We have always believed that who you buy your tea from is a very important decision. As you will see from reading the following article, there are still many tea estates that use pesticides and which produce poor quality tea, not only in China as this article discusses, but in all of the other tea producing countries. Fortunately, as the article indicates, higher standards are being implemented in the tea industry that will improve the overall quality of the tea that is exported. Unfortunately, because the tea drinkers in the U.S., especially, are not yet sophisticated enough about premium loose leaf tea, they are more prone to buy tea that may not be of the highest quality. Here are a few recommendations on how to find purveyors of the highest quality teas:

1. Find retailers that have direct relationships with the estates where the tea is grown.




2. Buy organic or organic compliant whenever you can.




3. Find out what are all the steps and how long it takes to get the tea from the estate to them (the shorter and quicker, the better – see Michelle’s article).