Tea storage

 Thanks to a new shipment of tea, and a cyber Monday deal, I'm writing about tea storage today. The basics of tea storage are simple. Store tea in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. Tea should not be stored in the refrigerator or the freezer because of the cold, and humidity. Tea should not be stored on the counter, or anywhere near the stove or microwave because of heat exposure. Tea leaves also should not be exposed to sunlight during storage. The tea shops I buy from say that you can store your tea in the package that they sell them in, but those packages don't always work well for storage. 

The large packages of tea consist of a multi-layered bag that is rolled closed at the top which is secured by a heavy plastic strip with wire inside of it. These plastic strips will break before the tea is used up because the bending and unbending of the wire to open and close the package will cause the wire to fail. Plastic zip lock bags are popular. The plastic does sometimes cause static electricity issues with finer tea leaves. Sometimes the sealing strip will also pull loose from the bag. That's my experience with the bags from this particular tea seller. It's also probably why most things come with the other type of packaging. The zip lock bags from my favorite tea shop hold up better, but there is still a more stylish way to store your tea. 

As you can see, I've acquired a variety of different tea storage containers. The green ceramic container came with my tea set, and the round silver tin held matcha. I bought the small square tins to try out, to maybe take tea to work? Then I decided using loose leaf tea at work would be too cumbersome. All of these containers have one level of seal. The ideal tea storage containers have 2 seals, an inner lid, and an outer lid. Enter the tins I found on sale recently. I chose these tins specifically because they had different patterns on the outside, so I wouldn't have to get labels for them (or more accurately, put a piece of masking tape with the name of the tea inside on the outside of the tin). You still need to store these tins away from heat and cold, but they are a nice way to store tea and add some fun to your brewing sessions. Now to decide which teas to store in which tins!