Pesticides and Poisons

[IPT]

I was recently invited to a tea plantation to try some newly processed Maofeng tea. The tea was crap, but I got some very nice photos.

In China, while brewing tea, the tea is always cleaned, as many of you know, I just wanted to show you why. Here is a photo of some tea trees and the pesticides that sit on it. It had rained the day before, and the rain had caused the poison to pool up and become visible. They told me they hadn't sprayed the trees for months, but I don't know if I believe them.

I just wanted to show this and also remind people that it is very important to clean your leaves before you drink the tea.

[alan logan]

thanks IPT.

I doubt cleaning, ie rinsing, the leaves before steeping can remove the chemicals if some have been used before harvest:
- as for traces on the surface of the leaf, chances are the processing of leaves has removed them. but the problem is not with what is on the surface of the leaves. I would not exclude the possibility that rinsing removes a bit of chemicals, but this seems to me very symbolic (or should I say apotropaïc?) gesture.
- chemicals go in the plant that has been "treated" in their growth and stays there (with molecular degradation probably happening, which means some components may be eliminated, but also that other components are formed, not to our benefit). the problem is here.

but your post is a "chemicals awareness" one, your pic gives a clue that in some cases beyond excessive qt of chemicals is used --and I very much appreciate it, I am not disagreeing with you here.

[gingkoseto]

I don't believe either that cleaning leaves before drinking makes a tea safer. If you don't trust a tea product, by all means stay away from it.

Most Chinese people I know don't rinse their green tea before drinking. Rinsing of oolong tea, I believe, mainly serves for other purposes, which I discussed with a few other people in a blog. http://gingkobay.blogspot.com/2010/05/w ... on-of.html

But I also have to say that China is a large country. My view of the tea rinsing culture is based on my observation only and very possibly there are other regional cultures on tea rinsing that I am not aware of yet.

[auhckw]

I feel sad looking at the photo

[Chip]

Looking at the photo, one can see that this is before a new flush of leaves. So, it is likely that the new flush of leaves may never be sprayed, they will be picked sans spray hopefully. Of course there is still systemic (pesticides absorbed into and spread throughout the plant) concerns, however not all pesticides are absorbed into the plant tissue.

It is said, this is a good reason to get first flush. Often the spraying occurs after the picking. Yet another reason why later pickings are potentially inferior and/or contaminated.

[Tead Off]

I don't believe either that cleaning leaves before drinking makes a tea safer. If you don't trust a tea product, by all means stay away from it.

Most Chinese people I know don't rinse their green tea before drinking. Rinsing of oolong tea, I believe, mainly serves for other purposes, which I discussed with a few other people in a blog. http://gingkobay.blogspot.com/2010/05/w ... on-of.html

But I also have to say that China is a large country. My view of the tea rinsing culture is based on my observation only and very possibly there are other regional cultures on tea rinsing that I am not aware of yet.

I never rinse green teas either but I'm buying organic. I think what you say is true, though. The rinse is not to remove pesticides or dirt but to open the leaves and prepare them for the initial brewing. Puerh may be a different story. I think it's a great idea to rinse Puerh at least once if not twice. It's got to be the dirtiest tea I know of.

IPT: I hope this is a reminder to folks who remain indifferent to the use of chemicals and ingesting this stuff into their bodies.

[britt]

Most of the people I know from mainland China don't rinse any tea before brewing. Another rinses every type of tea twice, including green tea. I have never rinsed green tea and usually forget to rinse the other types as I don't drink them as often.

I agree with the comment in another post that if you are suspicious of a tea, don't buy it.

[bagua7]

Make sure you rinse leaved with hot (straight after boiling) water prior brewing and then filtered cold water?

Btw, should this be done with $50,000/Kg LJ as well? Lol!