Puerh Cake Storage

strange as it may be: i store mine in the meter cupboard in the hall way.
cupboard has ventilation, it’s dry & clean, and far away from the kitchen. I store 3 sheng cakes.
keep the cakes as i got them, in paper wrap.
probably wrong, but i don’t keep the cakes for aging; I drink them young (1-2 years).
when i want an old pu, i buy an aged one (sheng or shu)
Aging pu ehr is futile in the part of the world I live in anyway. (I think).

Search the topic “pumidor”. Here is a link Insnce&tea and I both built.http://www.flickr.com/photos/93298157@N02/8483713990/sizes/l/in/photostream/

A cardboard box away from anything smelly is the basic setup, and what I’m using right now.

A small cabinet would work nicely too, as long as it doesn’t have any wood or paint smell.

For the hardcore folks, especially if you live in a dry area and intend on long term aging, a pu’midor is where its at.

I’m hoping to make a pumidor at some point, but I’m lucky enough to live in Orlando with an average humidity around 70%, so I’m not in too much of a hurry :)

I would recommend an open area with some humidity (atleast 60%). You want to avoid enclosed areas to guarantee the puerh is exposed to fresh air without odours! :) Oh, and the area should be dark :)

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a275/biglagoon/P1080178_zps5541ae3b.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a275/biglagoon/P1080179_zps32d07e38.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a275/biglagoon/P1080180_zps12bad05c.jpg
These are three pictures of my puerh storage. The first shows the desk originally owned by my grandfather in which I store both sheng and shu puerh. Some of my teapots and teacups are stored on the top. The second and third pictures show the puerh stored in a variety of containers (mostly recycled salad containers from Costco). The drawer holds more cakes and samples in a variety of containers. Humidity is quite high here where I live within a few hundred feet of the Pacific Ocean. The puerh is kept in the dark. This desk is in our living room, and I’m slightly concerned about temperature, but it never really gets very warm here on the far north coast of California, but our wood burning stove is on the opposite wall, so I think temperature is a touch higher than I’d prefer. So far (after three years) the puerh seems to be aging nicely.

Javan that is a cool set up! Now if I can get your addy to sneak some out…..hhhmmm.

I have 2 cardboard storage boxes, the kind you put together yourself to store files in. I keep the shengs in one & the shu’s in the other, all in their original wrappers, in my office on the 2nd floor (away from the kitchen. I alternate through drinking them, so the boxes get opened regularly, & they get shifted around a bit. I’m probably doing it the wrong way, LOL, but tea is meant for drinking, & although I hope to drink from some of these for a long time, I don’t plan on creating a fancy setup.

This is a pretty old thread, but was wondering how those salad containers have worked out for you Javan? I’m thinking about using a couple old coolers to hold my tea. I’ve decided not to try and store too much puerh as my house is not conducive to proper humidity or heat and the wife isn’t excited about a full sized fridge for my tea…. But, storing my long term cakes in coolers at work, in the shop, it’s is warm and could be humidified. The coolers are older so should be de-gassed by now? The plastics in a cooler would be similar to plastic in a refrigerator as well right? Was thinking of opening them every couple weeks to rotate and aerate. I know there are wildly differing opinions on this topic. But haven’t seen a thread specific to coolers in my searches. Any thoughts on using Igloo style coolers? Thanks!

Ah I see Mrmopar..“food safe”. Ok. Time to peruse through craigslist. Makes sense, right now I am thinking about saving just 3 or 4 raw cakes and a small stack of ripes. Otherwise planning to drink it now. Though I can see how that plan might change when the right deals come along ;)