Organic green tea recommendations?

[Tead Off]

Is there a law against vendors stating on their website that a tea is grown without the use of pesticides but not certified?

I guess not. But it's a complicated issue. For example, is homemade spray from certain natural tree bark considered "pesticide"? Who is the one to judge? My local ranch in MA, when addressing the organic issue, they would say, they can't afford USDA certification. But they got an agricultural program in University of Massachusetts to inspect their operation and product, and certified that their practice complies with all USDA organic standards. From this statement, I see "what" the standards are, "who" endorses it and "when" this claim is valid. Without these "w" factors a statement doesn't include enough information in my eyes.

Certified organic products are allowed to use certain approved organic pesticides, although a producer may choose not to. So use or not use of pesticide doesn't necessarily relate to organic conditions in either way.

My original response was that most teas in Japan cannot be called organic. Whether being certified or not, a tea seller can comment on their site that to their knowledge, a certain tea is not grown with chemical pesticides or chemical fertilizers but is not certified. Some sellers like Essence of Tea tells you when a farm is not certified but grows tea naturally. I can accept this easily. But, on Japanese teaseller sites, I've never seen this, and, when I've asked about organic, none have said something is grown organically but not certified. There may be exceptions that I don't know about, but, generally, not.