Puerh humidity - How low is too low?
I’ve read a couple places online that if puerh gets too dry, it can dry out, effectively ruining the tea. At what level of humidity does this become a concern?
I get that lower humidity will cause a tea to age slower/not at all, but what level of humidity will risk ruining the tea? Or is it impossible to permanently ruin it through low humidity?
Thanks, bearers of puerh knowledge!
The jury is still out on that front. There are some who say the natural humidity of some place like New York where I live is so low as to ruin tea. I have not found that to be the case with shou. I have revisited some shou that I have stored here for more than two years and it was fine. I have not revisited my sheng to check on that yet. Some believe that dry storage will ruin tea but I don’t agree because I actually prefer tea I buy that has been dry stored. I don’t find that tea I’ve bought that has been dry stored for years to be ruined. If anything I think it is superior to true humid stored tea that always picks up the storage taste of wet wood. This is one of those subjects that you will get a different answer from every person who stores puerh though. If you have enough cakes to warrant it you can build a pumidor. It is quite simple, a mini fridge and a cigar humidifier is basically all you need.
I do plan on putting a pumidor together at some point. Just have to find me a mini-fridge. Hoping I don’t have to buy a new one lol.
What kind of humidifier do you have/use? Have you got a link to it or anything? Thanks.
Bought mine on EBay. More or less this one.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/CIGAR-OASIS-Plus-Electric-Electronic-Humidifier-Free-Cartridge-Shipping-/131535662197
I have been told by people with much more experience than me that keeping the humidity above 50% is fine in terms of the tea not getting ruined by drying out. My understanding is that the higher the humidity, the more likely the tea will change (ie: age) but then with higher levels of humidity, there’s always the danger of mold. I keep my cakes in crocks because I live in a climate that is humid most of the year; in winter I add boveda packs and bowls of distilled water to my makeshift pumidor, which keeps it from dropping below 50%.
Interestingly, we had a warm day yesterday and pretty much constant rain and my pumidor was at about 75%. The sun came out and the temperature dropped into the 50’s today; I just checked the pumidor now, and in less than 24 hours the humidity dropped to 53%. I have no idea what if any effect that will have on the cakes, but hopefully the crocks have kept them relatively stable.
I think I remember hearing that Boveda packs are the ones that give off ammonia but I’m not 100% certain.
Yeah, I read some Teachat threads about it, and it seems that a lot of folks use them without a problem.
I live in Boston and keep my pu in crocks with the Bovedas. I have done this for about a year now. What really got me to get serious about storing my tea with increased humidity is I had two shous that started to become REALLY sour. Gross sour. I thought they were done for. I bought the Bovedas, threw them in two crocks; one with each type of pu. I posted to the puehr subreddit and twodog from white2tea said he thought the sour teas should be salvageable after a substantial period in higher humidity. Broke the sour teas out a month ago. Smooth as silk. No sourness at all. I’m not sure what our average humidity is here in Boston but I know that I’m gonna go with the higher humidity going forward.
I’m not sure I buy the Bovedas and ammonia thing. I’ve heard that as well, but I think it was just someone on tea chat who theorized that this would happen. I have yet to hear of this actually happening to anyone. Ammonia is a pretty strong smell and I have yet to get a whiff of anything. I think if you pay attention to them and replace them at the first hint of an off smell, they will be fine. They’ve been great for me. I refresh them by putting them on top a jar in a closed container with water, so it can reabsorb the water without getting wet. Been cycling them for quite a while.
It gets down to 40% in Kunming, and ages there, so that’s fine at least part of the year…
The average annual humidity at my location is around 65% and it drops to the 40’s in peak summer. I leave damp towels and stuff near the pu storage to keep them at >50%, but if they are OK for a short spell at 40+%, maybe I needn’t bother…
I do try to keep my cabinet above 50%, I use jars of water. That said, I’m only “aging” a handful of cakes and most I just drink. Prefer dry storage anyway. If it drops too low I turn on the humidifier.
One thing about Kunming’s humidity is that people storing tea there are likely holding a lot in a relatively small space, which can help maintain a higher humidity.
I’ve noticed that even though it’s about 35% RH lately in one room in KM, a room on the opposite side of the house, full of puer only, has been consistently holding steady at 70%. Now, I don’t imagine everyone has enough puer to fill a room, nor a whole room to spare just for puer, but it’s a good example of keeping a lot of tea in a semi-enclosed area to maintain humidity (like a cabinet, pumidor, etc),
@aardvarkcheeselog Yeah, it definitely does. There can be some surprises though. I think humidity is less of a problem than the fact that temperature goes down for a few months in the winter. There are ways to keep humidity up, but it’s harder to heat a room full of tea safely. Still, there can be a trade off of preserved fragrance and high notes for slower change. A matter of personal taste, IMO.
My altitude is half that of Kunming, so it is warmer here and slightly less humid, especially in summer. I guess it is quite ideal for storage except for a couple of months of summer when the humidity really drops. The pu is stored in cool dark shelves with wet towels over damp terracotta clay keeping them over 50% in mid summer.
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