vacuum sealed tea deterioate?

Green tea deteriorates under all conditions, especially after a few years. The vacuum helps by removing some of the oxygen which is the culprit, but some still remains. If nitrogen flushed and vacuumed it will last longer. I find the most drastic taste change occurs in the first 6 months to 1 year. Once opened, it will go stale within a week or two, at least from my experience.

Richard

Green tea deteriorates under all conditions, especially after a few years. The vacuum helps by removing some of the oxygen which is the culprit, but some still remains. If nitrogen flushed and vacuumed it will last longer. I find the most drastic taste change occurs in the first 6 months to 1 year. Once opened, it will go stale within a week or two, at least from my experience.

Richard

t4u is right, the tea will get old very quick after opening it. After I open my bags of tea, I use a little clip to help keep the bag closed. It's sorta like potato chips, I guess. If you leave it totally open to the air, it will get stale quicker. If you're dealing with very high grade green tea or wulong, you should get all of your tea in small

50g bags and drink them one by one. At least that way, all of the tea won't be open to the elements and it will last a bit longer that way.

Another thing to note is that tea will stay fresher in bulk. In other words, 1 oz of tea will go stale long before 5 pounds of the same tea packaged at the same time.

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Richard,

Some of those really delicate greens will not last more than a week opened. I speak of those fresh qualities that strike you up front in the nose and on the tongue. Sadly, these most delicate of greens are more often than not also the most costly. (This is only my personal opinion based on personal experience.)

Michael

What about tin, i have assembled quite a few of them from adagio and after opening a bag transfer tea into a tin that previously had a similar type of tea.

so how long would they stay fresh in the tin please?

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I do the same thing. I'm talking about ideals that we humans often cannot reach. It is important to get to know the difference between a fresh green just opened and a fresh green you've had in a tin for a month or two. Some greens tolerate it quite well, others don't. But what are poor mortals to do?

Best, Michael

could it be freeze dried with any success?

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I suspect not; since a certain amount of moisture is critical to the health of the stored tea, the moisture balance would be destroyed with freeze drying. Also, freeze drying would break down the cells of the leaves in an unwanted way, I would suppose. Having said that, give it a try, see what happens, and report your findings back to us.

Michael

Sure Michael. can you lend me a freeze drier ? i'm in London. u.k.

>

Probably about as long as they would in a sealed bag. Maybe less time.

--scott

"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

can you translate that please?

i would rank storage options for tea as follows:

1. ceramic canister with sealed lid
2. glass jar with sealed lid (keep away from light)
3. sealed / resealable foil pouch
4. tin with "aroma seal", a second lid inside the tin
5. tins without aroma seal
6. opened bag with no seal

a ceramic canister is the absolute best, in my mind. it doesn't absorb (or impart) flavors. it's lightproof and airtight. only problem is the price. not practical on a large scale.

glass jars are a good cheap alternative, about a tenth of the price of ceramic. but they let all the light in which can accelerate the aging of the tea.

foil pouches are great. these were developed for the medical industry for transport of blood and other vital fluids. airtight, durable, cheap, and light proof. but they don't last forever and can absorb flavors (read disposable).

tins are very attractive and do a great job for a short period of time. the main problem with tins is that they are not airtight. no matter how fine the engineering or how many flavor seal lids they have, they leak air. and air is the real killer.

still, they are my vote for the best option for storing tea. time is the real enemy. buy small quantities, enough for about 3 months and drink it. if you want to buy a lot of teas, buy even smaller quantities, samplers. if the tea isn't around long, then it doesn't matter what type of storage you use.

as for how long a tea will last, i would guess 2 years in a vacuum sealed foil pouch. any other method and it probably won't be worth drinking by then. not compared to a fresh example of the same tea. i try to keep my teas no more than 6 months. now i have a lot of teas. but i drink a lot of tea too, on average around 6 cups a day with some days into the teens. i find that keeping the tea in its original packaging and opening it as few times as possible, it will keep well for the first six months, then steadily drop until at the year mark it is about half of what it once was, losing the edge off whatever aroma it once had.

of course it varies by type:

white tea - keep no more than six months green tea - keep no more than six months oolong tea - keep no more than 1 year black tea - keep no more than 1 year

-gary

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I use Bee House canisters. But, I should note here that Dog Ma had mentioned in the past that the "rubber-like" seal mechanism is reactive and could easily impart something to the tea we'd prefer it didn't.

Yes, light is certainly an enemy of tea.

If they are of a non-reactive metal, are you sure they would absorb flavors? How so? (Not arguing, just asking.)

Ultimately, the air would get into the bags as well. What's a poor tea drinker to do?

Or switch to Pu'erh, and keep your teas happily for fifty years without fear or worry, provided you maintain them in a clean airy environment of moderate humidity, free of the smells of the kitchen, etc.

Sounds like a decent analysis, but different teas will degrade at vastly different rates.

Ah, here it is! I would only add: Very lightly oxidized Oolongs are more like greens, and might not last the year no matter how careful and caring you are. Heavily roasted, higher oxidized Oolongs are far more stable, and with annual reroasting can last for years. Keemun, a red (black) tea, will actually improve with age, and can go far more than a year. Pu'erh, as I said, is worth exploring, given its longevity. Finally, as I had said earlier, truly delicate green teas begin to deteriorate right at the time you open the container, and will degrade very very quickly unfortunately. Drink up.

Michael

Allow me to add one more option that I have found VERY effective for preserving fresh Sencha which is extremely sensitive to degradation.

Nitrogen Purging - see

The nitrogen equipment and heat sealer can be purchased for less than $200 and nitrogen refills are very cheap. After the initial (one time) equipment cost it will cost you less than a dollar a month for all the nitrogen you would ever need.

I sealed high quality Sencha into nitrogen purged individual 10g portions back in May/June, or whenever it was that the Sencha crop came out, and I store the sealed packets in the refrigerator. Those portions are just as tasty now as they were when I got them. Now, they will deteoriate swiftly once opened so sealing them up in small portions is prudent. I found 10g is just right for my weekend morning sessions.

Mike

It's a Nagra. It's Swiss, and very, very precise. The Nagra is a small tape recorder much beloved of the film sound community.

The quote is from the film Diva, in which a Nagra III figures prominently as part of the plot. It's actually a misquote, but I used it on Usenet for fourteen years before anybody pointed this out to me, and now I have been using it for almost twenty and I figure it's too late to change now.

Here is some propaganda about the Nagra that I use most often:

although this is two whole model lines newer than the III in the film.

--scott

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Oleg, these metal lined bags themselves come in various qualities -- that is gauges, I guess) and on occasion their plastic-like seals, which are not unlike the seal systems of zip lock clear bags sometimes fail. Having said that, I would prefer to get my tea in the metal lined bags than in the tins, partly because you can push the air out of the bag to accommodate the amount of tea remaining as you use it up. This is a big advantage, air being a major enemy of tea. When it comes to delicate green teas, the question might be academic since they need to be drunk quickly. These are my thoughts, for the little they are worth.

Michael