Organic vs Not - Can you really taste the difference?

I buy organic mainly to avoid pesticides and to support sustainable agriculture that helps protect the environment. Tastewise I’ve noticed no difference between organic and conventional teas. In fact, for a long time organic teas didn’t measure up to the non-organic ones but lately they’ve been improving.

First, congratulations on starting your own tea company!
1. Do you buy Organic tea because it is healthy or for the taste?
To be honest, I don’t have a preference either way
2. Can you really taste the difference if “Organic” wasn’t written on the label?
Absolutely not. I think I have a fairly discerning pallet overall, and I would never trust my ability to accurately guess whether or not anything is organic (tea, fruits, etc.)
3. Why do YOU buy or not buy Organic?
I don’t go out of my way to buy organic because I’m not necessarily convinced that non-organic stuff isn’t good enough for the little god that is me. To each their own and all that sort of thing, but perhaps this article will explain more eloquently what I think about the organic craze. Again, only my opinion, and I will continue to love all of my organic only friends.
http://loneprairie.net/diet-coke/

1. Do you buy Organic tea because it is healthy or for the taste?
-If I buy organic tea it is for concern about the environmental impact, not the taste.
2. Can you really taste the difference if “Organic” wasn’t written on the label?
-I can’t tell the difference by taste.
3. Why do YOU buy or not buy Organic?
-I try to buy local rather than organic, on the principal that my local farmers are treating the earth well in order to keep it arable for years to come. I try to avoid anything mass produced or environmentally unsustainable, but it’s hard to know what’s right or even what’s the truth.

When it comes to tea or overseas products I am less certain of the practices and don’t always believe the claims. Well, that’s true of everything, I guess. As such, I don’t seek out organic teas but I also don’t avoid them either. I won’t avoid a beloved tea before it’s non organic, but I like to get organic when I can. I also don’t have a lot of disposable income so a lot of times price becomes a factor, unfortunately.

I buy mostly organic foods, but it hasn’t been a priority with tea. I would prefer organic, but its not like with something like, say apples where I can make a simple choice between organic or non-organic. There are so many different teas out there that I want to try and each one doesn’t have an organic vs non-organic choice.

In fruits, I can usually taste a difference in the quality. Most other foods, not so much. I buy organic because I don’t want to be putting any strange chemicals in myself if I can help it. I haven’t made a point of comparing flavors of organic and non organic teas. That would be more difficult as teas vary in flavor for so many reasons that it would be hard to tell if a better flavor is due to it being organic or not.

I also don’t make it a priority (and can’t tell the difference from taste), but all things being equal (and if price isn’t a big factor), I’d go organic for the reasons LuckyMe mentioned.

You might find this thread interesting.

http://steepster.com/discuss/2381-organic-vs-non-organic-tea

I buy some organic teas. I support the idea for the same reasons mentioned by other posters – avoiding pesticides and supporting sustainable agriculture.

I do think that some of the organic teas I buy are of premium quality but I don’t think that it is as simple as organic = delicious. I suspect that a lot of organic growers understand that consumers who are purchasing the organic label are also usually expecting a premium tasting product for the premium price that they pay and therefore have higher standards for their production.

On a side note… When it comes to fruit and veg, I had been eating organic for years and recently moved to an area where organic isn’t as easily available or affordable and I honestly haven’t noticed a difference in taste (I’m still buying fresh local produce). I’m not surprised, I was buying organic for the lack of pesticides, environmental practices and because it was also local, I believe the taste difference is mostly in the mind.

I almost didn’t remember I replied to the other organic discussion from 2 years ago :-)
But I like this narrowed-down topic too – judging by taste!
In the past two years, my view on organic fertilization (not organic certification though) was largely enlightened by a few tea farmer friends.
One tea fertilized in a very traditional way (sheep droppings) was documented in my blog:
http://gingkobay.blogspot.com/2012/05/concept-tea-11-orchid-and-sheep.html

There is another tea (an ji bai cha)for which the farmer experimented with bean crumbs cake (one traditional way of fertilizing) and goat droppings (another way of traditional fertilizing) on two fields in the same area. The teas not only taste differently (both nice taste) but look very differently too.

So yes, good organic fertilization makes a huge difference from synthesized fertilizer (which is also the leading cause of water pollution and soil loss globally).

But on the other hand, organic fertilization doesn’t always mean good fertilization. In the modern industrialized cultivation, if a producer wants to produce organic tea, fruits or crop just to get them qualified for an organic label but don’t take thoroughly good care of them (such as not giving them tediously made good organic fertilization), they could end up poorly grown, clean (which of course is also important) but taste poorly.

I am a veggie, and buy most of my foods/fruits locally and of organic origin.
With tea however, taste matters more. I prefer a good Darjeeling, and that can either be an organically grown Darjeeling or a ‘normal’ one. (plantations and seasons are more important for me than organically grown- some organic Darjeelings are great, but not all….)

My house tea sencha comes from Simon Levelt, which happens to be an organic sencha, I buy it because it’s good every day sencha.

When I buy high grade sencha or a gyokuro in Japan, I prefer organic, but will settle for anything I can get my hands on really, so I guess I carry a double standard.

I have not done a side by side comparison of other teas/tisanes … but I have done a side by side comparison of conventional versus organically grown rooibos, and there is a difference in taste. The organically grown rooibos tastes much better.