Do you have a lot of tea? Sick of piles of bags of tea and digging to find what you are looking for? To keep your tea fresh and crisp there are a few rules to storing and organizing your tea.
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1. Keep it free from oxygen.
Make sure the bag or otherwise storage vessel you are using is not open to the air. This is why some tea comes vacuum sealed. Exposing the tea to oxygen will deteriorate the tea. The longer it is exposed the greater the deterioration will be.
2. Keep it free from heat.
You do not want to store your tea in a location where it is going to get increased or even decreased heat over periods of time. Low-level heat speeds up oxidation while high levels prevent oxidation. I have even heard that storing tea in the freezer or refrigerator is an option. In order to do this you need to make sure you have reduced oxygen so that you do not end up with condensation which will ruin the leaves.
3. Away from light.
Like most good things you do not want them in direct light for long periods of time. It is said that direct light can cause the degradation of the tea leaves and for them to even turn to a metallic taste.
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4. Away from strong odors.
Tea leaves can absorb the scent of their surroundings. This should be considered with the vessel you are storing the tea in directly as well as where you store the containers themselves. Be sure the tins do not have a strong smelling rubber seal for example.
5. Away from moisture.
You don’t want to steep your leaves until you are ready to steep your leaves. Because tea can absorb the moisture in the air it is encouraged that the leaves be stored in an airtight container so that the risk of this moisture is decreased.
6. Best in Bulk.
When considering all of the items above it becomes clear that storing your tea in bulk is the best option. An airtight container with a little bit of tea will deteriorate faster than an airtight container filled with a lot of tea. Less air will be able to be in the container if there is less space for it to occupy. So go shop in bulk!
I recommend our tea tins as a great storage option. You can put an entire bag (sometimes more) inside them. You can label the tin with markers or otherwise with the name, type and date. You can quickly see how much is left with the small window. You can stack them up out of the way. Lastly they look great filled in your pantry.

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