Reasoning and Prioritization Matrix: Is the tea likely to be healthier?

TLDR: The Tea Tavern prioritizes products that are comparatively more healthy than other options that may be more widely available or that simply possess fewer health benefits. 

Assessing the relative healthiness of a tea is made within the following context: 

• Different farming methods can impact the healthfulness of a tea. Key farming considerations include: 
  • Use of pesticides to prevent insect infestation of the tea plants
  • Use of fertilizers to improve the growth speed or volume of the plants in various areas
  • Indiscriminate pruning to increas the volume of harvestable tea leaves
    
  • The elevation of the tea farm
• Tea is not always good for people
  
  • Improperly stored tea can contain toxic or harmful growths
  • A person's tolerance for tea byproducts or chemicals is highly individual 
  • Tea can make some people ill for a variety of reasons
• Many widely-held beliefs about tea's health benefits need more research to be verified 
  • Some benefits of drinking tea, such as using it as a digestive aid, are proven and are true 
  • Tea can have as much, if not more, caffeine than coffee; this makes it a potentially unhealthy option for some people 

In light of the above, and the vast array of various tea varieties that exist, how does the Tea Tavern determine whether a tea is the best, healthiest possible choice for both the tavern's patrons and the community as a whole?

The Farming Process

Pesticides

Using pesticides means there is a proven risk that those pesticides may be transferred to the tea and, ultimately, ingested by the tea drinker. It is a deeply studied and well recorded fact that the ingestion of excess pesticides harms human health.

Additionally, the chemical composition of what we eat can have a stong impact on how it tastes.

This is why the use of pesticides in tea farming is believed to cause tea drinkers to become ill from drinking the tea. The tea plant absorbs the pesticides which can not be removed from the leaves after havesting and remain in the tea leaves. Brewing subsequently releases the pesticides into the beverage when the tea is brewed.  Not only do the pesticides impact the taste of the tea, but they also increase the risk of harm to our tavern patrons.

To remove this risk, and also maintain the highest possible standards for taste, the Tea Tavern does not purchase teas that were grown on farms that use pesticides.

Fertilizers

The excess use of fertilizers in tea production has long been an issue researchers and tea farmers have struggled to address. Many studies are conducted to find safer ways to fertilize tea crops. While many organic fertilizing methods appear to be decreasing the harm on the envioronment and and potential risk of chemical ingestion by tea driners, the risks of excess fertilization in tea from around the world remain.

Additionally, excess fertilization alters the chemical makeup of the tea plant intself, adding chemicals that would not be present in an organic plant. This is not inherently problematic, but it is near impossible to assess the specific fertilizer being used or what its full impact on the tea plant itself is. For example, if a plant is provided additional nutrients to foster increased or faster growth, and it does grow more, this will likely change the amount of "healthy" chemicals a plant would normally produce. And, the more of the plant there is -- i.e., plant biomass -- the more resources are needed to maintain the plant, meaning the amount of healthy chemicals a plant can organically produce is literally spread thinner. This can result in a tea that is not only "different," but less potent.

Aggressive Pruning 

In line with the concept of decreased potency from the plants, another harvesting practice used to accumulate more leaves is pruning tea plants in such a way the volume of tea leaves produced increases. There are several methods of pruning tea plants, each with various benefits and drawbacks. For tea pruning to be beneficial to the plant, the correct method must be employed.

Even when a correct pruning method is selected, however, in large-scale operations where volume is prioritized over general plant health it is safe to assume the resulting tea will be less potent. Instead of energy being expended on the complex chemical processes that give tea leaves their flavor, the tea plant is instead required to almost constantly produce new growth and expend its chemical resources over a larger volume of leaves. 

Given the large impact of each of these farming variables on the resulting tea product, the Tea Tavern always attempts to learn as much as possible about the farming methods used by source tea plantations. Alternately, as exemplified by our wild grown plants offerings, we may source some teas that have not exposed to pesticides, excessive fertilization, or aggressive pruning at all. 

On General Health Beliefs of Tea

(TODO: Find the following) Research found that a chemical within Green Tea has benefits for a person's longevity, and likely was a large influence on the world's consumption of green tea. This research, however, detailed a large enough quantity of the associated chemical that it would be unrealistic for a person to consume enough of the chemical from green tea to make a significant difference for a person's longevity. As a result, we do not encourage the consumption of green tea for this purpose.

Similarly, there is always caffeine in tea (camelia sinensis), unless it was chemically removed. So any chemical that is beneficial for health in tea will be paired with an increase in caffeine consumption. Similar to caffeine, if pesticides or fertilizers were used in the farming process, then one will also be consuming an increased amount of those chemicals. In this way, tea becomes similar to medicine. Is tea "beneficial"? Are the "benefits" of drinking tea significant enough to accept any possible negatives that could come from the consumption of the tea? This is up to the individual to decide, but the Tea Tavern is about making improvement. If the trade is not clearly better for a person, it should not be portrayed as better. With this said, some people may truely see beneficial effects from tea, and as a result, we would take what the individual has found to be better for them and can make recommendations from there. 

An example concerning chemical for many people is the caffeine, too. Healthier tea plants may have more caffeine, thus individuals who have a legitimate concern over caffeine should not be offered caffeine containing herbs. For them, a "better drink" may not be tea (camellia sinensis). For this reason, it behooves the Tea Tavern to supply other plants such as camellia crassicolumna, a cousin to the tea species that has not been found to contain tea, or  Roobios.