Storing & Aging Tea

There are two elements to tea storage: Yishan Teashop's storage techniques and those to be applied when you receive our teas. In Beijing we keep teas packed in the largest possible quantities per bag, allowing the tea fragrances to be preserved and also minimal required handling to move the leaves around. Big bags are tougher to move, so they tend to remain in one place during tea packaging which means less broken tea leaves overall. Also these bags are left sealed up in room temperature environments or refrigerated at two different temperatures, all dependent on the tea types. For instance, Pu'ers and white teas are left at room temperatures, along with Wuyi oolongs, while all greens are refrigerated at just under 40 degrees (5 celsius). Tie Guan Yin-style oolongs are refrigerated at about 40-50 degrees (5-10 celsius) and vacuum-sealed in special foil bags.

When your new teas arrive in the mail, should you be throwing them into the refrigerator like we do? Unlikely! We actually use humidity-controlled refrigerators that are dedicated to tea storage and thus have no other odors running through them. Home refrigerators are usually shared storage mediums for several foods and drinks. Placing tea in here will yield some very bizarre tea (especially green tea) within just a few short days. We recommend that you keep your new teas in cool and dark places, such as a cupboard, but not an area filled with spices! Clayware and porcelain tea-vessels are a great way to keep teas within closer proximity to other common kitchen items without fear of the teas devolving too much and developing unwanted character. Glass storage vessels aren't sold by too many intelligent tea companies since light is one of the main deteriorating factors for green teas and light gets through glass easily. However, with all that being said, if you go through teas as quickly as we do, the storage vessels become a lot less important and are more of an organizational convenience!

As for the aging of pu'er cakes, the most important concern is other odors that the leaves can pick up after extended exposure.The surprising thing is how fast they pick up these third party smells so it really is a big deal if you are trying to age the cakes for a long time. The second concern is the humidity. It's generally seen as safest to age the cakes in a cool and dry place, whereas a very humid environment would speed up the aging considerably, but any small changes could add unwanted characteristics to the tea. As for how to package the cake for aging, the safest to leave it with other pu'er cakes with little additional packaging. The giftboxes we often send the cakes in are not always suitable for aging teas as a result of some of the color stains the manufacturers use which can sometimes carry a bit of a smell. We try keeping these types of packaging for gift-giving purposes only, so it is just safer to keep the tea outside of it and near other pu'er cakes so that one single odor is present and shared.