Now that I'm Enjoying Great Teas, I Want to Know…What’s the Best Way to Store My Tea?
Tea Does Not Like Light, Heat, Moisture, or Air...The Best Tea Storage Solutions...
Keeping your tea in a cool, dark, and dry location will yield the longest life for your tea without going to extreme measures.
This general rule applies to most teas, but not all. Some tea types like specific conditions, but most teas will be happy when kept cool, dry, and away from light, and respond with extended freshness and a longer life. We will get those other types of tea a bit later.
The first factor to avoid...light...
Tea leaves can be beautiful, whether on their own or blended with other herbs, fruits, and flowers. This makes us want to look at them all the time, and some may be inclined to store them in a glass jar or a clear vessel. When stored like this, the tea leaves are initially a sight to behold. With just a little time, however, it is easy to see that the brilliance of the tea ingredients soon begins to fade. Along with color, the leaves are losing valuable properties imparted to them during photosynthesis. As much of a disappointment as it is not to see the leaves, tea storage in a light-eliminating container will yield dramatically longer life.
The second factor...heat...
Likewise, heat is not a friend of your precious tealeaves. When we say heat, we even mean extra warm. If the temperature is getting to the point where you are becoming uncomfortable, your tealeaves may be, too. Striving for a cool tea storage location is certain to extend the time the leaves remain closest to the way they were when they were harvested and processed - their freshest time.
Read the Research: The Effects of Light and Heat on Camellia sinensis...
The third factor...moisture...
Then there is moisture, by which I mean humidity. Your tealeaves have most likely been dried to about a 3% moisture content level by the end of their processing. This keeps the leaves from molding and creates the most desirable state for tea storage, in most cases.
The fourth factor...air...
If you know what makes different tea types distinct from one another, you will understand why tea does not like exposure to air. Tea types are distinguished by oxidation level. White and green teas are unoxidized, while black teas are fully oxidized. That is to say, tea gets darker the longer it is exposed to oxygen...not only does it get darker, but it completely changes in character. Leaving your tealeaves out in the open won't change the type of tea, but it will affect the tea's flavor profile. This concept can be observed more directly if you let your cup of less-oxidized tea, like green or white tea, sit uncovered for a while. The broth color will change dramatically, and so will the flavor.
Tea storage solutions...how we maintain freshness...
We do our best to remain ever-mindful of our carbon footprint and environmental stress. We utilize eco-friendly pouches that work to sustain the quality of our teas, both on the shelf and in your cupboard. The appearance of our pouches may change, depending on supply availability, but we strive to ensure our tea storage is always sustainable.
Alternatively, for a more attractive and effective storage method, we suggest our Tea Storage Tins… When you order a tea from our shop and add a tea storage tin to your cart, we will label the tin to match the tea.
Which teas are most important to store correctly?...
Green teas and jade oolongs are the most susceptible to storage conditions, and you will begin to notice degradation in these teas before other types. Having a good storage place for these types of tea, like a freezer or refrigerator, and tracking your stock will help you keep your green teas and jade oolongs within their reasonable quality shelf life.
As time passes from when these teas were harvested and processed, they will very slowly diminish in the strength of their properties. If you keep your tea storage in cool, dry, and dark conditions, you should not be surprised to experience 1-2 years of working life from those teas. True enough, after two years, the leaves will not be of the same potency as they were the day after processing. They will, however, still have tea value and be worth consuming.
The general rule is that as the teas get darker in their oxidation level, the viable storage time increases. For many black teas, the tea storage window of freshness may be considerably beyond two years.
What about the other types...the exceptions to the rule?...
Surprisingly enough, there are even teas that, due to their oxidation level and processing technique, actually age for significant periods after initial processing. Rather than losing strength with time, these teas improve incredibly in their ability to produce exceptional steepings of silky-smooth, highly desirable broth.
Dark oolong teas can fall in this category, offering more than just stability in tea storage. Dark oolongs will increase in cup characteristics and value as they age.
Another surprise which defies the normal storage of teas is the category of Dark and Puerh teas, which revel in breathing the atmosphere and favor periods of variation in humidity and temperature. While we don’t typically store these teas in direct light, ambient temperatures and humidity seem to suit them, contributing to their uniqueness as they age.