To be organic or not to be organic?

obliged to

In the USA, Lyons costs more than the organics, so I'm guessing you live in Ireland. University of Virginia says the evidence isn't in yet to worry about organics. But when you're older, sicker, and richer you may want to return to them as a position on helping Mother Earth. An awful lot of tea drinking centurians have never worried about it. Worry about AIDS and terrorists.....Toci

obliged to

In the USA, Lyons costs more than the organics, so I'm guessing you live in Ireland. University of Virginia says the evidence isn't in yet to worry about organics. But when you're older, sicker, and richer you may want to return to them as a position on helping Mother Earth. An awful lot of tea drinking centurians have never worried about it. Worry about AIDS and terrorists.....Toci

obliged to

In the USA, Lyons costs more than the organics, so I'm guessing you live in Ireland. University of Virginia says the evidence isn't in yet to worry about organics. But when you're older, sicker, and richer you may want to return to them as a position on helping Mother Earth. An awful lot of tea drinking centurians have never worried about it. Worry about AIDS and terrorists.....Toci

The word organic is going to boil down to definitions and standards. To me it means pesticide free but others fertilizer free and more stringent requirements. The cheapest penny/gram pesticide free commercial tea I know is the Turkish Caykur brand. I don't worry about the chemicals but the other possible biomatter which is why I always boil water.

Jim

Christ> Hello Drinkers of the heavenly brew,

obliged to

Thanks. I'll look for the Turkish Caykur.

No.I live in California. I can get a box of 80 Lyons bags for $3.50 ( I think ) at Berkeley Bowl in Berkeley. I am going there tomorrow, so I'll check the price. By the way, personally, I am not at all worried about terrorists or AIDs. Driving on the freeway, yes, terrorists, no. Christopher

didn't

Well, yes, California. My sister lives there. Worry about California, so the rest of us don't have to. You can get a box of 100 teabags for a dollar at Aldi's, but I'm pretty sure they're not organic. Toci

Information on organic Darjeeling tea.

The same estate tea is sold (cheaper) at Silver Tips..

If you like the idea of drinking organic tea, and you normally drink Lyons, consider looking at some of the Needwood Estate tea from Ceylon. They have Uva-grown CTC teas that are clean and brisk and not really that much more expensive than Lyons. It happens to be organic, if that is a big deal for you, but it's also good tea that doesn't cost a lot.

The Turkish Caykur that was recommended earlier in this thread is also very inexpensive and quite reasonable, but it's not really all that flavorful. Maybe the stuff I tried a year or so wasn't very fresh.

--scott

Screech and one last thing. Here is a Url for Turkish Caykur which popped up one day using Google. All I can say I've tried everyone of the loose Caykur teas found in my local Arabic markets and if there is a taste difference I don't know what it is. I'm drinking the Cay Cicegi (flower) brand now and might be less strong than the others but not by much if any at all. Turkish tea is used in the Caydanlik, a stovetop version of a Samovar but I find it does well in a pot.

Jim

standards.

always

didn't

"Christopher Richards" wrote in message news:65I5e.17033$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com...

I drink organically-grown teas and coffees more often than not, but not exclusively. I don't see it as a "life and death" issue, although if you can think of a way of more effectively exposing yourself to pesticides other than steeping the sprayed leaves of something in hot water and then drinking the liquid, it would have to be smoking the leaves. I would strongly agree with the person who mentioned that driving on the freeway is the greatest day-to-day risk we take. No question.

Whether pesticides/fertilizers are a "poison" or whether they are mostly a threat to the chemically sensitive, it sorta beside the point. They are usually an unnecessary use of non-renewables resources.

I try to drink organic just as incremental contribution toward sustainability, by increasing the market for growers who take that route.

Upton, and some of the other distributors, are helpful by noting which teas are organic, or at least which claim to be, and there are certainly some yummy mid-price choices for Darjeelings, Keemuns and oolongs

Warren.