If you enjoy tea, you most likely keep more than one variety in your cabinet near your canned goods. You have a large selection, including matcha, green, black, chamomile, lavender, chai, and jasmine. You’d be ready if Queen Elizabeth dropped over unexpectedly. Even ardent tea collectors might not be aware of this, but there are practical as well as aesthetic benefits to how you store your tea.
Kyle Stewart, co-owner of The Cultured Cup and one of only 175 certified tea specialists worldwide, claims that improper tea storage can compromise the flavor and quality of your beverage. According to him, since tea leaves are dry (having lost 97 percent of their hydration), they are open to absorbing moisture and potent odors. This means that if you leave your tea outside, unprotected from the elements, it will absorb whatever is nearby. A customer once said that her tea tasted like onions when she came into our shop, recalls Stewart. “She asked where she kept her tea. within the fridge! Possibly not the best location to keep tea.”
So, the fridge isn’t working. Instead, what ought you to do? In this article, Stewart and Nadia De La Vega, the director of tea content and sustainability at DavidsTea, discuss how to properly store tea, including three key guidelines to remember and how to tell if your tea has gone bad.
Experts’ recommendations for three essential guidelines for storing tea
Keep teas in airtight containers.
Whether using tea bags or loose leaf tea, De La Vega and Stewart both stress the significance of keeping tea in a container that is tightly closed. If not, your tea will taste and smell like whatever it is adjacent to, just like Stewart’s customer. De La Vega advises, “Keep your tea apart from other strong scents,” adding that this encompasses spices and sauces.
Store your tea in a shaded area.
Both experts agree that tea should be kept in a dark area as the second rule to remember when storing it. Stewart argues that sunlight can destroy tea leaves because it can absorb them. The flavour and health advantages of tea are diminished when the leaves are harmed. Glass containers aren’t as excellent for storing tea as containers that aren’t see-through, according to Stewart, because of the impact sunlight can have on them.
Remain calm.
Tea should be kept somewhere cool, according to De La Vega and Stewart, but not in the refrigerator. Similar to light, heat can weaken the flavour and health advantages of tea leaves. You shouldn’t keep your teas close to the burner because of this.
The three golden laws of tea storage do, of course, have a few exceptions, just like with anything else. If you have Pu’er tea, a sort of fermented tea from Yunnan, China, De La Vega advises keeping it in a ventilated container. This facilitates the ageing process, allowing the flavour to develop more, the author claims. Matcha is a further exception. “The shade-grown green tea, which is finely powdered, is very absorbent. When we close containers containing matcha, most of the air is removed, and we then put the containers in the freezer “Stewart claims that by doing this, the food stays fresher longer than if it were kept in a different location, like the pantry.
According to Stewart, tea can endure a very long time if stored properly. “I came across a tea that I purchased in Asia ten years prior when organising my closet a few years back. To my amazement, the tea I made was amazing “He claims. “Don’t just throw out a tea because the freshness date has passed.”
De La Vega claims that several of the DavidsTeas mixes contain tiny bits of fruit, chocolate, or nuts. According to her, this may shorten their shelf life. She claims that they don’t always keep as fresh as tea made with just one ingredient. Just one more thing to keep in mind when storing your teas.
Tea that has been carefully chosen should be stored properly to ensure that you get the most flavour and health advantages from it possible. Additionally, it will make preparing your cup more fun. Since a cup of tea should ultimately provide serenity to your life rather than additional disturbance, And it all begins with some organisation.
