The best tea storage ideas – How to store tea properly?

Nowadays, tea has been an elegant drink for people all over the world. With a variety of types, flavors, tastes, and colors, tea is more and more consumed widely. However, not at all know about “How to store tea properly to get the best tea flavor”. The proper storage of tea is of the utmost importance, as tea that is improperly stored will go stale or rancid much faster, or can accumulate impurities that both alter the flavor and aroma and can also harm the body. Therefore it is very important to learn how to properly store your teas so that they remain as fresh, clean, and flavorful as possible. Today, Vihaba would love to give you the best tea storage ideas to keep a cup of quality tea.

A brief tea overview

Tea has been consumed by humans for thousands of years, popular all over the world.  Depending on how this plant is picked, processed, and stored, will determine the type of tea. This is how we get green, black, red, oolong, white, and yellow tea all from the same plant.

There are many health benefits to drinking tea. It’s full of antioxidants that have a wide range of protective actions on their own. On top of this, tea contains tannins, L-theanine, caffeine, vitamins & minerals, and polyphenols. All of these compounds have medicinal benefits to offer in one form or another. 

Because of different processing methods, each kind of tea has its characteristics, which require different proper ways for each type.

Why does the tea deteriorate?

If it is not stored properly, even the best tea will be easily deteriorated, turning into a dark color, stale taste, even mildew, which is essentially caused by the change of substances in tea. If the tea is exposed to high temperature, humidity, and sunlight, the ingredients in the tea will accelerate the transformation to tea deteriorate in a short time.

The tea deteriorate caused by microorganisms is affected by temperature, moisture, and oxygen, while odor pollution is related to the storage environment. Therefore, the key to the storage of tea is the proper conditions of temperature, humidity, light, and odor, making proper storage methods and good containers essential, which include metal cans, colored glass bottles, and purple clay pots.

Simple rules for tea storage

Tea needs to be kept in airtight containers, in a dark, dry, and cool place. This protects the loose tea leaves from things that can degrade them, such as light, moisture, and heat.

This is especially true for loose teas, which are not protected by any type of packaging that individually wrapped tea bags often have surrounding them.

Further, tea is absorbent. That means when choosing a storage location in your pantry, cupboard, or kitchen, do not place your teas near other strong odors, such as close to your spices.

Tea canisters are ideal. They are food-grade with a tight-fitting lid, easy to use, easy to clean. And as you can see they stay true to the objective – no light, no air and no moisture.

Tea storage conditions to avoid

Avoiding just five storage conditions will make a huge difference in the shelf life of your tea. These factors are light, heat, moisture, odor, and air. 

• Sunlight can quickly degrade your teas by destroying Vitamin C in leaves, darkening tea liquid, and bittering the taste
• High air temperature can speed up the rate of deterioration by decreasing the nutrient content and results in bad taste. So, avoid placing it in the sun or lamplight or place it near heat sources, like stoves and ovens 
• Just like desiccants, tea absorbs water from the air easily. Tea leaves with a higher level of water content are much more microorganism activities.
• Odor is something that tea absorbs very easily. That means shouldn’t store your tea near a spice cabinet, trashcan, or another source of the odor
• Exposure of the tea to air can be harmful to tea flavor as it increases the chances of absorbing moisture and odors. So, you’d better use a clean and airtight container to store them.

How to Store Tea Properly

Avoiding the five ‘tea killers’ above means you’ll have to consider the location, packaging material, tea bag and packaging mechanism you’re using to store your tea. Here are the best proper way for each:

• Store far away from anything with a strong odor.
• Store in a dark canister or completely opaque container.
• Keep delicate teas separate from strongly scented teas.
• Don’t store tea in humid areas of your kitchen and house

How different are green and black tea stored?

Green tea

Compared with other types of tea, green tea is easily oxidized and deteriorates dry loose tea leaves, prone to lose original color and unique aroma. Since low temperature can effectively reduce the oxidation reaction rate and maintain the freshness of tea, thus low-temperature storage is best for green tea. 

The best containers: aluminum foiln tea bag, metal can, store in the refrigerator

Black tea

Black tea has lower water content, easily damping or losing the scent. In the process of storage, different types of tea should not be stored together. Black tea can be placed in a closed and dry container, away from high temperature and sunlight.

The best container: tin can, iron can, ceramic pot, purple clay jar, canister.

Here are some ideas as well as rules to store tea properly. Depending on different types of tea, you need to consider what proper way to store it in tea tins, canisters, boxes, or bags appropriately. However, before applying these tea storage ideas, you need to make sure you buy quality tea so that the preservation process takes place correctly. If you want to purchase quality tea products, you can find more information in the tea category on Vihaba.com. We would love to supply the standard tea to international customers