The Cereal Box Method
Freshness is the most important thing when it comes to keeping your tea flavorful. There is a widely circulated myth that tea can be kept for long periods of time without losing flavor. This is completely untrue. All teas, but especially white and green teas must be kept as fresh as possible and used as fast as possible. Tea must be kept away from light, heat, moisture, and air in order to be kept fresh. For light, all you need is an opaque bag. For moisture and air, all you need is an air tight seal on whatever packaging you keep your tea in. Heat however, can be tricky. One solution to this problem is to store your tea in a good climate controlled environment. This is a great way to solve this problem if you have access to a climate controlled room, although I would assume most people do not. For people like me who do not yet have access to this type of environment, I would recommend keeping your tea in ceramic to minimize the damage done by heat.
This is why I believe in 'The Cereal Box Method.' The idea is to have an air tight and in someway re-sealable bag in side of a light and heat resistant container making it the same basic concept as a cereal box. Putting this inside your cupboard will help even more. For this reason I never store my tea in metal. Metal allows the temperature of the tea to fluctuate easily, therefore making metal less than desirable. Also, never keep your tea in the refrigerator or freezer. Storing tea in a freezer for long periods of time in an airtight container is OK, but once you take it out, don't re-freeze it. Temperature fluctuation will ruin the tea, so if you do freeze your tea, just keep it in the cupboard after you use it for the first time.
Not storing your tea properly will ruin it. Depending on how recently the tea was harvested, it can lose its freshness within a week if in is not kept in an air tight container. I have lost perfectly good tea this way. Allow your tea to provide you more drinking pleasure; treat it like cereal because it won't stay fresh any longer.
-Silas
This is why I believe in 'The Cereal Box Method.' The idea is to have an air tight and in someway re-sealable bag in side of a light and heat resistant container making it the same basic concept as a cereal box. Putting this inside your cupboard will help even more. For this reason I never store my tea in metal. Metal allows the temperature of the tea to fluctuate easily, therefore making metal less than desirable. Also, never keep your tea in the refrigerator or freezer. Storing tea in a freezer for long periods of time in an airtight container is OK, but once you take it out, don't re-freeze it. Temperature fluctuation will ruin the tea, so if you do freeze your tea, just keep it in the cupboard after you use it for the first time.
Not storing your tea properly will ruin it. Depending on how recently the tea was harvested, it can lose its freshness within a week if in is not kept in an air tight container. I have lost perfectly good tea this way. Allow your tea to provide you more drinking pleasure; treat it like cereal because it won't stay fresh any longer.
-Silas
2 Comments:
Thank you for the informative posting - I'm a tea novice trying to learn all that I can.
Is there a theory about storing different types of teas together? Obviously they are in their own bags, but does it make a difference if they are stored in the same canister?
By mytime4tea, At January 17, 2007 4:02 PM
As long as the bags are properly sealed there should be nothing worng with it. You also want make sure the canister you are storing your tea in is not too much bigger than the bag the tea is in. The more air inside the canister, the faster it will go bad.
By Silas Moulton, At January 18, 2007 4:24 PM
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