Kat said

Tea Storage and Tins

Hey all,

First post. Anyway, I have this bad habit of buying tea in bulk, probably more than I can drink at any one time. (Although when I’m in period where I’m drinking a lot of tea, I go through it way faster than should be realistic for a human.)

So I was wondering about tea storage and what everyone does for it. Part of the tea drinking experience for me is opening the tins and having the tea in tins. I don’t know why. I really like Teavana tins, unfortunately, as they are way too expensive, the 8 ounce ones that are round. They have a certain size that works really well for me, and I like everything to be kind of uniform. (God, I sound crazy here.) The dimensions are: 6.5 inches tall and 3.25 inches in diameter. It occurred to me I could look that up.

What do other people do? Also, does anyone know of any cheaper tins that work well? I’d love to support another company, but I strongly dislike the Adagio 8 ounce tins. (I had one come to me broken… and since then, they just feel fragile to me. And even if the tops are UV coated, I just don’t think they will work as well.)

This post sounds really awkward. I’m kind of awkward, especially over the internet at first when I’m learning to interface with a new community. But also, I’m pretty ill and a bit feverish, and I’m sure my writing is whacked right now. I’m sorry about that.

And feel free to add anything else. Also, I hope making this thread isn’t a problem. I went back a few pages to see if there was a current discussion on this topic, but as I said, I’m totally out of it. I hope I’m not being redundant.

22 Replies

You will definitely get lots of replies for this question. Everyone has different and great ways of storing tea depending on your preference.

My preferred (and reasonably affordable) tins come from Annie tea time.
http://www.anniesteatime.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=att&Category_Code=AC-TT

They have several styles, but the round ones with the gavarst lids are the most airtight.

Many people like to purchase from specialtybottle.com. They have various styles of tins for really cheap (but high shipping, so its best for a larger order). I like those tins for shorter term storage, but they aren’t as airtight as my favorites.

Oh, and welcome to Steepster! :D

Some nice tins there and pretty reasonable price too

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ifjuly said

there have been tons of threads on this—I know ’cause I had the exact same sort of concerns when I joined Steepster and had quite a lot of material to sift through on the boards about it, ha. also, welcome!

here’s some threads you might find helpful:
http://steepster.com/discuss/2451-tea-storage?page=4 (of note, Dylan’s comment with linked photo of the Specialty Bottle TWS6 tins wrapped in nice paper similar to pretty but expensive Japanese paper washi canisters, seems like it might be up your alley…)

also similar:
http://www.onestoptins.com/products/details/id/40

the latch canisters from specialty bottle are sized nearly the same as the 8oz teavana tins and are cheaper, at least before shipping (unfortunately shipping from SB is quite expensive, but often the price of the tins is cheap enough to offset that…it just depends): http://www.specialtybottle.com/tintealatchround65highwlatchcover.aspx

rishi tins get recommended too and look kinda like what you want at a cheaper price than $8, but are a bit smaller: http://www.rishi-tea.com/category/tea-storage

http://steepster.com/discuss/2347-tea-storage-help?page=1&post_id=33459

http://steepster.com/discuss/5011-do-any-online-tea-sites-sell-empty-tea-tins?page=1

http://steepster.com/discuss/4125-best-tea-storage-material-bring-your-facts-and-opinions?page=1&post_id=89365

http://steepster.com/discuss/4704-loose-leaf-storage-slash-organizing-ideas?post_id=77608#forum_post_77608

http://steepster.com/discuss/1185-where-to-buy-storage-canisters?post_id=19920#forum_post_19920

http://steepster.com/discuss/5767-storage-of-your-tea-tin-glass-jar-plastic-bag?post_id=101294#forum_post_101294

http://steepster.com/discuss/2003-storage-question?page=1&post_id=29080

i would throw in advice if i had any, but i tend to prefer boxy tins (so i can stack them easily under my low hanging kitchen cupboards) so don’t have much firsthand experience looking for round tins. i will say when airtightness and lightblocking are the most important thing to me, for like my most delicate and precious green teas, say, i haven’t found a better solution in terms of cost effectiveness and fresh-preserving power than appropriately sized canning jars spraypainted on the outside with chalkboard paint (that way i can relabel with ease using color coded chalk markers). but that’s just me; as Shelley_Lorraine notes there’s all kinds of approaches for all kinds of preferences. best of luck!

Those ones at .99 look perfect tho some sort of labelling would help

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Correct. Functionality and airtight.

