One of the most refreshing drinks that one can have any time is a good cup of tea. We enjoy drinking tea. We enjoy serving it often.

Choosing a good tea however is almost like having Cable TV: there are just too many choices. A new class of teas called green teas has now moved ahead in the popularity race on the grounds that they contain, according to their promoters, larger armies of anti-oxidants.

One of the nicest developments over the last decade in the tea business is the emergence of tulsi-based teas from pioneers like Organic India (located in Lucknow). These teas are so good for things like colds and sore throats that one actually welcomes these petty illnesses now so that one can have a ready excuse to drink these concoctions (which come in eighteen different flavours).

Despite these welcome arrivals, the business of tea drinking is not quite without its hazards.

When tea was first introduced in this country, it was grown on tea estates at proper altitudes and with adequate rain. At 6,000 metres, for example, Coonoor in the Nilgiris has the right altitude and temperature to enable the tea bush to flourish. On visits there I have found tea growers using no pesticides whatsoever.

But due to the great demand for tea from all over the world, people now grow tea almost anywhere on the hills. If the tea grower goes a few hundred metres below or above the altitudes that tea bushes love, the tea bush gets into problems. Since the altitude or moisture is not appropriate, the bushes struggle to survive. Insects invade and decimate the plant.

We misunderstand insects. Nature invented them to get rid of weak or diseased plants. Since we insist on growing tea unnaturally in the wrong places, the laws of nature rule that these plants must die. We resist. How? By pumping the tea bush with repeated pesticide sprays. We destroy the insect to preserve the bush.

Pesticides on teas are a matter of concern simply because we boil and boil tea leaves. This means that any toxic chemical on the leaf or in the leaf passes into the tea and we drink it all. And this country drinks millions of litres of it everyday.

You may not believe it, but some of the best Darjeeling teas are filled with pesticides. A few years ago, Germany rejected a huge Darjeeling tea consignment because the sample analysed had pesticide residues 24 times above the limit allowed!

The United States, for example, has found DDT and other toxic residues in green teas imported from China. In one year alone, China lost 37% of its export consignments due to pesticide contamination.
This has made it more and more difficult to export tea. The European Union now monitors tea imports for some 134 pesticides! In India, we use several of these.

The problem with exports is that when they fail, they get re-sold as “export rejects” within the Indian market. There is no control by the Indian government or the Tea Board either on the production of teas exclusively for domestic consumption. The situation is quite scary if you visit tea farms that spray pesticides on their tea bushes every 15 days. You’ll give up drinking tea for ever.

But don’t.

Good sense has begun to prevail in some quarters at least and you can now access good organically grown teas. Such teas are produced in gardens that avoid the use of chemicals (fertilizers, pesticides) completely. The tea produced has, as a result, better quality, better staying power and aroma.

Organic teas may be a little more expensive than ordinary teas. But it would be safer and advisable to stick to them in future.

I have with me in stock more than a dozen organic teas, nicely packed, bought during my rambles of organic farms. Unlike coffee, tea can last a year without any problems. I will not buy any tea from the market unless it has a label stamped “organic” and a label from a certifying agency that says the tea has come from an organic farm. You should do likewise. No use drinking green tea or any other tea if it is going to come laced with poisons.

Organic India Pvt. Ltd (for tulsi teas)
Plot No. 266, Faizabad Road, Kamta, Post Chinhat, Lucknow-227105. Tel: +91-(0)522-2701579, 099562 96685 Fax: +91-(0)522-2701395.
Email: info@organicindia.com. Website: www.organicindia.com

Organic green tea can be ordered on-line from the Waghbakri company @www.buytea.com.

Sahyadri Organic Tea Factory
Valanjanganam, Kuttikkanam P.O.
Idukki Dist, Kerala.
Email: sahyadripds@sancharnet.in
The Internet offers hundreds of outlets and suppliers. For a list of organic stores that stock organic tea, consult www.ofai.org.

(To appear in Prevention Magazine)