Vendors still insist the greens and lightly roasted (qing xiang) wulongs benefit in freshness from keeping them in the freezer. They use allusions to fresh green vegetables as an example but I'm wondering how much of this is actually beneficial. They also claim that special types of freezers are required to maintain proper storage of these teas at a certain temperature.
It seems to me the only benefit for keeping wulongs like tie guan yin in the fridge is that it will help to amplify the astrigency of the tea. This seems especially so for spring teas that are naturally more astrigent.
Do ya'll have any experiences with putting your teas in the freezer? I sorta think that it makes the chemical flavorings more poignant.
As an aside, there are no freezers "only for tea".
Again, as with any new hyped thing, common sense pays off. Tea has been enjoyed successfully for a lot longer than freezers and even electricity. A container as air tight as possible, opaque and stored in a fairly normal temp. range (60-80 degrees F) is just fine.
Any benefit from it is going to be offset by any number of factors and issues that could be introduced. There's always someone trying to invent a better mousetrap, but the reality is that the tried and true method remains for a reason.
Sure, in Fujian, tea won't last past 3 months if not stored in the freezer. This is especially true during the hottest months. It gets quite hot and humid in southern China, and these light kinds of teas go bad fast. That's why everything has to be vacuum sealed, individually wrapped, and stored in a freezer to keep the tea fresh. Now that's in southern China, where temperature and humidity play a factor. There, it's great for storing sheng puer, but not for some qingxiang type wulong teas.
Flying on a plane over to Toronto, Canada, and onto the Great Lakes, the climate is much different that that of southern China. Not humid as in China. And not as hot. I've had some of these lighter type oolongs stored away for years now. And coming back to Canada, I thought for darn sure, they would have changed dramatically to become "old tea". Anyway, since I was jet lagged, I brewed some up one night at home - and I was astonished at the taste and flavor. It was not a very expensive tea to begin with, but the taste and flavor were still pretty good - not having that "old tea" taste, aroma, and color. It still tasted pretty fresh, not stale at all. So bonus - a 2000 spring tea, brewed in the winter of 2007 and still holding up!! Pretty awesome!!
What do you mean there are no freezers "only for tea"? Just about every tea store in China has at least one. Some stores have 3 or 4 freezers. And they're pulling bags of tea in and out of freezers all the time. Heck, if you go to Anxi, people have small freezers or fridges in their offices and homes just for tea. They don't mess around over there. They know their teas deteriorate fast because of the climate - even if they're vacuum sealed. So they keep them under cold storage all the time. People are pretty freakin demanding when it comes to tea in Fujian. They don't like drinking stale, old tea; or even cheap tea. So they don't fool around. Tea has to be fresh here.
I'm going to have to go with Dominic on this one. I have never seen sheng pu'er put in a freezer before and it's almost exclusively light roast Tie Guan Yin from Anxi or some types of green teas. I live in Southern China; in the humidity and the heat. The vacuum sealing I understand, but popping your best TGY into the freezer? Putting sheng pu'er in the freezer would be sorta pointless wouldn't it? It's usually hoped the tea will age in the heavy humidity of Southern China; that's why most storage is done here and not in Yunnan where it's more dry.
The heavy or medium roasted wulongs wouldn't need freezer storage anyway, they usually go through a second "oxidation/fermentation" in the bag (fa jiao ??) after you open it and expose the tea to air. I've drank tea with some Taiwanese that said it was "too new" a few times. They advised me to open it and let it sit for a while, like a month, before trying it again.
I mean freezers commerically produced exclusively for tea. I bought a small freezer once for tea storage as well and no matter what kind of setting I used with it, I think the tea was always left with a freon- freezer burned taste. This was not a crap freezer either.
Other times I've seen freezers that weren't cold enough that caused condensation to form inside and on the bags. I guess the freezer would have to be really cold. Like the type you use to store meats for a long term.
If the condensation was frozen within the bag then the tea was too moist rather than the freezer not cold enough - if the condensation was liquid then the freezer was above zero C - refrigerator not freezer. If you can see through the bags then they are no good for storing tea in a freezer - they will let in taints, let out aroma, and cannot be properly sealed. Moisture will inevitably get through polythene or nylon bags knotted or zip locked or through pinholes.
Yes, minus 18 deg C is necessary and no fluctuations
Could only be tainted if the bag was unsuitable and was not hermetically sealed. Bags needs to be laminated polyfoil and sealed with a suitable heat sealer. A vacuum is not strictly necessary - but does indicate a good hermetic seal.
There seems to be some confusion in some other mails to this thread about the difference between refrigerators (fridges) and freezers - the former run above freezing at 2 to 5 deg C, and a decent domestic freezer runs at minus 18 deg C. I would never put dry tea into a refrigerator even if hermetically sealed (impossible to achieve without a heat sealer and polyfoil pouches). The reduction in deterioration at fridge temperature is so slight as to make the bother of hermetically sealing a waste of time and expense. For long term storage of tea hermetic sealing and freezing at minus 18 deg is worthwhile if your tea is not as dry as it could be. I used to keep multiple samples of control teas (commercial baseline quality at around 6% moisture content) for experimental work in this way - taking out individually packed samples at monthly intervals to compare with teas aging under a range of climatic conditions.
Tea frozen and correctly kept under tfreezer conditions will have no "freezer taint" or freezer burn - however, I have seen people waste their time and their tea by putting it into the freezer in a ziplok bag then taking it out at intervals to extract some tea under humid kitchen conditions - and expecting it to store well, It will not - remember that the acid test for hermetic sealing is that you could store your package under water without qualms - anything less is just not hermetic. And always let the sample reach room temperature before opening and do not refreeze it.
