Storing Mao Cha

One of the intentionally aged teas, Pu-Erh has a loyal following.


May 7th, '12, 16:58
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Storing Mao Cha

by kasey » May 7th, '12, 16:58

I recently went insane and bought all the best mao cha I could find for the price and wound up with seven varieties totaling almost a kilo. We all know pu improves with age and I've (mistakenly?) thought that it would age faster if broken up. Now I'm wondering if all this loose tea is going to go flat before I can drink it. It came in the typical foil/plastic stiff bags with the ziplock. Should I just store it in there or (God forbid!) a sealed container? Let it be exposed to air or no? How do they age mao cha to begin with and is there a safe limit? I'm in southern Maryland which gets pretty humid.
Any ideas would be well appreciated.

May 7th, '12, 18:17
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Re: Storing Mao Cha

by G-off-re » May 7th, '12, 18:17

Your still going to have to wait many years for your moacha to be aged. Hopefully you weren't expecting it to change over night. Store it in a paper bag, i do. Not trying to sound like a jerk but you keep asking questions that are easily answered by reading Clouds blog or spending a few minutes reading old post on here.

May 7th, '12, 23:04
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Re: Storing Mao Cha

by kasey » May 7th, '12, 23:04

Thanks Ge-off-re. I bought all that mao cha from Norbu because it was on sale and I assumed that it would age faster than a cake. I'm not a young man and this is an issue for me regarding young budget cakes. But it was in reading an older post today that it occurred to me that it might possibly spoil if exposed to air for a long time. No apologies for being a noob, I just really haven't spent much time roaming this site. I don't have high speed internet which is a pain. I will look up Cloud's blog, though, so thanks.

May 19th, '12, 23:41
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Re: Storing Mao Cha

by bryan_drinks_tea » May 19th, '12, 23:41

Bump.



I just re-inventoried my maocha and it's situation - and I'm using tissue paper to store my current Maocha - the brown paper bag turned a 2007 Yong De tea i had into this wood-pulpy smelling mess. In truth, I think using paper bags might not be the best (no offense G-off-re) - but on the other side of the same coin, I don't know what the best is. Kasey, I'd advise that you try various methods of storage and see what works best.

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Jun 10th, '12, 16:40
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Re: Storing Mao Cha

by TuoChaTea » Jun 10th, '12, 16:40

I store mao cha in closed hard-paper boxes. Hobbes from Half-dipper uses whiskey boxes (the paper box in which the whiskey bottle is hidden). I think mao cha will age properly in big quantities (meaning tens of kilos), so you should try to drink all up before it will go stale.

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Jun 10th, '12, 17:16
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Re: Storing Mao Cha

by gingkoseto » Jun 10th, '12, 17:16

I've had a few 90 and 80s mao cha that's pretty good, maybe not as good as they would have been if they had been compressed (but there is never a way to know for sure), but still heavenly good. So I don't think you need to regret for your purchase. There is indeed a chance that mao chao would go flat with time being, but so could compressed puerh if the tea is not good to begin with.

If the tea is not super expensive, probably you don't have to give them luxurious storage treatment. But for several pounds, I don't think it's hard to do better than paper packs. You may consider getting some big, cheap containers made of stainless steel, ceramics, porcelain etc. If you have to use paper boxes or wood boxes that may have some wood scent, you can consider getting some Yunnan hand made paper and use multiple layers of paper to line up the container. I don't know where to buy Yunnan paper in the States, but you could get them from most puerh sellers on taobao, $1 for about 5 pieces of 357g cake wrapper size.

Jun 17th, '12, 03:01
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Re: Storing Mao Cha

by kasey » Jun 17th, '12, 03:01

Thanks everyone for your input. Mainly for the initial task of sorting and identifying all my pu's which include various bricks, tuos and beengs, I've been storing everything in brown paper bags. But I can see where, eventually humidity may take it's toll on these and possibly corrupt the flavor of the tea. I just received some very nice cotton bags with drawstrings that I found on Ebay that I intend to store my cakes in, but as far as the maocha, even the 2010 varieties I have are quite satisfying and I believe I'll just drink them as is and keep them in the bags they were shipped in rather than try to age them. I hate to lose all that aroma!

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Jun 17th, '12, 09:49
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Re: Storing Mao Cha

by gasninja » Jun 17th, '12, 09:49

I don't know what the Rh is in sommerville but I somehow doubt that you have to worry about humidity "corrupting " your tea. Unless you are artificially elevating. It.

Jun 17th, '12, 22:09
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Re: Storing Mao Cha

by kasey » Jun 17th, '12, 22:09

Actually, gasninja, I was referring to the comment made by Bryan_drinks_te concerning what he referred to as a "wood pulpy" smell from his tea after it had been stored in paper bags which, over time, may have absorbed too much moisture and transferred some paper bag odor to the tea.

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Jun 18th, '12, 00:28
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Re: Storing Mao Cha

by TwoDog2 » Jun 18th, '12, 00:28

kasey wrote:... may have absorbed too much moisture and transferred some paper bag odor to the tea.

I think this goes with a general rule of thumbs for smells. If the smell is strong, it will get leached into the tea. Different papers have different sizings, pulps, materials, and smells. Just smell the paper. If it has a noticeable odor, it will likely be leeched by your tea. If you can not smell it, then any odor the tea leeches will also likely be undetectable.

Also, if you want to go further, but some porcelain or ceramic containers, put the maocha in, and put cheesecloth over the top to keep out stray junk/insects/ghosts. Store where you keep your other tea. (Consider humidity, odors, sunlight, etc)

Aug 1st, '12, 03:25
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Re: Storing Mao Cha

by kasey » Aug 1st, '12, 03:25

I've decided not to let it oxidize. Letting it air will release all the aroma along with the antioxidant power. I'm keeping it fresh in airtight jars. I really like the way this fresh maocha tastes, it reminds me of green tea but it's fuller, maybe rougher, and more bittersweet than sweet.
Definitely has a "healthy" edge to it.

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