What about all the bad stuff in tea, like the heavy metals and the
pesticides?

To use pesticides or no pesticides is a trade-off in quality. If
you're drinking really good tea, I wouldn't worry about the
pesticides. If pesticides were used on the plants, there probably
wouldn't be much reside on the tea leaves. Why? Because tea is so
gentle. So you could taste the pesticide residue (if there was some)
in the tea.

Sure, they might use pesticides like DDT and benzene hexachloride
(BHC). But if you're drinking good tea, there shouldn't be anything in
there to worry of.

And say, you don't want your teas sprayed with pesticides, (and no
other treatment, like organic) - the tea will suffer in quality. Bugs
will eat the tea plants, and the leaves will deteriorate in quality,
having marks, etc. And this will affect the fragrance and flavor of
the finished product.

So... if you want to enjoy really good tea at a reasonable price,
then, the tea farmers might have to periodically spray the plants to
treat pests.

I wonder what the fresh tea leaves looked like back in the Song
Dynasty. Hmmmm............