Hello from Romania
Hi guys, my name is George, i'm from Romania. A few years ago i started drinking tea after a lifetime of drinking coffee (i still drink coffee, just less). Anyway, i'm an avid researcher of anything that i'm interested in so naturaly after my tea epiphany i started to researching the heck out of it. One of the few things for which i did not find a satisfying answer was about the storage conditions (the general rules are: keep away from moisture, heat, light); but i'm looking at the way tea is kept in the tea stores, in big metalic tins which are opened 10 times a day. I don't think this is a problem for stores with a high turnaround but in countries like Romania where tea is not a popular drink it is a normal thing to sit in those tins for months. I'm talking about high quality loose tea in speciality stores not the tea on supermarket shelves. Long story short, i know that tea unlike coffee does not go stale very quickly because it does not contain as much oils as the coffee bean. But it does contain some and i read somewhere that if tea is exposed to air for large periods of time it becomes to dry and some of the substances in it's composition are denaturated. My question to you: how long till this happens? I'm talking let's say about a 2 kg tin on the shelf of a speciality tea store which does not have a high turnaround and is opened a few times per week. I asked a few vendors from Romania but they were almost all ignorant on the subject. Does the tea lose some of it's health promoting benefits by being kept this way or it looses just some of it's aroma?
Re: Hello from Romania
Hello,
FYI:
1. Loose leaves like green tea, lightly roasted dancong and lightly roasted Taiwan oolongs shuould be kept in the fridge. Shelf life is short. After 6 months or so they'll lose some fragrance and taste but it's not a big deal. After a year you will notice. Better drink before then.
2. Puerh. Keep in a dry place but hot and humid is better as it promotes ageing/fermentation of the tea. Unlimited storage/shelf life.
3. Rest of oolongs and red/black teas store in a dry cool place. Unlimited shelf life.
Hope this helps.
FYI:
1. Loose leaves like green tea, lightly roasted dancong and lightly roasted Taiwan oolongs shuould be kept in the fridge. Shelf life is short. After 6 months or so they'll lose some fragrance and taste but it's not a big deal. After a year you will notice. Better drink before then.
2. Puerh. Keep in a dry place but hot and humid is better as it promotes ageing/fermentation of the tea. Unlimited storage/shelf life.
3. Rest of oolongs and red/black teas store in a dry cool place. Unlimited shelf life.
Hope this helps.