The best result of aging it is in the entire basket untouched with the wrapping. In years to come, the taste of untouched vs opened will be different.Cammie wrote:I am curious about the best way to store the loose tea that has been placed in the golden packaging and canisters particularly if the intent is to let some of the tea age. Would there be sufficient air present within the sealed golden packaging and/or the canister to age the tea properly? Or would the lack of air flow actually improve the aging process for these smaller quantities of loose tea? Or, because the tea is loose and no longer will benefit from being part of a pressed cake or basket, is the sealed packaging helpful to preserve and protect flavors?
But having loose, it will also change. The end result of aging can be very different depending on how you store it and where you store it. How to store it? You can follow the methods of storing Puerh in your country.
In teashops where they sell opened baskets, they will normally transfer the liu-pao into big urns/jars. Some will just leave it opened without closing. It seems ok for our weather here.
Keeping it sealed will definitely slow down the aging and preserve the flavor. But I don't think that is what you want, unless you like the current flavor and want to slow down the changes.
The golden packaging is not vacuum sealed. I asked her not too, leaving air in it so that it can still change further. If at one point of time you really don't want it to change, you can vacuum sealed it.
Btw, the canister that is provided is made of paper inside and plastic cover. As you know, plastic can have a smell. It is ok for now, since the golden packing is sealed. But once opened, ideally don't use the canister that is provided. Find something that doesn't have smell at all for best result.