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Chinese teas=polluted?

by VelociTea » Sep 30th, '16, 07:21

I have been wanting to try some oolong, p'uerh and other Chinese teas for a long time.. But I've heard all the news about their teas being contaminated with heavy metals and other toxins as a result of environmental pollution.. So I have just avoided any tea from China up until now.

Would anyone care to elaborate on this? Are some regions in China less polluted and more suitable for the cultivation of tea or is it just one big mess? Are there reputatable vendors that actually monitor for contaminants?

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Sep 30th, '16, 09:42
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Re: Chinese teas=polluted?

by William » Sep 30th, '16, 09:42

When I buy from trusted sellers (actually two :mrgreen: ) who sell chinese teas, I just buy what I prefer.
In any other cases, I buy only certified organic teas.

Oct 2nd, '16, 11:19
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Re: Chinese teas=polluted?

by cuppa » Oct 2nd, '16, 11:19

William wrote:When I buy from trusted sellers (actually two :mrgreen: ) who sell chinese teas, I just buy what I prefer.
In any other cases, I buy only certified organic teas.
What kind of certificate I should check when choosing the Puer tea? Chinese, EU or US standarts? Because Ive heard they have different range of pest control. The most strict is the EU, then US and Chinese one , apparently , is very tolerant. Ive just heard that, dont know for sure.
Where do u buy your Puer? Do they have big selection of those certified teas?
Thanks

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Oct 2nd, '16, 12:00
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Re: Chinese teas=polluted?

by jayinhk » Oct 2nd, '16, 12:00

If you want pu that meets EU standards, go to Yunnan Sourcing. If you want pesticide free pu, go to Essence of Tea. Fujianese teas tend to be relatively clean, but longjing is from the Hangzhou area, which has pollution issues.

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Re: Chinese teas=polluted?

by VelociTea » Oct 9th, '16, 03:05

VelociTea wrote:I have been wanting to try some oolong, p'uerh and other Chinese teas for a long time.. But I've heard all the news about their teas being contaminated with heavy metals and other toxins as a result of environmental pollution.. So I have just avoided any tea from China up until now.

Would anyone care to elaborate on this? Are some regions in China less polluted and more suitable for the cultivation of tea or is it just one big mess? Are there reputatable vendors that actually monitor for contaminants?
Thanks for the replies guys. I will check those vendors out when I find the time.

I too only buy certified organic tea. Who are these trusted sellers you purchase your teas from, William?

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Re: Chinese teas=polluted?

by kuánglóng » Oct 9th, '16, 03:57

Once we're at it - what about starting a list (sticky) with our trusted sellers; folks that focus on certified organic, biodynamic teas or like Scott guarantee 100% compliance with EU safety standards for their own productions?
Last edited by kuánglóng on Oct 9th, '16, 11:52, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Chinese teas=polluted?

by William » Oct 9th, '16, 11:33

VelociTea wrote:
VelociTea wrote:I have been wanting to try some oolong, p'uerh and other Chinese teas for a long time.. But I've heard all the news about their teas being contaminated with heavy metals and other toxins as a result of environmental pollution.. So I have just avoided any tea from China up until now.

Would anyone care to elaborate on this? Are some regions in China less polluted and more suitable for the cultivation of tea or is it just one big mess? Are there reputatable vendors that actually monitor for contaminants?
Thanks for the replies guys. I will check those vendors out when I find the time.

I too only buy certified organic tea. Who are these trusted sellers you purchase your teas from, William?
Hojotea and essenceoftea.

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Re: Chinese teas=polluted?

by JRS22 » Oct 9th, '16, 18:33

What about Seven Cups? They post specific processing information for each tea.

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Re: Chinese teas=polluted?

by LooseLeafTeaMarket01 » Apr 21st, '17, 18:06

We use vendors that test for everything you are talking about. It's not just China that you have to watch, its anyone really. But China is notorious for pollutants.

Our vendors are wholesale and don't sell retail. However, if you find someone who will sell to you retail you can request what is called a C of A. Certificate Of Analysis. It will cost you a few bucks, but the vendor will send you a 3rd party generated report that shows the tests that were done on the product and what the results were.

We request them from time to time for customers who are willing to pay the fee for the documentation.

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Re: Chinese teas=polluted?

by Senlin » Apr 22nd, '17, 09:17

VelociTea wrote: I have been wanting to try some oolong, p'uerh and other Chinese teas for a long time.. But I've heard all the news about their teas being contaminated with heavy metals and other toxins as a result of environmental pollution.. So I have just avoided any tea from China up until now.

