Laboratory Testing and Plantation Visits
The very first and most important criterion is laboratory testing. No matter how much you trust a producer, no matter how many medals, certifications, or lab reports they present, if this is not a very large company with a strong reputation, I still prefer to conduct at least one test myself in an independent laboratory. And I believe this is something every self-respecting tea entrepreneur should do.
Yes, it's not cheap. You may have to part ways with some of your previously trusted suppliers, and you might stop drinking certain types of tea altogether. But it is necessary.
To test tea, we work with German, Dutch, Chinese, and Hong Kong laboratories -- depending on the circumstances and the requirements for each case. Beyond that, I always visit the plantations in person. If it involves tree-grown tea, I look at the tea gardens, I inspect the soil, I examine the condition of the tea trees, how quickly the buds are growing, and how the shoots look.
In most cases, you can visually identify herbicide use on plantations -- especially herbicides -- because barren, lifeless soil with either no vegetation or very little vegetation is quite easy to notice. Often it's even possible to recognize it by the look of the land alone.
The same goes for synthetic growth stimulants and other chemicals -- their use is also visible to the naked eye. Still, even this is not a guarantee that the tea is clean. If you're not sure, any producer can show you any plantation -- but that does not mean the tea you are being sold actually comes from there.
That is why it is extremely important to test each tea batch directly.
European Standards and Certification
There is also the concept of the European standard -- the European certificate -- which is not necessarily the same as "organic," but in practice it serves as a guarantee of safety and marks teas with a very low level of herbicide use. It also confirms that the tea fully complies with EU quality standards.
(If you work in the United States, that would refer to FDA-approved teas or USDA Organic certification.)
So this can also be a perfectly good tea. In fact, a great deal of tea that is sold in the European Union -- and here I am referring specifically to the EU because that's where we operate -- is not certified organic but is still quite clean.
This kind of tea also has its own nuances. It absolutely must be sent to the lab, brewed and tested, to ensure that the levels of herbicides and pesticides that are present are within the permitted limit. There is an officially established acceptable threshold.
If the tea stays within this threshold, it is considered safe. And although such tea is not fully organic, it still complies with the strict standards of the European Union.
Personal Reflections on Tea Safety
Here I would like to make an important point about safety in general. I myself have been in the tea business for almost 20 years, and I've been passionate about tea for about 25 -- maybe 23 years drinking good tea regularly.
So I can say with confidence that over the years I've drunk a huge amount of tea that did not meet any modern certification standards. And I've consumed it in such vast quantities that, if it really were seriously harmful to health, and if I had been drinking just "regular" tea all this time, I probably wouldn't be around anymore.
But of course -- and I stress this -- that cannot and should not be considered an evaluation criterion. This is entirely subjective. People have different levels of health, different immune responses, different allergies, and different reactions to tea. And of course, this in no way excuses or invalidates the fact that it is always better to drink organic tea -- or at the very least tea that complies with European standards.
Because in the end, your health always matters more.
Comparing Global Standards
It’s also important to mention that American and Japanese standards are significantly lower than European ones in terms of product quality and permitted herbicide and pesticide content. That is exactly why I refer primarily to the European standard as the benchmark.
Since I used to work in the post-Soviet market, my supplier base at the time did not include many organic producers. Over the last 3–4 years, since we founded our company in the European Union — and since I settled in the Netherlands — I have had to completely rebuild my supplier base from scratch.
Since then, I have visited several provinces in China: Guizhou, Guangdong, Hunan, Yunnan, and Fujian. I’ve been searching specifically for organic producers who meet the necessary standards.
This was both extremely interesting and very challenging — it felt like starting to learn tea all over again from scratch. But what I do know for certain is that in recent years, the movement toward organic cultivation in China has made significant progress.
And honestly, it is inspiring to see that this has genuinely become a trend — even inside China.
The Myth of Pollution in China
There is a popular myth that everything in China is terribly polluted, that there is no such thing as clean tea, and so on. But in reality, the percentage of producers who are oriented toward Western markets or Japan is growing rapidly.
In addition, the organic market within China itself is beginning to develop. There is growing market demand, government regulation, and a general social desire among people to eat healthier food.
