If you want to enjoy a perfect cup, you must store tea properly to ensure great flavor. And if you’re anything like me, you have a cabinet full of loose-leaf tea bags and boxes of assorted tea bags. With so many wonderful flavors and a variety of caffeine levels, I seem to have a tea for every mood and desire. But there’s problem with keeping all of these wonderful teas. Over time, they lose their flavor and become stale if they’re not properly stored.
If you want to enjoy a good cup, you need to store your tea well to keep it fresh. Here are the best ways I know to store tea:
ALWAYS USE AN AIRTIGHT CONTAINER
Whether it’s a resealable bag, a tea tin, or a jar with a lid, keeping air out will help to keep your tea fresh. And if you keep your tea in the kitchen, which I’m sure most of us do, keeping odors and moisture out is necessary as well.
If you’re using a resealable bag, make sure you push all the air out before sealing. Many teas come in a tin, like some of my favorites from Harney & Sons. Once you’ve finished the tea, you can reuse the tin over and over for other teas. Just make sure you give it a good rinse and dry so the flavors of the tea you’ve finished don’t mix with the new tea you place in the tin.
You can also reuse some of your favorite jars if you like the shape of them. Mustard jars and jelly jars can be cleaned well and reused for storage.
STAY AWAY FROM LIGHT
Sunlight can reduce the flavor and freshness of your tea by bleaching all the goodness out. This is especially important to remember if you store your tea in a clear container. Opaque bags and tea tins are your best option if you store your tea in a place where you get natural sunlight.
KEEP YOUR TEA AWAY FROM MOISTURE
Any kind of moisture or humidity can ruin the flavor of your tea so don’t store it in the fridge or anywhere else where moisture reside. For instance, don’t store in a cabinet near your stove if you frequently boil water.
Overall, keep your tea in a dry, dark, cool environment where it’s not likely to pick up moisture, sunlight, and odors from the area around it.
One last tip, don’t open all those wonderful bags and boxes at once. Keeping them sealed until you’re ready to enjoy will keep them fresher longer. Save a flavor or two to open when you’ve almost finished everything you already have open.
If you store tea properly, it will stay fresh and flavorful for several months. Now that you have fresh tea, enjoy it at it’s best by properly brewing it.
Be sure to stop by Tea Cottage Mysteries to learn more about tea and find great recipes for afternoon tea!
*This post was originally published on www.teacottagemysteries.com