Is blue or amber glass enough to protect my tea?
I’m starting to accumulate a bunch of loose tea in ziplock style bags and my tea bags are just sitting in the box they came in, some aren’t individually wrapped. I don’t trust the ziplocks that the teas came in. They seem puny and are finicky to close properly.
I think its time to get some sort of uniform storage system going on before it becomes a huge project.I was leaning towards buying tins, but I wanted to consider all my options first. So, Is blue or amber glass enough to block out the light or would you go with tins?
No, it needs to be completely light tight. If you really want jars, you can line the inside with foil.
Sorry to disappoint, but yes, to be safe you want to block all sunlight. Also, keep in a cool temp area – not next to a furnace or something like that.
There are some really nice decorated tins out there if you want to have a few out as decoration. I keep all my tins in the cupboard.
It is important for it to be as airtight as possible. If you google articles on tea storage, some of them say that light has not been proven conclusively to be a factor in the decay of FLAVOR, just in color of add-ins like cornflowers and such. Others say light does matter, but not as much as air and cross contamination with other flavors. I would think if you are going to drink a tea pretty fast and it is fairly hardy, you could probably use glass with confidence. Can it be somewhere that not much light will get to it, like in a cabinet? Or will it be in direct sunlight, or just room lighting?
Thanks for the quick replies! I like the look of glass better, but when it comes down to it, I’d rather protect my tea. I don’t go through it very fast. I’ll get tins.
For now I have everything out on the kitchen counter, I haven’t accumulated a huge stash yet. I’m planning on moving it into an empty drawer in my chest of drawers in my bedroom, that way it’ll be out of everyone’s way. Will the seal on the tins, if they fit right, keep out the pine smell? I guess I could invest in a sterilite container to store the tea in after they are in tins and before I put them in the drawer to be extra cautious.
Oh! I don’t think I’d chance putting them in cedar or pine….maybe under your bed? You have to be careful in the kitchen not to put next to food smells.
I never thought about under the bed, I guess that’s doable. as far as kitchen smells go, that’s why I’m moving everything asap, before someone gets the idea to make curry or something. it was different when I only had only invested 10$ or so in the tea sitting on my counter, but now it just isn’t smart.
If the tins are airtight, it probably shouldn’t matter if you store them in pine or cedar. The tins should be designed to keep light/air/scents/thetans out, so the pine scent should also stay out.
That being said, the tin itself will probably smell like pine, on the outside, thus interfering with any pleasure you might get from smelling the tea whilst still within the tin. Shouldn’t impact anything with the brew.
(I’ve recently moved my tea to pine shelving, but it’s not ‘enclosed’ as such)
Login or sign up to leave a comment.