Today, I’ve personally visited stores in China that are entirely focused on organic products. Organic principles now extend far beyond tea — into everyday food and medicinal plants as well. That includes oil, nuts, herbs, traditional medicine, wild-harvested plants, and more.
Wild Tea and Its Significance
Now, a few words about wild plants — specifically, wild tea. This is probably the most interesting category for me personally. In fact, the majority of the products I custom-source for clients are wild teas.
This means tea that is found growing in genuinely wild conditions — tea that is absolutely never treated with fertilizers or chemicals. Of course, even this kind of tea still has to be tested. That is a necessary step. But such teas cannot carry any sort of label or certification.
Typically, these teas grow somewhere in the mountains, far from any settlements — in forests, in reforested areas (where wild tea bushes grow isolated from one another), or in abandoned plantations. Sometimes they come from wild cultivars that have been cloned and propagated.
This topic probably deserves a separate article — there’s a whole world behind wild tea. But the key thing to understand is that wild tea is also a valuable source of naturally clean tea.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much of it, and it’s not so easy to find. Sometimes the market price for wild tea is not as high as it deserves to be — but that really depends on the region. Wild tea can be found in almost all tea-growing areas.
Primarily, of course, I’m talking about Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi, Fujian, Guangdong, and Hunan — the classic tea regions of southeastern China.
For me, a supplier who can offer genuine wild tea is always of special value. With such producers, we always build something truly our own.
The Importance of Exploring Different Teas
And finally, I would like to say this: drinking clean tea is extremely important.
There are also a few more subtle considerations when it comes to clean tea. For example — the question of whether tea comes from bushes or trees.
Right now, in the tea community, it has become very popular to promote the idea that one should only drink tea from trees — because trees have deeper, stronger root systems, and they absorb more nutrients from the soil.
And yes, in fact, that’s true. But it’s important to understand that many tea varieties are not grown from trees. Most tree-grown teas are closer to the assamica type — either large-leaf cultivars or wild varieties.
You can find wild dancong trees in northern Guangdong or southern Fujian. There are also wild trees in Guangxi, Sichuan, and a few other provinces. But truly wild, non-assamica trees are rare.
There are many flavor profiles — whether it’s oolongs, delicate white teas, or some black teas — that are best expressed through bush-grown tea. Some of the complexity and elegance in certain oolongs, for instance, can’t easily be replicated in tree-grown material.
So, if you want to explore a broader palette of flavors, then limiting yourself only to tree-grown tea, or only to pu’erh, or only to aged teas, is a rather narrow view. It means cutting yourself off from an enormous variety of tastes and expressions in the world of tea.
This is why it is so important to explore different teas and flavor experiences.
On Trust and Transparency
As for the issue of choosing tea and trusting vendors — I believe it would be a very good practice for every vendor to publish or provide lab test results, like a menu available upon request. That’s something our company already does.
I believe this would be a good standard for producers as well — especially those who claim their teas are organic, clean, bio-certified, and so on.
Challenges with Certification
And one more important point: regarding organic labels and packaging. For example, our Dutch company still does not have that official label — not because the teas are not clean, but simply because it requires an additional financial investment.
And in order to fully comply with the bio-certification system, particularly in terms of product testing, producers have to pay substantial fees every single year.
Smaller producers — especially independent farmers — often cannot afford this, even if they are fully managing their plantations or tea forests according to organic principles.
So we take on the responsibility of testing the products ourselves, in order to be more confident in the tea we work with.
That is why it is so crucial to independently and thoroughly verify the tea you work with.
Names and Labels Aren’t Everything
And finally, I must say this: even the name of a tea is not a guarantee of its quality.
For example, the name Tie Guan Yin or Longjing can appear on packages of teas sold at very different price points — and with dramatically different quality.
Just because something is expensive does not mean it is good — and just because something is cheap does not mean it is bad.
The same goes for the “bio” or “organic” label. A tea can be organic — and still taste flat, unremarkable, or even unpleasant. And there are teas with no certification at all that can be truly excellent in their organoleptic qualities.
That is what makes the search for tea that is both clean and delicious — and reasonably priced — all the more challenging.
