Tea You Can Trust

Lately, I’ve been spending some time learning more about eating, drinking and living as unadulterated as possible. More importantly, not from a place of fear but with motivation of feeling as good as possible from here on out.

To become an informed tea consumer, Elise of Lifestyle Coaching and Yoga Therapeutics shares top things to consider in your purchase from microplastics to decaffeination.

All Things Tea

My most favorite beverage. I come from a long line of tea drinkers; it may be genetic. And while I don’t know everything there is to know about tea, I can help today with a few considerations by way of reducing/eliminating potential for toxicity as a tea consumer.

Here are the top things to consider in your tea purchase: the individual tea BAG, pesticides, company ethics and decaffeination methods.

Microplastics

As it turns out, there’s some questionable constituents in the individual serving tea bags themselves that are especially important to consider when exposed to hot water. As we know, plastic when exposed to heat will leach into the food or liquid it contains. Don’t be fooled by the marketing- biodegradable/compostable or organic doesn’t necessarily mean it meets the standards.

We can largely avoid microplastics altogether by opting for loose leaf tea, of course, and using a glass and stainless steel steeper/mesh. When opting for a tag bag for convenience, look for these brands free of microplastics at the time of writing:

Rishi (they also make a nice, glass tea steeper. A french press works well too if you have one).

The Republic of Tea

Tea Pigs

Pukka Tea

Organic India 

Arbor Teas

Numi Tea

Traditional Medicinals (all herbal and medicinal)

Mountain Rose Herbs

These companies use plastic‑free, compostable materials—typically plant fibers (such as abaca, wood pulp, Manila hemp) or non‑GMO, biodegradable non-woven filters—and no PLA or petroleum‑based glues in the bags themselves, so they minimize micro/nano plastic leaching.

The Decaffeination Process

For tea leaves (camellia sinensis), producing a caffeine-less result version requires either a solvent-based/chemical removal or a filtering process. Read in detail about this here. At the end of the day, I want to equip you with names to trust instead of more research to do.

 Is “naturally decaffeinated” good enough? Maybe not. ‘Natural’ is amongst words like ‘green’ and ‘clean’ that are not regulated e.g. anyone can slap these words on their product. What does it mean? We’ll never truly know and it may mean nothing at all for the product itself.

Companies my use different methods for their loose or organic teas vs bagged tea, which makes it a bit harder to decide, but Decaf Tea Company uses CO2 extraction (also called carbonic acid extraction) exclusively. This is preferred over ethyl acetate extraction, though much more expense for the company. Organic brands also are more likely to use this CO2 method. 

The Republic of Tea has a few decaf teas that use this, Clipper Teas, Choice Organics, Numi (slightly different, though CO2 based), Arbor Teas and Harney and Sons’ tea sachets and loose leaf teas use the CO2 method as well. Though, the latter two are not organic necessarily.

Some companies use the CO2 process for other purpose like flavor retention, not caffeine. And, many of these brand above offer herbal blends that are naturally caffeine free or provide no decaf green or black option are largely the last four in the list.

Pesticides and Ethics

Fun fact: Coffee is still one of the most heavily pesticided crops and just like any crop, tea is also no exception to the application of pesticides, or nearby environmental contamination.

Companies that are Certified B Corp and products that are Fair Trade Certified are generally good markers of ethics with held standards that take into consideration environmental metrics, community engagement, governance, and worker welfare in their scoring.

Some brands go further than others in their testing, specifically, third-party testing of USDA organic certified brands like Numi, Arbor Teas, Rishi and Traditional Medicinals to ensure no detectable residues (as certain pesticides are allowed under USDA organic). Move over, Lipton!

Opinion: You might steer clear of Yogi tea

Yes, yes. The beloved tea with the sweet quotes and proverbs on the tag, that’s the one. Amid recalls due to pesticide residue in 2024, Yogi Tea is under fire for many abuse allegations and cult-like behavior that surfaced after Yogi Bhajan’s death in 2004. Needless to say, some questionable ethical behavior at the roots of the company. Zoinks!

Concluding thoughts

If we choose from this list the companies that are meeting many considerations, Arbor Teas, Traditional Medicinals and Numi are meeting the most if not all considerations.

No matter what you drink, consume with the intention of health and ease. How we think and feel about what we have makes the biggest difference of all. For more support in living an all-around, low-toxicity lifestyle, reach out for lifestyle coaching sessions.

Happy sipping!