However, if tea is at or below 3% moisture content (as it would be straight from the factory dryer) hermetic sealing and keeping at room temperature is fine - I have opened up tea after 12 years of storage under these conditions and it was as fresh as the day I made it. Redrying tea at intervals back to 3% moisture ("gapping") was always a recognized way of extending its storage life under humid ambient conditions.
I wasn't saying put sheng puer into the freezer. I was saying the climate in southern China is amenable to sheng puer storage; while on the other hand, light roast or lightly fermented wulong teas like tieguanyin don't store well in that area given the high temperatures and humidity. Moreover, when you consider the houses and offices in southern China - no air conditioning in summer, no heat in winter - the temperatures are so extreme - tieguanyin stored at those kinds of temperatures just won't do so well when stored on a shelf. That's why they store all those teas in the freezer. Those freezers usually have digital controls, so you know exactly what the inner temperature is. But, the high humidity is good for sheng puer, and they got them on shelves and on the floor, and in all kinds of places.
Yeah one thing though, you might see a nice display at some tea store when you walk in. But if you hear majong tiles clicking in the back, run for it!!! That kind of place is not a real tea store - it's just a front for a gambling operation. Well, at least, they would rather play majong than be serious about tea, hahahahaha.
Not to minimize all that has been said here (because it is accurate and informative) but it still all comes down to: Stick with the conventional wisdom and tradition.
Sure it may vary slightly by region, but for the most part what has worked for eons is still fine. But many folks like Ron Popeil wouldn't be crazy rich if it weren't for millions of people who are all too ready to be part of "The New Best Thing!" Set it and forget it. New gadgets and toys are fun but imagine all the great tea you could buy instead of a freezer and the necessary accouterments/electricity that may or may not help at all and possibly be *more* harmful.
Very interesting post. I've had similar experiences. In Taiwan my nice green oolongs used to stale very quickly, but last year I cracked open a bag of gaoshan oolong that had been sitting in closets in New England and New York for about four years and found that it was very fresh still had that high smell that is usually the first thing to go. It was vacuum packed in one of those half-jin bricks.
Then by your definition, I know NO places in China, I've seen, that have a true freezer to store tea. I would guess most of the places around in Guangdong use refrigerators. I've even seen open faced fridge units used for storing drinks in a supermarket used for storing cold drinks. Also, I've seen smaller units used for storing ice cream. This was in Fangcun, mind you; not some local slop-shop.
Exactly why I wrote "There seems to be some confusion in some other mails to this thread about the difference between refrigerators (fridges) and freezers". Though when I worked in remote tea growing areas in China in the mid
I don't understand this at all. You cannot play majong without drinking lots of tea. It would be like playing baseball without beer, or playing poker without bourbon. It would seem that a place where people are illegally playing majong would be an excellent place to find tea!
Actually, there are teahouses that do have majong tables in private rooms, along with televisons, and - of course, a gongfu tea set. It's a leisurely - but also expensive way to gamble. There's a room fee, then a fee for the tea, then a fee for the snacks, and maybe even a fee for the service. It all adds up. But still, people do go to those places.
It's the die-hard majong players you have to watch out for. That's where these clandestine tea shops come in. The set up a storefront - that looks like it's on the up and up. But in the back, they got rooms for playing majong. Lots of cigarette smoke. Not a nice place to buy or drink some tea. And these guys don't want to be drinking too much tea in the middle of gambling - otherwise they will have to get up all the time and go to the toilet.
Dominic, I am the proud owner of and friend to a small pile of pet mice. I can assure you that among my (human) friends are a couple who've invented mouse traps that are cheap, can be constructed by a five year old child out of household goods, and work 10 times better than the old conventional type, plus they do no harm. Ahimsa: the way to go. As for tea, that which you enjoy today was for the most part completely unknown to Yu Lu, fisted Ti Guan Yin coming first and foremost to mind. So, I hear your argument, but...
Now, I know that freezing many different kinds of wet veggies, meats, and other food stuffs can radically change their consistency by breaking down whatever gets broken down to change the consistency of said foodstuffs. So, I'm wondering whether freezing would alter the structure of the tea leaves, not for the better. After all, tea leaves must retain *some* moisture content. Just speculations based on nothing. Would accept serious comments on this.
I never found any apparent organoleptic change in tea frozen at 6% moisture content and below (this is still pretty dry - crisp between the teeth - tea is regularly traded at around 8% mositure, bug growth begins at 12-14% moisture, green veggies are at 80% plus).
Structure alteration is inversely proportional to freezing temperature - hence I specify minus 18 deg C. Liquid nitrogen (minus
196 dec C) imparts "no" structural alteration so can be used for storing viable gametes and/or embryos. May however be OTT even for a fine TGY?
Those places are not really for buying tea anyway, as we know. Majiang is sorta a "grey" area when it comes to legality down here. Most people, including government and police, play Majiang and can lose huge sums of cash in a single game; it would be pretty difficult to ban any kind of gambling on any level.
In Dongguan, it's harder and harder to find JUST a teahouse. Most shops here have second floors for people to play but most of the business is concentrated on the sale of tea. There again, you don't find much good tea, wine, or tobacco here at all; new money and all.
I do enjoy a game of Majiang from time to time, though.
I can't even come to close to Nigel's response regarding tea, but in a related subject:
Nuts can be re-frozen many times with little to no change in texture, taste, etc., due to their low moisture content. So, I would think that any low-moisture food-item could be safely refrozen: nuts, coffee, dried herbs, tea. Not counting things like mayonnaise, of course. Not a pretty sight.
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