I’d rather spend the money I save on tea instead. Not sure why there is this obsession of paying silly sums of money for fancy tins, does it make your tea taste better?

ifjuly said

I don’t think .99 for an 8oz tin is expensive at all. Not sure who or what you’re responding to.

More to do with spending money on expensive tins that would do the same job those you found at .99 would do

Uniquity said

I think some people buy ‘fancy tins’ for the aesthetic, and there is nothing wrong with that. To each his/her own.

ifjuly said

Yeah, agreed. Someone posted a fancy canister they’d been dreaming about and finally ordered the other day from AliExpress IIRC and it was stunning. There’s room for beauty and splurges anywhere depending on who you are/what you want. The world would be a boring place indeed without that.

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Lala said

I really like teavivre’s tins. http://www.teavivre.com/double-lidded-silver-tea-tin/

I get a lot of tea tins from used/consignment stores, salvation army, etc. I have a few people in my family on the look out for them. You can usually get some really neat, different tins for very cheap. You just have to make sure the people looking for you know what you want in regard to quality, etc.

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Second hand and charity shops would be great. We’ve several places that sell house clearance goods and return the money back to a homeless charity

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Good question Kat. Cool name by the way.. my mom’s given name is Kitty. :)

As another newbie who is attempting to acquire a small variety, it is good to know where to look for storage solutions.

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I get a bunch of these:
http://www.souviatea.com/store/Teaware/

They’re a store that is local to me, and the tins stack really well. I tend to only get 2 oz of tea at a time, so the smaller tins work well for me. I bought 4 of them last week. :) I know the store uses these HUGE versions of the tins to store tea on their shelves.

I also like the DavidsTEA tins…they were cute and came in different colors…but they are round and don’t stack as well.

I second the DavidsTEA tins, they’re great. I buy a lot of tea from them and it’s so great to get tins for free when buying 100g!

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Uniquity said

I happen to keep much of my tea in Davids tins, just because I have a lot of them on hand. I reuse them with similarly scented teas if there is some leftover smell. They hold up to 100 grams of most tea which tends to be all I have at a time, so it’s perfect for me. I got a couple DIY shelves and I keep them there. Whatever works for you is the way to go.

Dustin said

Looks like the David’s tins are only $2.50! That is a bargain compared to Tevana tins. I bought some square Tevana tins on clearance a while back and when I rinsed them out in preparation of putting tea in them, the water ran out the bottom letting me know that they are not air tight. Airtight is the most important feature to look for in a tin, IMO. Airtight is going to keep the flavors in the tea longer.

Uniquity said

You also get them free at Davids with 100 g purchases. This means I have way too many kicking around from years back. I have bought a couple at $2.50 but most of them are from purchases. Whoops!

Can’t go wrong at 2.50 a tin.

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mars1 select said

I think thermos containers are the best, which I use to store my tea. Air-tight and temperature resistant. Best to find these at thrift store or swap-meets. I got mine for 5 dollars.

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Kat said

Oh, wow, I wasn’t feeling well yesterday, and then had to drag myself out to a poetry reading, and I couldn’t bring myself to check the forum. Now I have a lot of replies I’m likely going to flub up replying to.

I was going to address everyone separately, but I need some time to read through all the information and process it. Thank you so much everyone for the advice and also the welcomes! I’m feeling like all of you guys are awesome.

I would love to find a retailer near me that sells tins. I found some in a .99$ store near my apartment, but they looked like they wouldn’t be airtight, which was unfortunate. I am always digging through thrift shops for old tea tins, but I never succeed in finding any. (Except, weirdly I found one yesterday in this random thrift store near the doctor I was seeing. It used to store Nestle hot chocolate that was the except size I like. I thought that was timely anyway.) But I hate the idea of having to pay for shipping on just tins. I wish more companies allowed you to purchase the tea in tins or add tins on. (It sounds like David’s does this, and that would incentivize me to purchase from the in the future. Or does incentivize me in the future. My grammar has been a mess today.)

I’ve been thinking maybe large glass jars would work if one were to paint the outside with dark opaque paint. (Maybe that chalk board paint, although that sounds a bit too hipster-y Pintrest project to me.) But then I realized I would never use porcelain containers because they are just too heavy, and I suppose glass would have the exact same problem obviously. So I guess it was a pointless thought really. But it could be really inexpensive, as even really large glass jars are cheap, and cute.

I suppose I’ll just keep looking around.

ifjuly said

my experience has been very few tins are really really airtight, but i like that suggestion in an earlier thread to place fat rubber bands around the lid seams. it’s not the prettiest, but doing that would open up a ton of cheap nice options because it’ll make anything a lot tighter.

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