Last Updated on June 20, 2024 by Michelle

All teas are NOT the same.

Today I sat down and talked with the Director of Operations for Positively Tea, Marlena Snyder, and talked about what details we really should know about a tea before choosing it for our families, how to find this information, and why these often-overlooked details can actually be very important for your family’s overall health.

Listen in on the Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy podcast, Season 3, Episode 13 or sit down with us, over on youtube, right here.

Is Tea a Healthy Choice?

The more I’ve researched teas over the years, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are 3 important questions you need to ask about your favorite teas. Whether it’s your favorite cup to start the day or the pitcher of sweet tea you make for your family for dinner, start thinking about these 3 things…

First, There Are the Bags…

I’ve always loved a good cup of tea. But until rather recently I never thought much about the tea leaves and the bags themselves.

One day I noticed that I could buy “unbleached” tea bags and I started wondering, wait, does that mean some tea bags are bleached? So I’m soaking a bleached bag in my mug of super hot water for many long minutes and then I’m drinking bleach residue?

I won’t even get into the fact that some tea bags are made of plastic fibers that leak hormone-disrupting toxins into your cup…

I quickly started buying loose leaf tea and using a great stainless steel steeper like this.

But then I learned that all loose leaf teas are not the same. Just ditching the bag isn’t enough guys…

— Read 7 Things to Compare: Loose Leaf Tea vs. Tea Bags —

Then There Are the Pesticides…

It turns out plenty of loose leaf tea companies don’t care so much about the pesticides… There’s no regulation making sure when they harvest the tea leaves they haven’t been soaked in pesticides just days before.

I read a few third-party research studies and was shocked at the amount of pesticides that were discovered on many brands of teas.

But, it still gets worse… I still had one more thing I hadn’t thought about…

What About “Natural Flavors”?

Many of today’s tea brands are operating under the guise of providing health benefits and promoting clean living, but guys, not only are they bleaching their bags and using pesticide-laced tea leaves, they are also adding in artificial ingredients and added flavors.

Here’s the worst part – as long they’re using something that’s found in nature, a tea company can add it to other products and chemicals to that natural product and call it “NATURAL FLAVOR” on the ingredients label.

The FDA defines natural flavors as ones that get their taste or smell from naturally derived sources. Which sounds fine, but here’s the kicker… natural flavorings, like artificial flavorings, are manipulated in a lab for the final product. There’s a boatload of unrestricted additional ingredients that can be used to make “natural flavors.” But they sound great and, well, natural if they call them “natural flavors,” right? Even though they contain preservatives and solvents I don’t want in my drink. (If you’d like to read the fine print of FDA food labeling that’s right here.)

Granted, food processors are legally required to list all their ingredients, but in order to protect trade secrets, flavor manufacturers aren’t, meaning they can freely use emulsifiers and additives in natural flavors without disclosing it to us—which makes those nice sounding “natural flavors” a lot closer to artificially flavored ones than you might think.

So What Do You Do to Find a Healthy Tea?

First of all, you can eliminate the pesticides and the bags pretty easily, if you can find a company that sells loose leaf organic teas. Or find great bagged tea options like these.

The natural flavors issue is a little harder, if you really want to know what ingredients are in each natural flavor, in every variety of tea you purchase.

How do you find out?

Don’t hesitate to contact your favorite tea companies directly. Ask to speak to their Director of Operations. Get the answers you need to be an informed consumer. A Director of Operations should know exactly what is being done in the lab to make each natural flavor they include in each tea. If he or she doesn’t know, they can definitely talk to their suppliers and get the answer for you.

What happened when I asked?

So that’s exactly what I did. My favorite teas come in all sorts of amazing flavors, like the ROOTBEER pictured above. Guys, seriously, this iced tea tastes like rootbeer! (Especially if you add some bubble with some unflavored seltzer water.)

But I was a little hesitant that I might not like the answer, assuming there would be some funky stuff added in to some of these amazing flavors. I reached out to Marlena Snyder, the Director of Operations at Positively Teas. I was elated to find out that all of their flavors, in every single variety of tea that Positively Tea makes (and trust me, there are a lot), are made with the same process. Marlena described it this way:

“We use flavorings that are water soluble and have a base of Ethyl Alcohol. Natural ingredients, like fruits, herbs and spices are used with the ethyl alcohol to create the flavoring agent.”

Sweet! That was better than what I was hoping for, honestly.

Will you like the answer?

I feel like there are some good tea companies out there that avoid bleached or plastic bags and pesticides but they still hide a few things I really don’t want to be drinking and label them “natural flavors.”

But with a little effort and research, we can still find trustworthy companies making some great organic products, guys.

Listen in to the latest podcast episode, linked below, to find out insights and tips from one Director of Operations about how you can truly do your research and know you’re getting the best products for your family. Marlena also share a little about the history of tea, explains some provable health claims of drinking tea, and breaks down the difference in all the varieties of teas.

Subscribe to my podcast on your favorite podcast player– The Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy Podcast.

My Family’s Favorite Healthy Teas?

I’ve broken down long lists of all our favorite teas, why, and even specific recipes for how we mix and sweeten our favorites, right here:

The Best Teas & Tea Products

Use code SOULYRESTED for 10% off your entire order (even off bulk pricing!) at my favorite resource for all things organic tea– Positively Tea.

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