Aging Teas Yourself

[Chip]

Going a bit against the grain ...

First let me say, I am a freshness fanatic, borderline OCD when it comes to tea. I go to extremes to buy the freshest and then maintain the freshest tea possible. I have a TeaFridge dedicated to keeping my greens FRESH.

However ...

Blacks, I had several that were very fresh and too intense, mostly Chinese, Keemun, etc. Ironically, at the time I decided to focus almost completely on greens with a little oolong for variety. The blacks sat and sat, a few years. I came back to them recently and found them to be a bit mellower, but also sweeter and more balanced perhaps.

They were well stored.

Greens, a few greens have amazingly improved with age for me, a few Chinese greens that were again super fresh, and again I feel improved with some well stored aging.

I very recently opened some Sencha Karigane from Hibiki-an. This is perenially my favorite kukicha/karigane when fresh. This was 2007 harvest, so far from fresh anymore, But this was a bit mellower, but it was remarkably sweeter as well, very delicious.

Kuradashi Gyokuro is of course "traditionally aged" gyokuro for 1-2 years typically, but even non kuradashi gyokuro is tradtionally aged 6 months or more.

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[wyardley]

This almost sounds like the idea of cooking a puerh to simulate aging, and then letting it age naturally. Perhaps the sealing somehow helps the aging process fastest, and then the ceramic helps with unpleasant odors, which makes sense to me given the nature of ceramics and the usual shapes of the jars.

It's exactly the opposite of the ripening process for shu pu'er. That's basically controlled composting over a short, defined period of time... giving the tea a lot of moisture / humidity, and covering it with blankets.... artificially simulating the natural aging process.

This is more like providing a normal storage environment, which will make the tea age, undisturbed, very slowly, since there will only be a little bit of oxygen, hopefully very little humidity (with a less roasted tea, putting dessicants in the storage container might be a good idea too), and no circulation of new air. It doesn't accelerate the aging, just makes it harder for sourness and such to develop, and means that you can age the tea longer without re-roasting.

For a high-fired Da Hong Pao, I wouldn't think you'd need to be as careful about storage as with Dancong, (I've heard of people aging high-fired yan cha in paper bags or other not-that-well-sealed containers), but the places in Wuyishan I've seen do seem to age their yan cha in pretty well sealed containers. As far as I've seen, which is pretty limited, they seem to use those old school lead / tin containers with a small top opening and a double-lid.

I personally like to hedge my bets a little, and try using different types of containers to see what works and what doesn't.

The modern cheap stainless-steel type canisters never seem to be super well sealed to me, and they seem to impart a slight metallic taste to the tea... I have had better luck with various types of ceramic canisters.

My plan was to buy sealed and just keep it.

That should work provided the vendor's bags are thick and don't smell bad, and that they're not vacuum sealed. While tea that's aging shouldn't have much extra room in the container, it also shouldn't be a complete vacuum.

[Janine]

Thanks Chip and wyardley for your replies. Sorry I have not been around, I have been traveling, jet-lagged and just too &*%# busy.

Chip, you mention that the teas you wrote about were well-stored. Could you please elaborate a little on what you mean by that? Do you mean air-tight? Or in tea tins? etc.

wyardley, thanks for your take on the process of aging that xuancheng was describing. I think I have a sympathetic feel that ceramics might make the best bet in terms of imparting smell or taste and at the same time conditions of aeration (if that's the word I'm looking for). The question of what smells different types of bags or containers would impart is an important one, and hard to answer given that one's easiest inclination might be to just leave it in the nicely airtight bag one's been given, especially if you trust the vendor.

I have just returned to San Francisco where I have zillions of little bags or containers full of different teas in various stages of age (by default, not design). I am now going through them bit by bit tasting. I think the comments on aging creating a sweeter sort of mellowness, and evening out the sour or smokey notes have been helpful. I'm especially intrigued to taste some of my light & medium roasted teas here that I would have suspected needed absolute freshness but have been in my cabinet for a couple of years. I'm getting good body in terms of multi-steeps, and a nice sort of nutty flavor accompanying the greeniness that is still there. It's interesting to open your palate to tastes and consider them in a different light - previously I may simply have written things off as "not the freshest" and yet I discover they are still very drinkable and pleasing.

I'm also starting to think that while limiting air-exposure is important, that's not nearly as crucial as the impact that light-exposure makes on the tea. I've tasted teas stored in glass containers in a glass cabinet for only about 6 months and they become undrinkable for me.

Thanks to everyone for sharing your experiences, it's kind of opened up a whole field of possibilities for me of new things to taste. I'd love to hear more.