Would anyone care to elaborate on this? Are some regions in China less polluted and more suitable for the cultivation of tea or is it just one big mess? Are there reputatable vendors that actually monitor for contaminants?
Hi VelociTea :D

As it was my job, not so long ago, I can help you with Chinese teas, pollution and organic certifications.

First of all, Chinese certifications are most of the time trustable, but you can't rely totally on it. I have visited some certified gardens, with obvious utilisation of pesticides and chemicals, even in the Wuyi Mountains, where it is theoretically absolutely forbidden... (I know, that is really depressing). On the other hand, certifications are really expensive, and small producers can't afford them, even it their teas are perfectly clean.

Secondly, it is not all regions that are polluted. Some tea plantations in Taïwan, of course, but also in Zhejiang and Jiangsu are far from big cities and industrial fields, usually on mountainsides, where there's nothing but teas, and bamboo forests. So, if you choose non very known teas, coming from small producers, you have a stronger chance to avoid chemicals from intensive harvest.

At last, most of Chinese tea producers I have met are really proud of being in balance with Nature. Some of them are actively engaged with ecological movements, especially amoung the new generation. So there's definitively a hope here !

To conclude, as you can't go in China each time you want a tea (which I deeply regret...), my advice would be to order from tea-sellers who travel there each year, visit gardens, and are trustable. If you are in Canada, I know at least three trustable tea houses there : Camellia Sinensis (Montréal), Cha-Yi (Gatineau, where I worked), World of tea (Ottawa).

I hope my opinions helped you, and brought a piece of answer to you. :)

Senlin
Last edited by Senlin on Apr 22nd, '17, 13:47, edited 1 time in total.

Apr 22nd, '17, 09:39
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Re: Chinese teas=polluted?

by Alucard » Apr 22nd, '17, 09:39

I'd like to know Chawang Shop's stance on this. Getting certified cost money, but doesn't mean you can't make 'clean' tea without a cert.

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Re: Chinese teas=polluted?

by Bok » Apr 23rd, '17, 10:43

Would not single out Chinese teas, a lot of teas which are harvested at a larger scale will have some kind of pollution, India is not really known for clean farming either... Japan has radiation issues in some areas, Vietnam surely has lots of leftover of all the shit the US dumped on them during the war.

Guess an indication would be price. The higher you go the less likey the tea will be polluted, quality costs money :mrgreen:

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Re: Chinese teas=polluted?

by chrl42 » Apr 26th, '17, 22:32

This is a sort of old news (2012), states banned pesticides found on Chinese green teas

http://www.greenpeace.org/eastasia/pres ... esticides/
http://www.greenpeace.org/eastasia/publ ... ea-report/
http://www.greenpeace.org/eastasia/news ... esticides/

Above companies listed are some of China's biggest companies, in China 'big' or 'famous' is regarded with regulation and sanitation, in which other smaller manufacturers chances can be only worse than the listed ones.

Younger the leaves, higher the altitude means less or none pesticides.. because bugs aren't around in early spring or on top of mountains...select Mingqian greens, Gaoshan Taiwanese teas from regulated areas..you have to pay $$ as you know...I don't think you can expect much cleanliness from mature green tea leaves from random vendors though, teas like TGY, chances of being safer can be quite rare I think.

I see some tea sellers claim Gushu is the only safe category remained in tea industry..claiming many Gushu gardens don't use pesticide, perhaps a reasonable story at least in Yunnan..(but Douji bings were reported to contain 'very' high amount of pesticides in Korea...are they Gushu??)

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Re: Chinese teas=polluted?

by mrsencha » Mar 31st, '18, 08:28

Hi Guys,

I wanted to open a new thread for contaminated teas but then I've came across this one so I decided it's not necessary.

As avid tea drinkers we believe that tea is certainly good for us, however industrialization has made tea riskier to drink than ever before. Therefore in my opinion it would be a good idea to gather some tips & tricks in order to avoid heavily contaminated teas.

As for now we believed that Chinese tea is generally more polluted than Japanese but the recent (I mean it was 5 years ago but for nuclear accidents that's not a long time) Fukushima accident made Japanese tea riskier to drink than ever before.

So could we just gather some information about the places where tea is more likely to be contaminated with heavy metals or nuclear waste?

As far as I know the more mature the leaves are the more likely it is to be contaminated (since heavy metals tend to build up). Based on that we can say that white tea and the first harvest of green tea is less likely to be contaminated.

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Re: Chinese teas=polluted?

by 12Tea » Apr 16th, '18, 13:54

It's not really about heavy metals. Tea plantations are usually quite far away from industrialised areas. I would be more worried about pesticides.

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