Tea Tins

[Maitre_Tea]

I don't know if this has been asked before, but where are the best sources for tea tins? And maybe while at that, do people buy spice tins to put their tea in? I've been thinking that buying spice tins would be cheaper...but I've been looking and there's been one problem: these spice tins are either glass or are metal tins with a clear cover. I don't want my tea to get damaged from the light, so I'm also looking for metal spice tins that are all metal...thanks guys!

[edkrueger]

Expensive, but wonderful: http://www.tentea.com/teacanisters.html
I have 12 of the 2oz ones and 10 of the 4 oz.

[olivierco]

More expensive, but also wonderful: tea tins from kaikado (some are available at ippodo webstore)



Double lid like this one:

[Pentox]

Do you actually have those oliver?

[olivierco]

I own the one on the second picture and I should order one from ippodo with my next tea order. The only problem is that the one they sell have a "ippodo" seal one it.



Maybe they should be able to sell me one without any seal.

[edkrueger]

Oliverco, I love those tins. However, I could not afford 22 of those.

[Maitre_Tea]

These look really nice, but are kind of pricey...
have people had luck with improvising spice tins?
I've seen some but they have a clear cover which I don't want (light damage and all)

[TeaCompulsion]

For extremely effective but cheap, I'm not sure anyone could beat http://teasource.com/merchant2/merchant ... ct_Count=4

Teasource is my local tea shop, so I have quite a few of those bags, and no scent at all gets through them. Note, though, that the smallest size is useless because it's clear on one side. The other sizes don't have that problem.

As far as other containers go, I'm not sure what to suggest if you need 22 at once. I started collecting tea containers partly because I like them and partly because I like having visually different containers for tea so I'm not checking labels all the time.

Washi tins with a plastic inner lid can be quite nice; I have one of each color of these: http://cgi.ebay.com/BLUE-KYOTO-WASHI-CA ... .m20.l1116

Porcelain tea jars with a good gasket seal also work well, and I've gotten a few nice ones from ebay. It's worth noting though that porcelain tea jars aren't fully lightproof. If you keep them in a cupboard this doesn't matter, but if you have them sitting out it does.

[Chip]

A recent lengthy topic. what do you store your loose tea in ?

[Pentox]

I own the one on the second picture and I should order one from ippodo with my next tea order. The only problem is that the one they sell have a "ippodo" seal one it.

Maybe they should be able to sell me one without any seal.

i actually looked into those a while ago and you can get them without the Ippodo seal on it. I'm failing to remember where, but I believe it might have been directly from Horiado (the company that makes those for Ippodo I believe).

Recently though I picked up one of these from Lupicia



It's a bit cheaper than the ippodo copper ones, but it's a gorgeous stainless steel tin. It's a bit pricey though to have a large number of them at about $33. The quality of it though is outstanding, it's machined such that it has a nearly airtight seal without much force on the lid like i've seen on a lot of double lidded tins. The tops will slowly slide off as air can come into them.

[Trioxin]

I just use some simple three dollar black tins from Rishi. Seem to do just fine. No bad tea yet.

[Salsero]

I just use some simple three dollar black tins from Rishi.

Beautiful layout. I feel like it mirrors the design of your classic cups. Thanks for the photo.

[battra]

I actually have two canisters like those above - they are very nice!

(One for sencha, one for oolong - I usually only have two or three different teas open at the same time.)
I think it will take same time until they get the patina in Oliviers picture though. According to Kaikados website, the copper canister will get a patina like that in one to two years, while you have to wait for 30 to 40 years for the tin plate canister to look like that!

[silverneedles]

TeaCompulsion, i have a couple Qs regarding those bags:

do the bags have any smell to them?

if you fill it with air and squeeze the sides between 2 fingers does air leak out?

[olivierco]

Oliverco, I love those tins. However, I could not afford 22 of those.

I have about 20 tins for all my teas. Most of them are cheap ones. Little by little I replace them by nicer tins. I guess it will take me four or five years to replace all of them.