How long will AIRTIGHT UNOPENED tea remain fresh?
Hey everyone,
I made quite a big tea order a few months ago. Because of this I still have a few unopened teas, in particular green tea and tie guan yin.
How long would these air tight (and in the case of tie guan yin, vacuum packaged) remain fresh? How long before they go stale and are merely a ghost of what they were?
Please share what you know; not just for green tea and tie guan yin, but others too.
While I can’t speculate on an exact time vacuum sealed tea will last much longer. The general rule of thumb for a tea stored in an air tight tin is one year for a black tea, perhaps less for green or green oolong tea.
I was really disappointed a while ago with a vacuum sealed bag of 4-year-old 1st flush Darjeeling. This was one of those lumpy bags with the air sucked out, so I thought it would last forever. It wasn’t bad, but had lost that special something you get from 1st flush.
I think even vacuum sealed teas will lose a little something over time.
I bought tea last year from that spring’s harvest which was outstanding. About a year later I re-ordered the same tea from the same batch and I could tell it had faded a bit. Even though it was properly vacuum sealed and tasted good, the flavor wasn’t as robust anymore.
Depends on the tea and what you consider fresh – for vacuum sealed green teas/greener oolongs, I usually find about 6 months to be the limit before they lose some of their finer notes.
If it’s vacuum sealed, stick it in the fridge. It’ll stay fresh for a few years that way. Is the TGY the green stuff or is it medium or high roasted? Oxidation level?
I drank a relatively high-fired charcoal-roasted TGY from a Hong Kong family last night. I’ve had it stored in a steel canister for three or four years. Still a pleasure to drink!
What if there are smells in the fridge? Will the tea remain 100% unaffected by it if its sealed airtight or vacuum?
Also, I wondered before, what if there is a very tiny amount of moisture within the tea itself? Won’t it condensate in the fridge and ruin the tea? Or is this a silly thing to worry about?
Depends on the packaging, but vacuum-packed tea is often in metallized plastic, which ought to be pretty impermeable to fridge smells.
The moisture in the tea is more of an issue with freezer storage, because it will eventually crystallize as the tea freeze-dries.
White tea, just like raw pu’erh, the longer it stored, the richer and mellower it will be, it also known as “one-year tea, three-year medicine, seven-year treasure” (一年茶、三年药、七年宝). Most of the aged white teas we buy from the market or tea shop are 5-6 years old. If you have one for more than 10 or 20 years, that means you have an extremely valuable collection.
I know this is said about white tea, but fresh white tea is so darn good! I feel like this is just good marketing for old tea that would otherwise have been unsaleable! :D
I think this also depends on our personal preference. Whatever fresh or aged white tea, the more important thing is that we truly enjoy it and appreciate the health benefits it brings.
Some white tea does seem to improve over time. I find good quality silver needles taste better after about a year. Others though just go stale if you let them sit.
yes, I just tasted 2015 and 2016 silver needles white teas, and the aged one seems more delicious and complex than newly one!
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