Artificial Flavouring in Tea

Here’s my rant about a topic that has been coming up often the last few months. I read many articles relating to this topic and wasn’t going to share my two cents because each article captured most of my thoughts. However I was inspired by ChashTea‘s Twitter bio and could not resist. It doesn’t hurt to have more opinions on this topic.

“If ‘Tea Makes Everything Better’ shouldn’t we be drinking better tea?”
The answer is YES!
Rachel Carter from iHeartTeas said it best, “How I do love logic.”

PureTea 100% Real Ingredients. Nothing Else
Source: Numi Tea’s website. Fun graphic for this topic, however, I am
not endorsing them by including this photo.

Artificial flavors are simply chemical mixtures that mimic a natural flavor in some way. Doesn’t sound exactly appetizing, does it? There is one big company out there (I won’t name but I’m sure you can guess it) that I find artificial flavouring evident in so many of their teas. I understand many people may not be so concerned about this additive in their drink but….

Here’s the way I look at it: It’s one thing to have artificial flavouring in your tea but it’s another to have it in it, advertise it as healthy, high quality tea leaves and charge an arm and a leg for it!
My theory: Once you add anything artificial to teas it cheapens the product because it easily lowers the quality and health benefits. 

I may be talking about my experiences with one company at the moment, but I’m aware others follow the same suit and even have other toxins in their teas. However, I’m pointing this out simply because so many people I know start drinking tea because they were told it’s healthy. “So many benefits to get rid of your cold, lose weight, make your skin glow, etc.” I’m fine with companies advertising health benefits to gain new tea drinkers, whatever works for them, but how is something healthy for you when not all the ingredients in them are REAL ingredients? If a chef used artificial flavourings in his/her cooking I would think of that as cheating, so I am not thinking any differently about it in teas.

Please, think twice about the teas you are purchasing. That being said, when I first became interested in tea I was a huge fan of Teaopia (before Teavana bought them) and didn’t really think to check out others because I didn’t think I needed to since it was a huge world of tea in one store. I’m not telling you to stop drinking from a certain company, I’m just saying to do your research so you can be aware of what you’re buying and find something out there that is affordable yet still the high quality you deserve.

Happy Steeping,

Lu Ann

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