Teavana Teas

[Cocoabell]

Are we allowed to have Teavana teas? There is no added sugar and they claim that all the ingredients are natural.

[ladyshanny]

Teas are like anything else, read the ingredients list and ensure no non-compliant ingredients.

Watch for sneaky sugars:

http://whole9life.com/2010/06/sugar-sugar-sugar/

http://whole30.com/downloads/whole30-sugar.pdf

[Munkers]

Also watch out for soy. I was so excited that someone stocked the breakroom at my office with tons of flavored teas, but all of the Bigelow brand green tea varieties (except for the plain green tea and decaf green tea) have soy lecithin. I was so pissed. WHY does tea need an emulsifier?!

[Angela S]

I wondered the same thing, all my favorite teas have artificial flavor listed (not counting the ones I already eliminated with honey, etc) so I wrote Teavana and asked what "artificial flavoring" meant. This was their response:

Thank you for contacting Teavana

Apologies for the delayed response as we have been extremely backed up with emails and trying to reply back as quickly as we possibly can. In regards to artificial flavoring, I apologize for any misunderstanding this may give you or any of our customers. We do not use any "artificial flavoring" as it is thought of by the general public. In accordance with FDA Rules and Regulations, we must include the term artificial flavoring if a particular tea contains a flavor or is labeled by something (a flavor) that is not found within the tea itself.

For example Scented teas (like Jasmine Phoenix Dragon Pearls) are scented by drying the tea with flower blossoms. As the drying occurs, the scent is transferred from the blossom to the tea leaf (locked in if you will. I sometimes use the example of the fabric fragrance sheet in the dryer with laundry, except here it would be tea leaves and jasmine blossoms.

Other examples would be our Blackberry Mojito, Strawberry Rose Champagne or the Sevenberry Sangria. These are three very delicious naturally produced teas that share the names of three popular alcoholic beverages. We do not use Rum, Champagne, or Wine, to produce the tea but the various fruits and tea leaves infused together provide the right flavor to each respectively. However because we are using these names we must list "artificial flavoring" because Rum is not actually there, neither is Champagne or Wine.

Same would go for when labeling our chocolate teas as chocolate and using carob. Carob is an all-natural pod which can be used as a substitute for chocolate and you will see that in the ingredient reference list.

I hope this helps to elevate any concerns you may have had.