Organic or conventional tea: what remains in the cup?
Written by Dian VAULTIER·
In Brief
- Unlike a fruit or vegetable, the tea leaf is never rinsed between the field and the cup.
- Three characteristics set tea apart.
- HOLLIN sommelier expertise: organic or conventional tea decoded by a purist Tea Maison, with no added flavourings, based in Sartrouville (Île-de-France) and shipping its grand cru teas worldwide.
Unlike a fruit or vegetable, the tea leaf is never rinsed between the field and the cup. It is picked, withered, processed, dried, then immersed directly in hot water. Some of what was sprayed on the plant therefore ends up in the liquor. Understanding this journey makes it possible to assess what an organic label truly guarantees, and what it does not.
Why tea is a special case among agricultural products
Three characteristics distinguish tea. First, the part consumed is the leaf itself, an organ directly exposed to foliar treatments, unlike a fruit protected by a skin that is removed. Second, no washing stage is involved in processing, as wetting the leaf would compromise withering and controlled oxidation.
Finally, the tea plant is a perennial tropical or subtropical crop, cultivated in dense monoculture over decades, in warm and humid climates conducive to pests and fungi. Phytosanitary pressure is structurally high, far more so than for an annual crop in a temperate climate.
Matcha, the only tea consumed in its entirety
In a time With conventional tea, the leaf acts as a filter: it releases what is soluble and retains the rest. With Matcha, this logic disappears. The leaf is ground into powder and drunk in suspension, which means that all the plant matter, and therefore all potential residues, including lipophilic ones, are ingested.
This particularity warrants more stringent standards for this family. It also explains why analyses for heavy metals, particularly lead absorbed by the plant from the soil and air, are more decisive for a Matcha than for a loose-leaf tea from the same terroir.
The shading practised before harvest, characteristic of Matcha and gyokuro, also reduces certain insect attacks but creates a humid atmosphere favourable to fungal diseases. The quality of the agronomic work therefore matters more than the mere presence of a logo on the packaging.
What the organic label guarantees, and what it does not say
European organic certification prohibits the use of synthetic pesticides and soluble mineral nitrogen fertilisers, and requires an annual documentary inspection of the plots. It is a serious guarantee of agronomic practices, and the first reasonable filter when visiting the gardens is not possible.
It does not, however, guarantee the complete absence of residues. Spray drift from a neighbouring conventional plot, the persistence of molecules in recently converted soil, or atmospheric contamination by heavy metals fall outside the logic of the specifications, which concern practices rather than the finished product.
Nor does it say anything about taste quality. An organic tea that is poorly picked, poorly dried or stored in poor conditions will remain a mediocre tea. The label is a necessary criterion in certain contexts, but never sufficient to define a great tea.
Reducing risk: the actions that truly matter
The first useful step is a quick rinse of the leaves, five seconds of hot water discarded before the actual time. It removes storage dust and a fraction of the highly soluble compounds present on the surface, without noticeably altering the tea’s aromatic profile.
The second is the choice of grade and season. Spring pickings, from young shoots at the beginning of the season, generally undergo fewer treatments than summer harvests, when insect pressure is at its highest in hot, humid climates.
The third, and most decisive, remains traceability: knowing the garden, the producer, the harvest year. A tea whose origin cannot be traced cannot be seriously assessed, with or without certification.
The sourcing method of the house of HOLLIN
We do not build our selection around a logo but around a verifiable chain: an identified garden, a harvest year, a batch tasted before being listed. None of our teas receives added flavouring, which also rules out the practice of masking a flaw in the raw material with a synthetic aromatic note.
To discuss this in person, visit the HOLLIN du Goût counter, 22 avenue de la République, 78500 Sartrouville, Monday to Saturday from 10h to 20h. We are always happy to answer questions about the precise origin of each batch presented, and a dry leaf often reveals more than a technical data sheet.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- Do pesticides really pass into the infusion water or remain in the leaf?
- This depends entirely on the molecule's solubility. Water-soluble pesticides migrate extensively into the liquor within a few minutes oftime, while lipophilic compounds remain largely bound to the plant matter, which is discarded. The major exception is Matcha, where the entire leaf is consumed in suspension: in this case, no fraction is held back.
- Is a tea without organic certification necessarily less healthy than a certified tea?
- No, not necessarily. Many small producers work without synthetic inputs but forgo certification, whose administrative cost is disproportionate for low volumes. Conversely, a certified tea from a plot neighbouring treated crops may receive spray drift. Garden traceability remains the most reliable criterion.
- Should tea leaves always be rinsed to limit residues?
- A five-second rinse is a reasonable step for compressed teas, dark teas and heavily roasted leaves, where it also helps to open the leaf. For a delicate Japanese green tea it sacrifices a genuine part of the first steep, the most aromatic, for marginal benefit. It is better, then, to rely on the quality of sourcing upstream.