On Jan 25, 10:16*am, dank wrote:
I bought a big box of Foo-Joy green tea bags from an Asian market
recently and when I opened the sealed mylar pouches I could swear
it smelled like some synthetic chemical.

The tea is imported from China and was supposedly some special
Lunqching (sp?) imperial Dragonwell tea or something, but I
wasn't impressed with the quality and it smelled funny and I'm
pretty sure I detected an odd flavor.

I went to see a weird indie movie called "All in This Tea" about
an American tea trader who went to China, India, and elsewhere
in pursuit of the finest batches of tea for his company. *In one
scene he is complaining about a chemical smell in a batch of
supposedly quality tea that the official Communist tea collective
is trying to sell him, and he thought it was either fertilizers
or pesticides. *The tea collective refused to let him buy direct
from the farmers, so he had no way of contracting for supplies
of uncontaminated teas.

Should I continue drinking the tea or buy some some quality
organic brand? *And since most of the green tea in the world
comes from China and since Chinese certifications of quality,
safety, organic, etc. are meaningless, why should I pay more
for "organic" tea that likely is from the same contaminated
fields in Communist China?

There has been a great deal of discussion here over time chemicals
in tea, etc. and perhaps you can look into the archives for more info.
Regarding FooJoy's Lung Ching (Dragonwell): Foo Joy is usually pretty
good for the price. I, personally, acroos the board, find tea in bags
less desirablethan loose tea.
If you are new to Dragonwell, it can have a "fishy" or "seaweedy"
aroma. It could be that which you are smelling.
There are many vendors who sell reliably "organic" tea online.
Julian, who posts here periodically, is a good one to help direct you.
Shen