Hotter than the tea in your cup are the recently released findings of a study led by Nathalie Tufenkji, professor of engineering at McGill University. A couple of years ago, Dr. Tufenkji stopped into a Montreal cafe and ordered a cup of tea. She sat down with her mug, enjoying its warmth, before she noticed something strange: her tea bag appeared to be made of plastic. She dispatched one of her students to buy retail samples and upon testing four different brands in boiling water, discovered 1) they were indeed made of plastic and 2) that a single bag released more than 11 billion microplastic and 3 billion nano plastic particles in the brewed tea. You could not see the contamination with the naked eye; the researchers had to use an electron microscope. But it’s there. In case you missed the story, here is a link to McGill’s report: https://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/channels/news/some-plastic-your-tea-300919.
Since 2005 our motto has been, “Ditch the Old Bag” and now it is in the news. To assure our customers, Aromatica Fine Teas is releasing the following “state of the mug” report:
- Loose leaf tea does not release toxins into your cup. All our teas -regardless of what their certification or origin may be – are subjected to two independent lab tests checking for purity. The McGill report cautions against tea sold in plastic “silken” pyramid tea bags. Our loose leaf tea is clean. Period.
- Our teas do not contain plastics or synthetics. Period.
- We offer fillable tea sacs from two sources: Finum (a German company); and Metropolitan Tea Company (a Canadian company) whose bags are manufactured by Tea Brew. Finum tea bags are made of 100% unbleached biodegradable paper. Metropolitan’s tea bags are made from plant-based material (sugar cane, corn, or abaca leaf– abaca is a type of banana grown in the Philippines, Ecuador, and Costa Rica). No plastic.
- We sell 5-6 different “tea bag” teas. We source these from Metropolitan, so their bags are the plant-based bags referred to in point #3. No plastic.
- An even more ecological solution is to use one of our stainless-steel permanent tea infusers or a tea press. Nothing to compost, nothing in the landfill. You just keep using your infuser over and over for years to come.
Shop at Aromatica with confidence and drink your tea without consuming any plastic. Period.
NOTE: Dr. Tufenkji first noticed the problem in a café. For tea while you are out and about, the following list contains the names of cafes we supply with these same plant-based, non-plastic brew sacs. Chilliwack, BC: Birdies Bakery on Mill Street, Cultivate Café at Minter’s Country Gardens, Decades Coffee Club on Wellington, Harvest Café on Mill Street, Preston’s at Coast Hotel, SaraBella's Gluten Free Cafe on Young Road; Dawson Creek, BC: Faking Sanity on 103rd Ave; Fort Langley, BC: Little White House; Salt Spring Island: Fernwood Road Café; White Rock, BC: Hillcrest Bakery on Thrift Street. Edmonton, AB: Square 1 Coffee (both locations).
This is certainly not a complete list of all of our wholesale customers. It is limited to those using our plant-based tea bags.