>Tea is one area where I go for the expensive stuff. It has to be pure. Drinking green tea with impurities like fluoride may or may not be killing me, but the thought of it sure kills the experience.

My Monster cables may or may not provide a better a signal than a coat hanger, but the thought that I might not have the best possible audio sure would kill the experience.

dhissami is actually correct that more expensive teas are lower in fluoride than cheap ones. However, it's because of an accident of biology, not because anyone designed it that way. Higher quality teas tend to be made from younger leaves, and the younger the leaf, the less fluoride.

But most people don't use 100 tea bags a day. Low levels of fluoride aren't going to kill you.

I never said they would. I just said that expensive tea has less fluoride-- a statement of fact. Based on what I've read on this subject, less than ten cups of tea a day should be fine. Also keep in mind that there is usually fluoride in tap water.

And now that we've mentioned tap water and fluoride, I guess we can expect the kooks to come out...

eurleif, I agree with you, but the exact long-term side effects are unknown. And since I drink tea to relax, it's something I don't want to worry about...else it would defeat the point.

> Drinking green tea with impurities like fluoride [...]

That's not an impurity. Camellia sinensis picks up fluorides naturally.

If what you want is pure Camellia sinensis, wouldn't that make fluoride an impurity? Generally, if an added component is undesirable, isn't it automatically an impurity, regardless of whether it was added naturally or not? You got me scratching my head over a word. :)

Category error? Plants are made of elements; fluoride is an element. If the plant, in its natural environment, binds to a particular element and includes it in its makeup, that does not make it an impurity.