cost is not excessive. 2. Benefit = no pesticides. 3. Requires side-by-side comparison. 4. See #1.
What do you think of EU max pesticide level?
Personally, I think we should be careful using pesticides at all. However, I think the bigger problem is that most of the tea (or any food product) that comes in is not tested, so it’s hard to catch if companies are violating the limits.
Organic all the way, and I’ll pay for it as needed since it seems to me those prices reflect the real cost of responsible growing. Wouldn’t be fair for someone else (mostly people not benefitting from my purchase) to have to subsidize my tea collection by having contaminated or unhealthy air, soil, or water. Still, I’m not too stuck on USDA organic if there is another way for me to feel my tea is fairly grown.
Can’t say I notice a difference in flavor as I don’t think I’ve ever tried two teas where that was the only difference. I think I’d be surprised if I could taste it though.
I like the idea of organic tea, but drink whatever. Haven’t had any direct comparison opportunities and can’t really see how that would even be an option until/unless a particular tea farm decides to try that out….
If the same tea farm and processer were producing two options for that year/harvest of tea in organic vs non-organic then I would buy each, compare, and if better go with the organic.
Organic status isn’t, on its own, a selling point for me in tea. Flavor is. I love the idea of organic in all foods, though.
It’s a good idea to consider organic tea & food if one has a personal or family history or other risk significant factors for cancer and also by pregnant or nursing women.
I became concerned with pesticides in conventionally grown teas a while back, which sparked some reading on it (there are some threads on Steepster that link some interesting articles). I ultimately determined that it was an issue and have focused more on organic teas since then, but have not exclusively gone with organic teas.
I’d agree with Rumpus that organic isn’t the important factor. I look at the overall quality of the tea, from flavor to appearance.
Login or sign up to leave a comment.