Leaf tea, as well as spices and coffee, requires special care regarding how it is stored. These are not complicated techniques, just understanding and applying some simple precautions.

What Damages Tea?

Tea can be easily affected by external factors such as odor, heat, light, and moisture. For this reason, when we choose the spot in our home where we want to store tea, we need to pay attention to these variables: is the place dry, away from heat sources, away from direct sunlight and other food? Light and heat can contribute to the loss of flavor of tea leaves, as well as capture the residual moisture present in the leaves.

Tea, even when dried, still contains a moisture level of 3 percent to 7 percent, an acceptable amount as it helps the leaves express themselves best in infusion.

Some types of tea, such as Pu-Ehr (fermented teas), can be stored in places with a fairly high humidity level. This allows the fermentation process to continue even while the tea is in our pantry.

Where is it best to store tea?

If we buy tea at retail in a store, the leaves are moved from the largest container on display to the smallest bag relative to the weight we require.

This type of bag is usually paper with a plasticized inner lining and they need a closing clip to be sealed securely. The bags in which the tea is sold to us should be able to ensure its protection from harmful external factors, but it is still advisable not to keep the tea in them for too long and move it to a proper container.

Ideally, we should use steel containers, which are sometimes equipped with double locks and a cap large enough not to allow air to pass through.

The walls of these boxes do not allow light to pass through; they can be found with different decorations, the most popular being Japanese-style ones lined with paper or simply metal.

A good alternative are porcelain containers, but only if the top has an airtight seal. These containers lend themselves to the long storage of black, oolong and fermented teas.

Can tea be stored in glass jars?

Another usable material is glass; if you have some empty, unused jars, it is a good opportunity to use them for your new tea. Caution: this is provided that the jar is itself placed in an area away from light, as glass cannot protect the leaves. For this reason, glass is best if chosen as a last option, in the absence of better solutions.

How long can a tea be stored for?

Some teas can last for more than a year if they are stored properly. The higher the level of oxidation of the tea, the longer it is able to retain its qualities.

Therefore, black, oolong (based on their level of oxidation) and pu-ehr teas lend themselves more to long storage (up to 3 to 4 years for the first two, even decades for the third), like a bottle of wine that improves as it ages.

In contrast, green, white and yellow teas (in which the oxidation process is almost no or very low) should be consumed within 6 months or at most 1 year, if kept away from external agents.

In general, it is enough to find a clean, dry container that can shelter from light in order to keep one’s tea in the best way possible.

Can tea be kept in the refrigerator?

Coffee lovers recommend storing your jar in the refrigerator to keep it at a low temperature.

Is it the same for tea? Matcha, for example, requires to be stored at 4°C, so it may well be placed in the refrigerator.

Be careful to keep it away from cheese, garlic and sausages.

Also, when the tea jar is taken out, it would be a good idea not to keep it too far out of the refrigerator, lest the temperature change create damage to the tea. This applies to any other container: it would be best to try to always store it in its proper place so as not to subject the tea to heat shock.

That said, it does seem that when we purchase tea we are taking responsibility for another living being.

That may be so, but if we know how to treat it as it deserves, taking into account its characteristics and particularities, it will be able to compensate us in the best way possible.