Smart Storage of Puerh

[bambooforest]

I've ordered a few cakes of puerh, and have just gotten into this tea genre.

I will never own enough cakes where aging becomes the intent. I will only own enough for around a year of consumption at any given time.

I've done significant research on storing puerh and the sad thing is that nobody agrees on anything.

My greatest concerns are preventing mold, and maintaining the taste, and qi of the tea.

I've heard stories of people storing purerh only for its flavor to drop off in 6 month's time. That's not something I desire in my experience.

Currently, I'm leaning towards keeping my cakes in ziplock bags. Does doing so prevent mold? Everyone seems to talk about the necessity for ventilation, so then how can keeping cakes in ziplocks prevent mold if ziplocks by definition minimize ventilation.

Would just like to get people's opinions on this. I live in Central Florida which is very humid. From what I've read, my gut tells me I prefer dry storage over more humid storage.

[theredbaron]

Storage for one year even in a hot and humid climate will make not much difference, just taking a bit of the harshness off.
But this climate is ideal for long term storage. People do not store Pu Erh for the flavor to drop off, but for the tea to change and to mature into something wonderful. In your climate tea will see first major changes after 3 to 5 years, and will be lovely after 10 to 12 years, and the more the better.
I would strongly suggest to buy a few cakes extra once a while just for long term storage. You will appreciate it in a decade. I did when i started, and have now some great teas i can enjoy, but could never afford to buy that old.

In your case i would suggest not to use ziplock bags, but in their original wrappers. Just keep it out of the sun, in a place with moderate airflow, not in an air conditioned room, and away from strong smells (such as kitchen smells).

[BioHorn]

I've ordered a few cakes of puerh, and have just gotten into this tea genre.

I will never own enough cakes where aging becomes the intent. I will only own enough for around a year of consumption at any given time.

I've done significant research on storing puerh and the sad thing is that nobody agrees on anything.

My greatest concerns are preventing mold, and maintaining the taste, and qi of the tea.

I've heard stories of people storing purerh only for its flavor to drop off in 6 month's time. That's not something I desire in my experience.

Currently, I'm leaning towards keeping my cakes in ziplock bags. Does doing so prevent mold? Everyone seems to talk about the necessity for ventilation, so then how can keeping cakes in ziplocks prevent mold if ziplocks by definition minimize ventilation.

Would just like to get people's opinions on this. I live in Central Florida which is very humid. From what I've read, my gut tells me I prefer dry storage over more humid storage.

Congratulations! You live in probably one of the best sheng pu storage climates in the country (Houston/S Louisiana also come to mind.)

Many of us more northern pu-people resort to bags and humditiy packs and refrigerators and the likes to keep our pu from drying to an unpleasant crisp.

Per RedBaron's nice response, using ziplock bag in FL would most likely be a recipe for disaster.

You could probably rent out pu storage space for the rest of us!
God luck and let us know how it goes in a few years.

[wyardley]

I've heard stories of people storing purerh only for its flavor to drop off in 6 month's time. That's not something I desire in my experience.

Tea is going to go through awkward phases. "aging" in the sense that we're talking about with pu'er, takes place over a pretty long time frame. Like stocks, you should try to forget about it for a while, maybe checking in on it, but without too many value judgements.

If you want something to enjoy drinking in the meantime, focus on buying smaller amounts of older pu'er, or drink some ripe pu'er or oolong.

Natural storage (in someone's house) in humid parts of the us is not likely to result in unpleasant storage tastes IMHO. I would not recommend vaccuum sealing or bagging up your tea.

[miig]

Well, I am bagging my tea in ziploc bags, but not vaccum-sealing them.

BUT: I live in an area where it is quite dry, so mold is not a danger here, unless one adds humidity. And, I don't expect the teas to mature, just to stay the way they are.
Its just because humidifying the tea would be too much effort for me and I'm not willing to take the risk. If I were to live in a more humid climate, that'd be great, then I'd just put them into crocks and hope for some additional ageing.

[.m.]

I'm also keeping my cakes in zip-lock bags. I'm living in France now, so the concern is mainly to preserve the tea and keep it from drying up. I'm drinking the younger stuff, and hope for good preservation/slow ageing on the older teas (which have already cca 10years of SE asian storage).
My feeling is that the zip-lock bags are a bit permeable both for aromatics and vapor. - Maybe somebody could shed more light on this???
This makes me think that in the long term if simply left on the shelf they could still completely dry up.
Therefore I keep the bagged tea in a bucket with a little bit of water at the bottom and covered with just a towel on top. The zip-lock provides also some protection from external mold infestation. I know this is still a recipe for a potential disaster, and i'm not recommending that to anybody. But so far so good.
In general I'm not very happy to keep the tea in plastic bags. I'm a bit worried it may slowly decompose over time, leaving me with tea tasting like a plastic, but don't have a better solution now.
Anyways, it is all an experiment, and i don't have any particularly expensive cakes to be too much worried about. And im not at the point of investing to more sophisticated storage solutions.

