”You’re so dirty my darling tea”

[Jackie]

Or not? I just read Chris’ reply on @lahikmajoe‘s blog, in which he mentioned rinsing tea leaves. I’m not going to discuss all the pros and cons of polishing down your leaves but I do want to discuss the “dirt” question. How dirty are those sweet green leaves? And if they are, does it matter?

A little while ago, when we opened up the marketplace on Tea Trade, someone raised some points about hygiene. “How safe is it to buy second hand tea leaves” so to speak. At the time, I had to chuckle. I couldn’t help thinking; have you seen where the tea leaves have been? Have you seen how they are spread out on bare floors and mats, tossed by possibly quite grubby hands in their country of origin? Do you think those surfaces are scrubbed spotless? Or that workers wear gloves or masks while handling them? Only if they’ve just been sprayed with pesticide. Maybe. Not however because someone might have a bit of a cold coming on.

So, was I concerned about buying tea from my twitter buddy on @teatrade? No.

Either way; does the thought of a bit of dust bother you? Clearly it doesn’t affect my choices. I’m not even sure why. The boiling water? Sure. But I drink green tea without worries too. You? I’d like to know.

[Anonymous]

I’d never actually thought about that before. 

When I head to the kitchen to blend teas or even package some for samples or sale I always clean the counters and sweep the floor (we do this every day as it is…we have three cats and who knows where they’ve been all day), and of course wash my hands before touching anything tea related.  I just thought it was the right/natural thing to do. 

But that’s just me. 

[Xavier]

But I think you can ask this for nearly every fruit or vegetable.

[Robert Godden]

We used to have customers who were horrified that our retail staff did not wear lab coats, hair nets and sterile gloves when scooping tea out of the jars.

We suggested adding boiling water to the leaves at some point would probably help. Usually sarcastically.

[Jackie]

You know @thedevotea, to me that shows that tea isn’t really well understood. I think all that fancy packaging the leaves so often come in, alienates tea from its roots so to speak.

What has a gloriously expensive tin got to do with tea’s actual birthplace? Nada. But it sure looks good, and I admit the tins are visually appealing.

However, the strategy to market tea as a “luxury” product means that customers think sales associates need white gloves, while they scoop up the leaves with a silver spoon.

On a visit to a tea store I wanted to catch a whiff of one of the teas by holding my sweet nose over an open tin! The look I got. The sales lady yanked the tea away and told me sniffing teas was impossible.

Oh well, like I said the Darjeeling I was nosy about, had seen more challenging times for sure.

J.

[Xavier]

@jackie Really? In most shops here I can go sniffing if I want.

[Anonymous]

Teavana encourages you to put your nose over the teas.  It isn’t like you can get a drinking sample of the teas there.  So sniffing I think is the only way to know if one will like what they want to buy.   @Jackie what shop was this in?

[Jackie]

@wifeywoman – It was in a local tea shop where we live. And I totally agree that it helps you decide whether you’ll like a tea or not. For me it’s really important too. For one, you can smell if the tea is stale. It’s not that there is a stale scent but the total lack of aroma tells me a lot!

[liberteas]

I don’t care if they are wearing gloves or hairnets… what does bother me though is when I go into a tea shop and they store their tea in jars.  This bothers me to no end.  I walk out of tea shops, buying nothing, if they store their tea in jars.  Tea should be stored in a dark, cool, airtight place away from the elements that destroy it, and if a tea purveyor doesn’t know this, I feel like they don’t know enough to be selling tea. 

[Xavier]

But tea jars can be closed, no?

[liberteas]

Yes jars can be closed and airtight.  But, most jars are either glass or plastic – and they allow light to reach the tea leaves.  Plastic I wouldn’t trust because I would worry that the plastic could taint the tea.  Glass can absorb heat.  It might not be enough heat to damage the tea, but, as a tea consumer, I simply wouldn’t feel very confident in buying from a purveyor who chose to store their tea in this way.

[Author]

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