shelf life

[teachat]

I was wondering how long green tea will last when stored in at room temperature? How does the shelf life differ between tea in a bag, and leaves?

Ponderer

[teachat]

umm....not to sure about that last question. But Whole leafs of tea ( green) should last ( for decent quality and flavor) about a year. Some types maby a little less...or a little longer. But i know black tea's and oolongs will lastmuch longer then green. While Pu-erh ...lol The Sky is the limits

Master-S.T-

[teachat]

Have you done a shelf life study on Green Tea . Give me the analytical results variation

Rangika Wijesuriya

[aridelros@yahoo.com]

To prolong shelf life of tea, stock in your freezer. Typically, the colder the temp, the more sluggish the growth of microorganisms.

[chris]

Thanks for the post.

Tea is best kept fresh by putting in a dark and dry, sealed in a closed bag until using (and then kept as close to sealed as possible). This should keep the tea fresh up to one year (a little less for green and white teas). We do not recommend putting in the freezer, in that it will add moisture to the tea leaves, greatly reducing the flavor.

Hope this helps,

Chris
Adagio Maestro

[PeteVu]

Thanks for the post.

Tea is best kept fresh by putting in a dark and dry, sealed in a closed bag until using (and then kept as close to sealed as possible). This should keep the tea fresh up to one year (a little less for green and white teas). We do not recommend putting in the freezer, in that it will add moisture to the tea leaves, greatly reducing the flavor.

Hope this helps,

Chris
Adagio Maestro

i learned that one the hard way. I bought my favorite tea in bulk to save on shipping and froze half. after thawing i found out all i had was colored water. =(

[cha cha]

If you open the bag of the tea, you'd better drink it as soon as you can. Because the green tea will not last for long. But you can still keep it in the fridge. First put the loose tea into a bag and then put the bag into a iron box to prevent the smell of the fridge.
It is not true that the lower temperture, the longer the shelf will be. Because the low temperture will kill the smell of the green tea. Hope you will get something.

[Ric]

i learned that one the hard way. I bought my favorite tea in bulk to save on shipping and froze half. after thawing i found out all i had was colored water. =(

Oh my, that must have been one big disappointment!

[cha cha]

I mean that the tea is put into the fridge where you put the milk or someting else, not the freezer where you put the meat. In China, many tea merchants will also do this to keep the tea fresh.

[SpankTanker]

Dont listen to this guy Chris..he a SpankTanker from the book world who messed with kid's heads for a half hr a week.

[auhckw]

5 years old thread revived

[Oni]

When you buy fresh green tea, that is in the spring season, to summer season, I was a bit worried, that even when you put your open bags in a proper container, and keep it in a cool dry place, away from moisture and sunlight, you cannot control the temperature in your room, if it rises above 24 C in your drawer, sometimes in my house in July there can be 30 C, that is an improper temperature for keeping tea, putting it in a freezer, specially open bags is not advised, it will surely ruin the tea because of the condensation build up, so some people figured out a solution to this problem, you put your unopened teas to a wine cooler, those come in small sizes, some are made for only a few bottles, so that is not too large, but more than enough for all your teas, it keeps the tea between 12 - 18 C depending on your settings, you should not move tea in an out of this place, but it will help keep your tea at a constant temperature, ideal for long time storage, and if you decide to open a bag, use it up within a month, this way you can buy all your green teas that you will consume the whole year and keep it there at optimum storage conditions, maybe even better than most of the online vendors tea storing methods.

P.S. A suggestion is to buy tea from teaspring and order them in 50 gram bags, you order a lot and use it up this way, for example if you fall in love with some Long Jing, buy 8 packs of 50 g, and use it all year long so you will never run out of your favourite tea, and beside that you can buy other types as well, because the fun comes while exploring diffrent teas.

[Uji]

Thanks for the post.

Tea is best kept fresh by putting in a dark and dry, sealed in a closed bag until using (and then kept as close to sealed as possible). This should keep the tea fresh up to one year (a little less for green and white teas). We do not recommend putting in the freezer, in that it will add moisture to the tea leaves, greatly reducing the flavor.

Hope this helps,

Chris
Adagio Maestro

Tea is most certainly kept fresh in the freezer as long as it is in vacuum sealed bags. OPEN bags can not be kept in the freezer for the reasons mentioned. Once opened, cherry bark and air tight ceramic containers work well in cool dry environments for less than one month. I have been freezing 100g vacuum bags of sencha for my whole tea life and never experienced any taste degradation.