[.m.]

but if i lived in Florida, i would'nt be worried about the tea drying up. cheers

[alix]

I live in Italy in a place where moutaint enter in a sea.
There are umidity...not like Florida but a lit bit...
I know people put the cake in a cardboard box under the bed.

Other people put the cake in a clay jar...

I'm buying young raw puerh but I drink all because I have fear to umidity and bad conservation!

[Tead Off]

I'm also keeping my cakes in zip-lock bags. I'm living in France now, so the concern is mainly to preserve the tea and keep it from drying up. I'm drinking the younger stuff, and hope for good preservation/slow ageing on the older teas (which have already cca 10years of SE asian storage).
My feeling is that the zip-lock bags are a bit permeable both for aromatics and vapor. - Maybe somebody could shed more light on this???
This makes me think that in the long term if simply left on the shelf they could still completely dry up.
Therefore I keep the bagged tea in a bucket with a little bit of water at the bottom and covered with just a towel on top. The zip-lock provides also some protection from external mold infestation. I know this is still a recipe for a potential disaster, and i'm not recommending that to anybody. But so far so good.
In general I'm not very happy to keep the tea in plastic bags. I'm a bit worried it may slowly decompose over time, leaving me with tea tasting like a plastic, but don't have a better solution now.
Anyways, it is all an experiment, and i don't have any particularly expensive cakes to be too much worried about. And im not at the point of investing to more sophisticated storage solutions.

There are food grade plastic bags and locking bags that you should use.
Do you use a hygrometer to measure humidity? Essential.
Unless you live in a desert, it's hard to imagine puerh drying out. France is not a desert, even in the Mediterranean areas. But, humidity is a necessary factor for successful puerh aging. Sometimes when it is particularly dry, Rh 40's, I will introduce a bowl of water into the storage area, but always outside of the boxes that I keep them in.

[.m.]

There are food grade plastic bags and locking bags that you should use.
Do you use a hygrometer to measure humidity? Essential.
Unless you live in a desert, it's hard to imagine puerh drying out. France is not a desert, even in the Mediterranean areas. But, humidity is a necessary factor for successful puerh aging. Sometimes when it is particularly dry, Rh 40's, I will introduce a bowl of water into the storage area, but always outside of the boxes that I keep them in.

The building one lives in is as much important as the geographic location. I moved 3 times during the last year and half (it wasn't because of puerh storage). the first place, a ground floor of an old stone building, was so wet that a salt on the table would liquefy in couple of days, things would start to mold just by themselves. Very bad for health too. Moved to one of the modern concrete buildings in the same town; the place was so crazy dry. That's when i've put the cakes in the bucket. Now, at the latest apartment the humidity seems very reasonable. Time to dry up the bowl of water. I should still get a hygrometer.

[Tead Off]

The building one lives in is as much important as the geographic location.

So true!

[bambooforest]

So, I live in a humid environment (central Florida).

I can't put my cakes in a cabinet because the only cabinet space I have is in the kitchen, and I don't want the added moisture from that environment.

So I'm down to basically two kinds of storage options:

plastic bins, or ohio stoneware crocs.

Of the above, and considering I'm in a humid climate, which is better? One thing I never want to contend with is mold.

[Tead Off]

So, I live in a humid environment (central Florida).

I can't put my cakes in a cabinet because the only cabinet space I have is in the kitchen, and I don't want the added moisture from that environment.

So I'm down to basically two kinds of storage options:

plastic bins, or ohio stoneware crocs.

Of the above, and considering I'm in a humid climate, which is better? One thing I never want to contend with is mold.

Have you measured the RH in your place? That would be the first step.

[bambooforest]

Have you measured the RH in your place? That would be the first step.

I got my hygrometer in the mail today. It's been staying above 70% RH - the highest it has hit so far is 76% RH.

I would love to buy some clay pots to put the cakes in, since I think they breath unlike stoneware, but I haven't found any place to purchase something like that. If anyone knows where I could purchase clay pots to store puerh, please let me know.

So, yeah, right now its between Ohio Stoneware crocks, and simple plastic bins. Neither are air tight and will allow some air exchange. And, as said before, a significant concern is mold. I hate the idea of a cake getting ruined.

[Tead Off]

I would think that living in Florida, you would have aircon or some kind of cooling system like a swamp cooler. Simple cardboard boxes (untreated, if possible), in a living space with air control, should be okay if monitored. IIRC, Teaism told me he stores his tea in his living room in Singapore. I would imagine the aircon is turned on and off as he needs it. He also keeps his cakes in sealed, ziplocked bags.