Bana Tea and Chemicals?

[Zacherywolf7]

I got Bana Tea's Puerh sampler and out of the four I have had, three have produced alot of foam/bubbles/etc. on the lid of my gaiwan, the gaiwan itself and on the top of the tea itself in the cup (much more so then if I poured from a height) and they have a slightly off, metallic taste too me.
So is this blatantly chemicals, I haven't had enough tea for me to say, and this is also my first foray into Puerh. Thank you.

[bonescwa]

That happens all the time. You know you should rinse it, maybe twice, or even three times. Tea has saponins which are detergent compounds so it might not necessarily be chemicals. If it is chemicals, I wouldn't worry about it, I think we will all survive.

[puyuan]

Foam is perfectly normal. Just give the tea a rinse. Now, the off taste... From your description it sounds more likely to be a teaware issue, kettle possibly.

[kyarazen]

I got Bana Tea's Puerh sampler and out of the four I have had, three have produced alot of foam/bubbles/etc. on the lid of my gaiwan, the gaiwan itself and on the top of the tea itself in the cup (much more so then if I poured from a height) and they have a slightly off, metallic taste too me.
So is this blatantly chemicals, I haven't had enough tea for me to say, and this is also my first foray into Puerh. Thank you.

the foam thing has been a misnomer.. anyone knows whom was the original source that put forth the point that foam = chemicals? i had seen some articles somewhere before...

many teas that have been kneaded, massaged, tend to have dried tea juices on their surfaces. its now regularly done with pu-erh just for the juice to ferment on the leaf surface, in contrary to early days where the juices are kept within the leaf. i used to have a habit of sampling tea by chewing leaves and tasting them, it becomes obvious when some teas exude their taste almost immediately.

tea is an excellent surfactant.. so its normal to have foam.

[Zacherywolf7]

I got Bana Tea's Puerh sampler and out of the four I have had, three have produced alot of foam/bubbles/etc. on the lid of my gaiwan, the gaiwan itself and on the top of the tea itself in the cup (much more so then if I poured from a height) and they have a slightly off, metallic taste too me.
So is this blatantly chemicals, I haven't had enough tea for me to say, and this is also my first foray into Puerh. Thank you.

the foam thing has been a misnomer.. anyone knows whom was the original source that put forth the point that foam = chemicals? i had seen some articles somewhere before...

many teas that have been kneaded, massaged, tend to have dried tea juices on their surfaces. its now regularly done with pu-erh just for the juice to ferment on the leaf surface, in contrary to early days where the juices are kept within the leaf. i used to have a habit of sampling tea by chewing leaves and tasting them, it becomes obvious when some teas exude their taste almost immediately.

tea is an excellent surfactant.. so its normal to have foam.

https://www.essenceoftea.com/tea/puerh- ... guide.html

[entropyembrace]

Tea is chemicals.

[kyarazen]

Tea is chemicals.

well.. in actual fact.. yes. but the word "chemical" has such a negative connotation to it when it comes to food... so..

[nada]

I got Bana Tea's Puerh sampler and out of the four I have had, three have produced alot of foam/bubbles/etc. on the lid of my gaiwan, the gaiwan itself and on the top of the tea itself in the cup (much more so then if I poured from a height) and they have a slightly off, metallic taste too me.
So is this blatantly chemicals, I haven't had enough tea for me to say, and this is also my first foray into Puerh. Thank you.

the foam thing has been a misnomer.. anyone knows whom was the original source that put forth the point that foam = chemicals? i had seen some articles somewhere before...

many teas that have been kneaded, massaged, tend to have dried tea juices on their surfaces. its now regularly done with pu-erh just for the juice to ferment on the leaf surface, in contrary to early days where the juices are kept within the leaf. i used to have a habit of sampling tea by chewing leaves and tasting them, it becomes obvious when some teas exude their taste almost immediately.

tea is an excellent surfactant.. so its normal to have foam.

https://www.essenceoftea.com/tea/puerh- ... guide.html

Thanks for the link Zacharywolf. I'm not sure though if it's in reply to the Kyarazen's question about the original source for the foam=chemicals point. Just for clarity, I've never suggested that foam=chemicals (and don't believe that to be the case). If only it were so easy to detect chemicals we'd all have a much simpler time. The only ways I know of to detect agrochemical residues are by smelling, tasting and/or lab test. I do outline and give some pointers to the first two methods in the tasting set you linked to though.

[Zacherywolf7]

Ahh, sorry to bring this back up haven't checked here for so long. Sorry Nada for incorrectly sourcing you, I don't know why I remembered that you wrote that bubbles are a bad sign... I do take it back and have come to love Bana Tea, I've placed two orders since this post. I think both my brewing techniques and appreciation for Puerh had to increase, which it did exponentially.

[nada]

No problem Zachery. From memory I think Hobbes suggested this in one of his posts. I'm not convinced though.

[BioHorn]

From my limited experience, many of the teas I have really enjoyed produced above average foam (tea saponins).

[BW85]

No problem Zachery. From memory I think Hobbes suggested this in one of his posts. I'm not convinced though.

Yes Hobbs did suggest the foam and pesticide thing, I actually stumbled across the post last week. Though he made a distinction between the bubbles caused by saponins and the "scum" he was talking about possibly suggesting high amounts of agrochemicals