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How to find Pesticide Free tea in China?

“Seeking excellence means choosing to forge your own sword to cut through the limitations of your life.” – James A. Murphy

This week in the Throne and Beauty teayard of Fujian Province, I take off the handcuffs of White tea processing, to use mature tea leaf instead of traditionally applied young leaf, finally made a surprisingly nice White tea, not just about the versatile and charming aroma, even not the silky mouthfeel, only the rebellious profile can shine the eyes. The tea is simply called White Dragon Horse.

Organic is not perfect

It’s fixed standard however the world is always changing, even sometimes receive tricky kidding. In 2015 the German certifier BCS pubished a news on Pesticide analysis required:

Taiwanese customs conducts random inspections during the import procedure and tests samples for these residues. In the past months a range of different organic products destined for the Tai- wanese market have tested positive.

But don’t get me wrong, Organic is a very good way to do the right things, we also offer many Organic certified teas.

Organic is a good guide to Pesticide Free

Beside the methods mentioned in 10 questions on Organic tea, still there are other ways to find Pesticide Free farmers.

In China, Organic certifying is a very special market, for EU/USDA certifying, the job is mostly done by three companies: ECOCERT, BCS and IMO.

It’s even simpler now, IMO was acquired by ECOCERT in 2014, so now only two companies left and they both have a certified companies database:

How to prove Pesticide Free of a tea garden?

Firstly send to testing lab like Eurofins.

Oh no, the first priority is to talk with the people. Last year a friend introduced a tea garden to me, the tea garden manager showed up in my house and claimed the perfection of the farm. Last week I drove 9 hours to visit the tea garden, there I talked to the master, worker, neighbor and stepped my feet on the soil, to feel how the grass feel, to smell how the plants smell, to crawl how the ants crawl. We had a good dinner in the tea garden, I finally made some nice new friends though it’s not the tea garden I am looking for.

In the end we are just human being, tea is a result of our work, if you get the wrong man, there is big possibility you will get the wrong tea.

The reasons of not using pesticide

Speaking of pesticide, some people use it some not, figuring out the reason behind can help us find the tea garden we want easier. Till now the followings are in my mind:

  1. Smart, knowledgeable thus have special solutions.
  2. Not smart enough though don’t want pesticide too, normally these tea gardens are full of weeds, some will just let it be, some will clean it very few times but both have very low output, as well as low quality.
  3. No need, there is not many insects naturally, the altitude should be over 750m and even higher, ever asked the Jingmai farmer below about leafhopper and the reply is very “depressing”, they don’t know it as they are 1500m high.
  4. Abandoned, then reclaimed after many years but this is not a guarantee of ZERO pesticide, I ever tried one that abandoned for over 15 years and the result is still not good, especially the use of weedkiller can last very long time and most people don’t know how to clean it.
  5. Wild, some tea plants have been living there with others for over hundred years without human intervention, the Zhangping farmer below is a good example.
  6. Biddable, to ancestors and tradition. Maybe this sounds foolish but I ever saw how wise the people hundred years ago manage the tea garden, in Yunnan there is a tea called Rattan tea, actually it’s not a different tea, it is just a special management that existed for over several hundred years, in this kind of tea garden, you won’t see leaves but buds on the top instead, farmers use their hands to remove leaves year by year and only reserve the buds on the top.
  7. Insects welcome, with the help of special craft, the plants harmed by insects can be made into very special tea. Professor Chen Zhongzhou has revealed the secrets between the plants and insects. When facing the threat of pests, the plants can warn others and launch its mechanism to protect itself. Our Crazy Bugs White tea is created under such case.

Pesticide Free tea farmers database

What if we have a database just like Organic tea, that’s a good idea but what’s the difference:

  1. NO FEES: tea farmers no need to pay even a penny, testing? travelling? All bills are on me.
  2. NO PAPERWORK: tea farmers no need to use even a pencil, the ground, the flower, the insects are the best documents.

What tea farmers need to do is just a statement, to clearly claim the cleanliness and I will shoot a video for each farmer.

Pls also note this is NOT a guarantee but just a better starting point.

The Contact information below is also the ID of WeChat which is the No.1 messaging app in China.

Name Contact Location Products Variety Video
Chen Linqin 13860205063 Zhangping, Fujian Oolong tea Shui Xian https://youtube.com/
Wu Huanghua 15880026244 Guangze, Fujian Black tea Cai Cha https://vimeo.com
Yan Yishao 15758356821 Jingmai, Yunnan Puer tea Yunnan Big Leaf -
Xie Rongwei 13809599957 Songxi, Fujian White tea Zhenghe Big White -