No added flavors, purely organic tea recommendations!
Hey fellow Shteepsters!
So I basically just developed somewhat of an obsession with drinking loose teas, and noticed that even when ‘Organic’ is mentioned in the title, there are often added ‘flavours’ on the list of ingredients. I’m looking for the purest form of tea, nothing but the plant/leaves/flowers themselves.
I’m loving Gyokuro, Gyokuro Yamashiro, Egyptian Chamomile, and well every other tea I have has flavors added.
I just ordered Golden Pu’erh(didn’t arrive yet), but wanted to know some recommended, no strings attached teas you all may have and love.
Thanks!
Well, it depends on what you consider an “added flavor” to be. Even as the tea plants grow, they take on qualities of the plants growing nearby. Some teas are processed with smoke. Just about every tea is flavored in some way.
With that said, it isn’t hard to come by herbals which are pure.
So far as actual tea goes, look at white teas: silver needle and white peony. There are flavored white teas and white tea blends, but you can actually buy pretty unadulterated organic white teas.
White tea, if you don’t know, is pretty much just picked and air/sun dried. It is generally made from better-quality leaves harvested in the spring.
Cheers.
Nice, I will be sure to add some white tea to my next shipment!
What I meant by added flavour, was that on the list of ingredients, ‘flavouring’ is usually there. I surely wouldn’t mind if a nice green tea developed a hint of flavour because it grew downwind from a patch of peppermint by the rolling hills. In fact I’d definitely find that quite delicious, as long as the ingredient list contains solely those green tea leaves.
You’ll find that most dealers in better-quality teas don’t sell a lot of flavoured teas, or proprietary blends. These are the staple of entry-level dealers (Teavana, Adagio, David’s, etc.)
In fact, one of my personal yardsticks for a tea retailer is that they either don’t offer things like “Double-Decadent Choco-Mousse Raspberry Fudge Oolong”, or such offerings are very limited. That probably sounds tea-snobbish … and yeah, it probably is.
As a tea retailer, myself, I understand the customer pressure to carry these flavoured teas and interesting-sounding blends. And, they’re fine for what they are. But, many people appreciate the more subtle qualities of unadulterated tea. And, it’s hard to cater well to both crowds.
I actually can’t remember the last time I bought tea that had an ingredients list.
Brent, I don’t think that it is necessarily snobbishness so much as a matter of taste. I myself do not understand or like infusions of foodstuffs in water, such as Teavana and other companies offer. I prefer to eat food and drink tea.
Most of the Spring Flush Darjeelings from Mariage Freres are unadultered and have no added flavors. Currently tasting the first set of the Darjeelings, Ambootia, Namring, Namring Poomong, Castleton, Chong Tong, Bloomfield, and North Tukvar. Still in the phase of changing up parameters to extract the best flavor from the teas and no, I don’t work for Mariage Freres so I have to fork up my hard earned money to buy the teas.
Mariage Freres has TONs of unflavored teas but also offer TONs of flavored teas, with some being flavored with natural ingredients like cherry blossom petals, etc. Some are organic and some are not. They also have a huge offering of proprietary flavored teas. They are by no means, an entry level dealer. Without their catalogue, it may be a daunting task to sift through the 500+ teas they have on their internet site.
Upton Tea Imports has lots of straight teas, many of which are organic.
I wish I could recommend the Verdant blend monthly.. but I was severely disappointed.
I’m new to tea and the exact question came to mind and understand where OP is coming from. Flavoured teas is more a recipe whereby bits and pieces are combined to get a concocted tea of sorts.
The real excitement comes from unadulterated tea. Excite me with this anyday :)
Numi is an interesting hybrid, as their flavored blends are all organic. They are probably my favorite grocery store brand.
I am also a pure tea drinker, give me my greens and reds and puerh. I respect anyone’s tea preferences but I personally am into leaves.
Now is the time to order spring 2014 first flush greens, like longjing (Dragonwell) etc., and sample puerh cakes for future purchases.
My favorite teas lately are organic wild/semi wild hwancha from Morning Crane tea (order online via email), Teavivre Dragonwell, and Sencha Ashikubo from Camellia Sinensis, though now is the time for new Shincha. A good site for tea recommendations is teadb.org, these guys taste and recommend tea and have vids showing each tea. They don’t show any bad teas, they are after the best they can find,
I think TeaJo has organic flavorings as well as straight tea. Just Organic Tea has just finished their kickstarter. I think 52teas was working on becoming organically certified, but I really don’t remember.
I try to drink mostly organic tea, and I dislike any added flavors, as they detract from the nuanced flavors of the tea itself. I have found a few of my stock organic teas at The Tea Spot. They have a couple of good organic green teas I buy regularly, and a few black teas I like. I believe Teavivre also has a good selection of unflavored organic teas. I’m keeping an eye on this thread as I’m always on the lookout for another tea merchant to try.
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