Sometimes I find bags of dried tea leaves of various sorts in my local Turkish store. Do such teas need a hechsher (certification as kosher)? Is there any indicator I can use to tell if it's kosher or not?
Obviously this assumes there is no hechsher on the packaging.
Answer
According to the CRC:
Black, green, white, yellow, oolong, and jasmine tea are all inherently kosher for Pesach, but the issues of decaffeination and flavoring apply to tea in the same way that they apply to coffee. For that reason all decaffeinated tea and all flavored tea (which includes most herbal teas) should only be used on Pesach if they bear an appropriate Pesach certification.
If it doesn't require certification for Pesach, it certainly doesn't for the rest of the year. And if it requires for Pesach, it may require for the rest of the year. Certainly the flavors are always a matter of concern all year round.
Note: This is a very American centric answer, but your profile says you are from Brooklyn, so it would seem to apply to you.
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