Are da ye (big leaf) teas higher in fluoride and other compounds?
I’m curious if teas like puer made from the da ye varieties are higher in fluoride and similar undesirable compounds? I know that the more mature leaves have higher levels, but as far as I know the da ye leaves used for puer are not mature, or at least not as mature as a similarly sized leaf grown on a different varietal plant.
Do you guys have any knowledge in this area? Thanks for your help!
I believe older leaves have more fluorine content, and older trees, too. This is not supposed to be a health issue unless you’re consuming a LOT of tea, however, so I don’t think you’re going to end up with any ill effects unless you’re getting through 25g+ of pu a day. Tea-related fluorosis is a thing in China, but with communities that drink tea as an essential part of their diet and consume much more than any of us here (or most of us at least)!
I feel like 20g+ of tea is not hard to do at all. Drink ~8g in the morning and then 10g of pu’er in the afternoon and you’re almost there. If you drink a couple different varieties of tea in the morning/afternoon and then pu’er in the evening boom you’re at 25g+ of tea in a day.
I’ve cut down to 8-10g a day. Too much tea isn’t good for you, but 25g is probably still fine. I’m just conservative with my limits. ;)
Yes, the caffeine exacerbates my anxiety issues and I end up biting my fingernails and fidgeting and all kinds of stuff. Biting my fingernails as I speak! I had HK-style iced lemon tea and a 40ml pot gongfu session of twenty-year-old high end shuixian. I’ve been drinking less tea for a week or so since I was in Nepal and then had food poisoning, so my caffeine tolerance is down. Drinking too much tea also makes me wake up earlier, because I have to pee, but I seem to sleep much more deeply when I’m drinking tea.
Ooh, so for you guys it’s a caffeine issue, not related to any potential problems with fluoride or anything.
Yes, but I also think excess tea consumption throws off your digestive system. Couple that with pesticide content and the fluorine issue and drinking tea moderately just makes more sense
From what I’ve learned, there are two types of fluoride; the naturally occuring one and the man made one.
The naturally occuring one isn’t so much a concern but I have read that the other one being reported for causing health problems (fluorosis & lower IQ). If any, I think more of the fluoride might be found in the water source rather than the tea leaves unless the tea trees have been watered with a fluoride water source.
Tea fluorosis is really a thing in Northern China. Specifically among brick tea drinkers, if I remember correctly
Yeah JayinHK is right. The thing is, I’m not sure how low quality that “brick tea” cited in those papers is. They refer to it as low quality tea and call it by the Chinese name that means brick tea marked for sale in Tibet and other outlying regions, but I’m really not clear on how that compares to average quality pu’er that I drink?
The issue seems to be older trees, older leaves, lower leaves, and stems within those bricks. All of those factors contribute to fluorine intake
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