TeaChat

a fellow TeaChatter, Trevor, had asked me for pics of how I keep my tea.



This is the tea cabinet. It measures five feet across and three feet tall. I got it from a rental home that we take care of. The thickness of the board...eyeballing it, is 3/8" or 1/2". Each level within the cabinet is one foot tall. The interior is plastic, and no mold has appeared anywhere - I check weekly.



You can't see it, but there are holes in the back. To the left, I keep my bowl of water. when I checked it, the humidity was lower than usual, at 77%. The aroma within the cabinet is strong and sweet, similar to caramel and cedar wood. If you have any questions, just let me know. Happy Drinking, Friends.

Do you just place a bowl of room temperature water in it periodically?

TokyoB wrote:Do you just place a bowl of room temperature water in it periodically?

Every couple of days I will put warm water in two pyrex bowls, and it keeps the humidity up for..well, a couple of days.

Thanks for posting the pics. I figured this is what it looked like, but I wanted to make sure before I started making plans for my own.

What is your climate/location like? What is the humidity naturally at?

TwoDog2 wrote:What is your climate/location like? What is the humidity naturally at?

Here in the Carolinas (North and South) we annually see an average of mid-50's for the relative humidity. The summer months, of course, that bumps up a little higher -- usually low 70's.

~Jess K.

Just a small update -

when I was a wee laddie, I thought Jinuo Shan was pretty good. Even in my humid storage, the tea 'failed to thrive', though I now understand a tea's strength at the beginning of it's life fades as the years go on, so a tea that's light when new may be dead when older.

In the case with the Jinuo Shan, it had great flavour to me at the time, but it wasn't very strong. Tonight, 9 grams of the stuff in a 100ml gaiwan produced wimpy tea. boiling water and longer steeps - wimpy wimpy wimpy....

I'm writing here before you, humbled. Stronger pu will be lining my shelves now, and thank the ceiling popcorn above me that I only have one cake.

bryan_drinks_tea wrote: In the case with the Jinuo Shan, it had great flavour to me at the time, but it wasn't very strong. Tonight, 9 grams of the stuff in a 100ml gaiwan produced wimpy tea. boiling water and longer steeps - wimpy wimpy wimpy.....

How much time had elapsed? Thanks for passing along your experience. I have tried to lean strong on a lot of young tea I purchase, with the hopes that some of the more aggressive aspects of the tea would age well.

Bryan is the bowl of warm water steaming? I use a fish tank heater in distiller water set to 91 degrees and an electronic cigar humidifier. I still have a hard time getting it to 80. What is the rh of the room your cabinet is in? It looks like it would be hard to keep the humidity up with the large cracks that appear to be in between the two doors.

TwoDog2 wrote:

bryan_drinks_tea wrote: In the case with the Jinuo Shan, it had great flavour to me at the time, but it wasn't very strong. Tonight, 9 grams of the stuff in a 100ml gaiwan produced wimpy tea. boiling water and longer steeps - wimpy wimpy wimpy.....

How much time had elapsed? Thanks for passing along your experience. I have tried to lean strong on a lot of young tea I purchase, with the hopes that some of the more aggressive aspects of the tea would age well.

About 3 years had passed.

gasninja wrote:Bryan is the bowl of warm water steaming? I use a fish tank heater in distiller water set to 91 degrees and an electronic cigar humidifier. I still have a hard time getting it to 80. What is the rh of the room your cabinet is in? It looks like it would be hard to keep the humidity up with the large cracks that appear to be in between the two doors.

Yep, the bowl of water is steaming. Sometimes for an extra boost I will add a second bowl of water to the bottom shelf, which keeps it in the 'wet stored' RH range for a while. The RH in my room is usually in the upper 60's to the mid to upper 70's. The only downside to the extended high humidity in the cabinet are the mold mites. I'm not sure if that's what they are called, but they tend to hang out on the cake wrappers and munch away. I have not to this day found any mold, visually or..aromatically.. on my puerh.

With the large cracks, you'd think the humidity would go down quickly, but it doesn't. That room has no a/c hookup in order to keep the room and the tea from drying out.

Hope this helps.

Are storage parameters similar to cigars? It seems that Havana footlockers etc. might be good. I hope so. I have big & small humidors.
Cigars do well 55-75 degrees fahrenheit & humidity from 60-70. Above freezing is most important element for the downside temp. & not > 75 to avoid beetles. W/ humidity there are various opinions & various strategies for types of cigars, but constancy is rewarded by better taste due to better aging. Likewise a lot of variance in temperature is bad. Pu'erh may be less sensitive. How hot can it get, how cold, how much must it be moistenned & how forgiving is it ....?
Pu'erh is new to me, but I have really enjoyed it & have just ordered some (but not big cakes). I just stopped smoking cigars this Spring & as I sell my large inventory (slowly unfortunately) will have more & more humidors.
Will the humidors be good storage for the pu'erh?

ethan wrote:Are storage parameters similar to cigars? It seems that Havana footlockers etc. might be good. I hope so. I have big & small humidors.
Cigars do well 55-75 degrees fahrenheit & humidity from 60-70. Above freezing is most important element for the downside temp. & not > 75 to avoid beetles. W/ humidity there are various opinions & various strategies for types of cigars, but constancy is rewarded by better taste due to better aging. Likewise a lot of variance in temperature is bad. Pu'erh may be less sensitive. How hot can it get, how cold, how much must it be moistenned & how forgiving is it ....?
Pu'erh is new to me, but I have really enjoyed it & have just ordered some (but not big cakes). I just stopped smoking cigars this Spring & as I sell my large inventory (slowly unfortunately) will have more & more humidors.
Will the humidors be good storage for the pu'erh?

The parameters can be similar, but your cigar humidors are probably not good at all for pu'erh. You want an un-scented wood, which cigar humidors are usually not (plus there would probably be residual tobacco aromas) -- unless if you *want* your pu'erh to smell like the wood....

Those of us who have dedicated cabinets (or have fashioned our own) make sure the smell is as neutral as possible.

ethan wrote:Are storage parameters similar to cigars? It seems that Havana footlockers etc. might be good. I hope so. I have big & small humidors.
Cigars do well 55-75 degrees fahrenheit & humidity from 60-70. Above freezing is most important element for the downside temp. & not > 75 to avoid beetles. W/ humidity there are various opinions & various strategies for types of cigars, but constancy is rewarded by better taste due to better aging. Likewise a lot of variance in temperature is bad. Pu'erh may be less sensitive. How hot can it get, how cold, how much must it be moistenned & how forgiving is it ....?
Pu'erh is new to me, but I have really enjoyed it & have just ordered some (but not big cakes). I just stopped smoking cigars this Spring & as I sell my large inventory (slowly unfortunately) will have more & more humidors.
Will the humidors be good storage for the pu'erh?

Let me know what kind of cigar inventory you have for sale... I might be tamped Welcome to TC ~ T

Drax, Thanks. The aroma of Spanish Cedar--yes; to drink that flavor--I think not.
Tim, PM sent re: cigars--- see your intesest in Yixing. Just ordered my first two.
Sounds like if one managed to store & age cigars well, then the Pu-erh should not be a problem for him.

ethan wrote:Drax, Thanks. The aroma of Spanish Cedar--yes; to drink that flavor--I think not.
Tim, PM sent re: cigars--- see your intesest in Yixing. Just ordered my first two.
Sounds like if one managed to store & age cigars well, then the Pu-erh should not be a problem for him.

Puerh storage is like kindergardener, compare to good aging cigar.
Paring them is fun:
http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=17109