High Tea, Anyone?

Posted on by bbarthelette1984

Just read some disturbing news and, for once, it wasn’t coming from politics!

What is a favorite comfort drink when the weather is cold and gloomy? What warms us up the most when we are down with the beginnings of a cold and sniffles? What makes an afternoon even more enjoyable on a hot summer day? Tea!

I remember that whenever I was sick as a child, my mother would make me a cup of mint tea using the leaves from the mint plant in our garden. No matter where we lived, the first thing was to plant mint right under the outside faucet so it would always remind us to water it when we went about our gardening chores.

My grownup children have a lot of different teas currently in the cupboard. We don’t keep soft drinks or juices around as we generally prefer hot or iced tea. I have even been known to use steeped green tea as the ‘juice’ in a fresh vegetable/fruit smoothie. And who is to turn down the energizing benefits of most teas when the nap time mood gets us yawning in the afternoon?

The dependancy on viewing tea to be a healthier choice for energy, recovering from the flu, or that gentle energy enhancement might not be all that great for us . . . depending on the tea you drink. Many tea brands are found to contain high degrees of fluoride and pesticides.

According to the article, many companies to not wash the tea leaves before they are parceled out into the tea bags. If they used a lot of pesticides on the growing plants, you could soon be enjoying a steaming cup of pesticides with a dash of tea.

Too much fluoride is often found in commercial teas. How does fluoride get into our tea? From the soil they grow in. The older the tea leaves harvested, the greater the amount of fluoride. And, it is probably cost-effective to wait for the ‘older’ and larger leaves for the profit margin passing on to the consumer more fluoride than they probably want in a cup of warm, soothing comfort.

According to an investigation by The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, tea companies included in this problem are:

Lipton
Twinnings
Tetley
Uncle Lee’s Legends of China (Uncle Lee’s Organic White Tea is supposed to be okay.)
King Cole
Signal

So, what kind of contaminants are we talking about? According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, many of the tea brands exceed the legal limit of toxins.

Some hints shared from the article on enjoying your tea without bad consequences:

White teas is made from the young, tender leaves and, subsequently, has the least fluoride. Always check the ingredients to make sure there are no added flavors added to the tea leaves. Might want to start bringing your own tea bad to the restaurant as they usually use the cheapest brands which are the ones with the most pesticides.

A list of the safe teas was included in the article and I’m sharing it with you even as I realize that I will have to totally clear out my tea and replace it with more suitable brands!

Red Rose
Numi Teas
Rishi Tea
Eden Organic
Organic Stash
Choice Organic Teas
Two Leaves
Organic Tazo
Organic Traditional Medicinals

I just noted that I have a lot of Bigelow Tea in my cupboard. It wasn’t on the article’s list so I went looking and discovered a few more, potential problems.

Celestial Seasons Teas have high pesticide residues in their tea bags. The levels were found in 91% of the samples tested.

Bigelow, Tea Forte, and Mighty leaf also contained pesticides.

The Republic of Tea, Teavana, Tazo and Yogi Tea reflected pesticide residues that I know I wouldn’t want to send into my system.

As with all investigations, the jury is probably still out for the final say and I’m not telling you what you should or shouldn’t enjoy. Just sharing what I read and I like to be on the safe side until each and every company comes out and states on the reputation of their product that it is now entirely safe.