If properly stored, will time affect the taste of tea?
I just moved into a new apartment and this is what my hoard looks like: https://twitter.com/fablefire/status/823363110207561728
I really enjoyed reviewing tea back when I started on Steepster, but adrenal illness put me in decaf land for years. I am just getting back into caffeinated teas again and would love to go back to reviewing. Would it be misleading to review these teas now?
I mean yeah a few (looks like 5 in your case?) years for the sort of teas you have is definitely going to affect how they taste but like we’d still like to read your reviews :) just maybe mention you’re drinking em old
OMG it really has been five, miserable years since I’ve been able to drink tea. I’ll do that then and preface each review with a disclaimer. Thanks! :D
Not at all, just mention their age & how they have been stored- it would be interesting to see which have changed flavours, which have improved, which havent.
Or if you just know what they generally taste like thats fine as well :)
Cool. I’ll put a little disclaimer in the beginning. I’m pretty interested to see how well they all held up. I tend to save and savor my favorites, but if they deteriorate over time then I should totally drink them sooner than later. And buy more. Maybe.
That might be cool to do comparison reviews, to re-review old teas and link the two to specify changes. I always wonder when I’m reviewing teas how much of what I’m saying is an objective take. My guess is not so much, that it’s more about how I relate to a tea, to what I tend to notice in them, and it would be hard to flag how that part might change over time. I was just thinking through this issue about tea aging and storage related to trying some from large-jar storage on a trip, more of a worst-case scenario than setting aside well sealed teas.
For sure. I’m pretty curious how all of them held up over the years. I might have to do an experiment at some point and test various storage methods. I wonder if tastebuds change over time… hmm.
That might be a more interesting question than others relating to tea storage. I’ve kept different kinds of teas around for awhile, not for 5 years, and they seem to change but hold up better than one might expect. If they weren’t well sealed maybe not as much, but then as long as the temperature and relative humidity were pretty moderate maybe even then. I live in Bangkok and teas seem to transition a bit faster here since it’s always so hot, even if the humidity isn’t as much a factor through sealing them. Of course opening and closing packaging exposes teas to more oxygen and humidity, but yours didn’t go through that.
Time and storage will definitely effect the taste of tea. Generally speaking I think you get about two years for blacks, a year at most for most oolongs, and a little less for green teas. By properly stored in this case I mean in an air tight and light tight container. Judging by your photograph most of your tea was not stored in tins or other air tight pouches but much of it in cardboard. While I would try the teas before throwing them out. You may want to pick up a few new teas to remind yourself what a good tea tastes like. Now if any of your teas were puerh, storage is a completely different subject in it’s entirety.
I feel ya bro. I have teas too that have been hoarded for years since my tea interest waxes and wanes. I would still write a review, but just put a disclaimer as you mentioned. I avoid putting a score (unless I REALLY like a tea).
And to make you feel better, here’s a review for a matcha that was over 2 years old and actually ended up tasting pretty good:
http://steepster.com/forkyfork/posts/305135
Unfortunately, the company isn’t around anymore I don’t think, so be prepared that teas you DO like might be hard to find again.
Thanks for the link! That’s already happened a few times. I feel bad when the company has gone out of business. Feels like it’s my fault for not drinking their amazing tea when they were open. XD
Will add the disclaimer. Thanks!
I just talked through a closely related set of ideas due to buying tea stored in large jars in a NYC Chinatown shop (New Kam Man). It’s not the same as well-stored tea, or storing teas in boxes that allow for limited air contact, but some of the same issues apply, how time and some air contact is going to affect different types of teas. In general the best solution is not to buy tea stored in large jars that allow for air contact, but if you happen to be in such a place and are eager to test something out you might feel compelled to, as I did. In that write-up I guessed which teas would take both aging and limited (or significant) air contact the best, in order: pu’er, rolled oolong, white tea, black tea. I tried a white tea I bought there (peony) that was a bit darkened with age, an interesting experience, but not one that would sell someone on tea aged that way, and a lapsang souchong stayed plenty smoky through whatever storage conditions. All the rest is in this post:
http://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.com/2017/01/reviewing-very-smoky-lapsang-souchong.html
That’s a really good point when buying tea. I’ve noticed a lot of asian markets keep their tea in big jars. Looks nice but who knows how long it’s been there for, how many times it’s been opened, or if someone forgot to secure the lid after checking it out. D:
I wonder how much that affects tea from shops like Teavana. They have those big tins and are always fanning the aroma towards customers. I imagine they go through stock pretty quickly on some tins, but not all.
It would also depend on if the tea has flavorings and if so, what. Coconut has a short shelf life, taking on a gross soapy taste as it ages. Orange can also go bad with a stale fermented taste. Fennel fades and takes on a slight bitter taste. Dried fruit can mold. Oils go rancid. Stuff like that which isn’t related to the tea leaves ability to hold up.
Perfect! Thank you! I was wondering about that as I went through things. The blends all seemed to fare differently but the pure teas have done much better. That would totally explain why. Is there a guide or something for what happens to different ingredients as they age? I never would have thought that fennel goes bitter.
I don’t know if there is a guide. My guide is experience and failure when hoarding tea. I had a jar of fennel seeds in my pantry for years. Had a stomach ache and started chewing on a teaspoon worth of the seeds. They had gone bad and I had to spit them out. They were disgusting.
In general greens age badly, blacks age gracefully, Oolongs and Pu’erh get better with age, in general. Herbals age badly, and White tea make you get tea drunk really really quick when you age them.
I havent aged tea yet other than trying a few already aged tea’s from Verdant, and Teavivre.
But watch Mei Life on aged white tea’s and getting tea drunk, if you have some white peony in there, let me know how it goes.. snicker
I bought a well-aged looking peony in a Chinatown shop not so long ago, not sold as intentionally aged tea but definitely on the darkened side from spending time in large-jar storage. It wasn’t bad, surely different than it had started out, but as far as I could tell it had no unique effect on me.
Not everyone gets tea drunk, its not like alchohol. Its a combination of the way the caffeine and theanine and a few of the other chemicals in tea that get stronger with age affect you. I havent experienced it myself either.
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