Freshness of tea in local shops

[wayneberndz]

Hello to all of you,

I've been reading this reeeally interesting forum for a few days now and I thought it would be time for my first post

I'm relatively new to tea drinking and just trying out all sorts I can get hold of. Up until now, I bought all my tea from local tea shops. I live in Heidelberg, Germany and we've got quite a lot of them. Since visiting Teachat I've decided to order a few teas online and compare to the ones I've got here before.
I'm wondering about the freshness of the teas sold in the local shops. Of course most owners tell me the tea is fresh and from what I read it should be okay for 6-12 months, but depening on the way of storage. Many shops got large "containers" of tea (several kilogram I'd guess) and open them to let the customers smell the aroma. This way lots of oxygen gets onto the tea and I can't imagine most shops to sell the tea in a short period of time - there are seldom many customers inside.

So since I can't really judge the freshness of the tea from my limited experience, my question would be: Is it generally better to buy tea from Asian online vendors, especially those who pack their product in airtight bags? If freshness is such a concern, I'm wondering how so many local tea shops (we got about 6 in our 100.000 people city) can survive. Maybe by capitalizing on the unknowing public

Kind regards from Germany
Christopher

[Pentox]

Judging a local tea shop is always a tough gambit to run. While there is no actual problem to the large containers, it's all a matter of storage and turn around. If for example a store has to refill their containers quite often then there's no problem there. But if they fill it with a year's supply and it sits there, then freshness is a bit more of a concern.

Part of the fun is getting to know your vendors and finding out what their turnaround on some of the tea is like. Things like harvest date are important because of that. A good vendor will tell/show you. And freshness is very dependent upon the type of tea you're talking about as well. Greens tend to stale much easier than blacks for example. So customers smelling a big tin of raspberry black tea is not as much of a concern as say someone wanting to sniff some sencha.

[wayneberndz]

I'm not sure about Sencha and Japanese tea in general, but they sure let me sniff Chinese greens. Buying spring harvested greens in spring or summer of the same year should be okay then, even if they open them quite often?

I'll try some fresh and good greens from trustable online vendors I got from this board, and when my judging skills improve I'll come back to our local vendors for comparison.

Concerning the ideal storage procedure: The vendors who sell airtight packed teas will store their supplies in larger air packed containers (hopefully in a fridge) and only open one after another is emptied, to fill the smaller bags. Something like that? I'm just thinking of the winter months, if getting spring harvested (first grade) teas would be a problem that time of the year.

[sneakers]

...Concerning the ideal storage procedure: The vendors who sell airtight packed teas will store their supplies in larger air packed containers (hopefully in a fridge) and only open one after another is emptied, to fill the smaller bags.

I shop at Silver Tips in NY, near NYC, and that's exactly how they store their overstock. Since this is also a teashop, they can't store their 150 display canisters in the fridge. But the canisters are airtight with sealed bags inside. And yes, I can sniff whatever I want, but their turnover is huge.They're the only tea merchant in a county of 1 million. The owner is also an importer who sells online, so freshness is a priority. I've seen the staff refill canisters from refrigerated sealed bags only when they're empty. I would presume the online orders are filled from equally cared-for stock.

But I have friends in other states who tell me the local tea isn't fresh, so they buy online. I can understand that in a small town far from a major metro area or in a coffee-drinking area.

[woozl]

At Harney's I've had the experience of having a semi-stale green to taste.
I did buy a tin tho, (I remember liking it in the past) Dao Ren Mao Feng
When I got home it was a vac sealed baggie in the tin.
The tea was fab. just as I remebered.
So I think they need to freshen up the sample jar.

[virago_ns]

A good idea that I've seen in several tea shops is a sample jar that's sealed (i.e. small mason jar) that customers can open and smell. The actual product is stored in air tight containers away from sunlight so the tea stays fresh.

[hop_goblin]

Yes, there are some "not so fresh" tea shops.