Babble said

How do you store your samples?

There’s been a bit of discussion about tea storage on the forums lately, and I was wondering, when you get samples from swaps and such, how do you store them? Do you keep them in a plastic bag? Do you move them to another container? And then what do you do with those samples? Do you put them in a box?

I keep my samples in the bag for the most part, and I lay them all out on my shelves. I know this exposes them to more light, but it also allows me to see them all easier so I can go through with them. I worry if I just throw them all in a box all the smells will mingle together AND I’ll forget what I have.

35 Replies
Em said

Mine are all in a box. Probably not the best way to store them. I look forward to seeing what ideas others post.

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Infussion said

I would never put scented tea together with any other tea, unless each was in an airtight container (PP or LD-PE bags aren’t hermetic enough). Keeping unscented tea together is OK.

I’ve got tea deliveries that were completely spoiled by just storing them near jasmine teas in the warehouse.

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Uniquity said

I’ve got oodles of samples, they live in a couple baskets. I leave them in whatever they were sent in and they mingle, there is no other way for me to deal with the volume than that. I like to bring them to work and try to drink them up there, but I only have a cup or two a day at work so it takes ages. I’d love to bust my stash but I can’t bring myself to throw any of it out, so I just keep plugging away at it. :D

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Valerie said

I only have about four or five — so far! So they just sit in my cupboard next to my tins.

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teawade said

I don’t generally do anything special with my samples. Just make sure they’re sealed in some manner ie. rubber band, etc. and store them in a cupboard. I go through them pretty quickly so I guess my method is okay for quick use but if they’re being stored for a long time I’d probably go with a different approach.

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K S said

my puerhs I leave in the sample bag and keep them in a open box. I keep some of the heavier big mylar type pouches I have gotten in the past and put several samples in each. They seem to keep well this way. I keep them mostly separated by company not type. The heavily scented stuff I keep in a separate drawer altogether. I hate losing tea to mingling.

K S said

…And pretty much everything I have is sample size or one ounce and less. 100g goes stale before I can use it all.

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Mine are all in ziploc baggies, most double bagged & then thrown in a basket so I can see them.
Again not the best way, but most convinent, although I do have these plastic stackable pots I got at the dollar store that some are in. And I just found mini jars like my full size ones for some of them.

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I try to keep mine in the tea room in some boxes and drawers but they somehow end up all over the house even in the car, so i guess i don’t really store them very well huh

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Lazey said

There is limited room in the kitchen so I have had to reorganize a lot of my tea.

Foil wrapped teabags like Bigelow Earl Grey and Constant Comment have been put in the same box, I figure the flavors can’t mingle too much. My Celestial Seasoning can’t be mixed so I have the boxes of those neatly stacked in one pile.

Until recently I had all my looseleaf teas in their own ziplock pouches/tins in one box in the kitchen, but not all of it would fit in that box… So I have the pouches of teas I plan on trying in the next couple of days in that box in the kitchen and the rest of the tea stashed in my room. Unopened boxes of teabags are hidden in my room too.

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Barbara said

Great topic! I’ve been stuggeling with exactly the same as I received a number of wonderfull samples in a swap. Today I bought these really cute small glass mason jars.

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For the moment I left the price tags on so I could write the name of the tea on the other side :-) They’re too small for post-its, at least the size I have. The square part (or: the ‘body’) measures 4,5 cm in height. From top to bottom the jars measure about 6 cm. Tomorrow I’m going to look for some blackboard paint (also nice to keep the UV out) or other means of tagging and re-tagging.

The jars containing the lapsang souchong samples are being stored elsewhere and have been wrapped in alu-foil (for the light/UV) untill I’m certain these are airtight.

I love this idea! :)

Barbara said

Thanks!

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