Don Mei: Hey teaheads! This is Don from Mei Leaf. In this video: How To Store Your Tea
Properly. In this video I'm gonna give you all the knowledge you need to know about how
to preserve the freshness of your tea. I've done videos about how to age Puerh tea before,
and we're gonna be doing more videos all about storage for aging tea. But this video is all
about how you can lock in that freshness and preserve the flavor of your loose leaf tea.
You've not doubt seen videos like this before, but in this video what we're gonna be doing
is actually testing it. So we're gonna take the received wisdom and then we're gonna taste-test
it see how much effect certain factors have in the storage of your tea. What we're trying
to essentially achieve here is to prevent, or slow down, the degradation of any tea.
Now tea does not have any expiry date. You can leave tea for years and years and years,
and it's fine to drink, but it does have a "best before" date. And some teas are more
sensitive to sort of degradation, or change, over time - especially green teas, yellow
teas, and green Oolong teas. So those teas which are all about celebrating the verve
and vibrancy, and those top notes of the fresh leaf. Of course, white tea, dark Oolong teas,
black teas, and Puerh teas will change and degrade too. Sometimes those changes are desirable,
[like] in the case of aging. And as I said, we'll do more videos about the aging process
in the future. But even if you want to lock in the freshness of those teas the degradation
is much slower for those teas, so it's less of a big deal. So today we're gonna be focusing
on those green teas, yellow teas and green Oolong teas. [Of] the degradation processes
that we're trying to slow down or prevent, the first one, of course, is oxidation - the
natural biochemical process where oxygen reacts with natural matter and there's a transfer
of electrons. So if the plant loses electrons that is the oxidation process. The second
process that we're trying to prevent is photo-degradation, or "light degradation". [This is] very similar
to the oxidation process, but slightly different. The third is fermentation. Fermentation involves
microbes reacting with the plant usually in a low-oxygen environment. This doesn't really
apply to a lot of these teas, except, of course, for Puerh teas, and potentially white teas.
But with green teas, and green Oolong teas, they've been heated to such a degree - and
processed to such a degree - that it's very unlikely - unless you store the tea completely
in the wrong conditions - that the tea is gonna ferment. And the fourth, and probably
the most important to consider, is adulteration; in other words, the environment affecting
the tea, and flavoring the tea, in an unpleasant way. So I'm gonna be talking to you about
the five factors that you need to consider when you're storing your tea, and I have to
say I'm pretty sure that a lot of you are storing your tea in exactly the wrong place.
We'll talk about that a bit later. So what we've been doing here - at our home, for the
past eight months - we've been taking the same tea and storing [it] in different conditions.
Because what I don't want to do is just give you received knowledge. I want to test it
myself to see whether or not there is a big difference in the end result in the taste.
So in front of me here I have two Sen Cha teas. They're exactly the same Sen Cha tea,
but they've been stored differently. And we're going to be focusing on the first factor here,
which is aroma, or smell. You want to keep your teas away from any strong smells. Tea
is incredible at absorbing smells. In fact, if you take your spent leaves, after a session,
and you put them on a plate you can put them in a fridge, [or] you can put them in a cupboard,
and they will deodorize that cupboard or fridge very, very quickly. Obviously, don't leave
it there for too long, of course. But if you leave it for a day you'll be amazed at how
capable the tea leaves are at absorbing aromas, and that is obviously not a good thing when
you're trying to preserve freshness. So what we've done is we've kept this Sen Cha here
in a pouch, which we've left open slightly, and this one here we've kept in a spice cupboard.
So this [was kept] with our other tea storage, and this was kept in a spice cupboard with
lots of different spices. And we've just left it there for eight months. All of the experiments
that we've done today are eight months, okay? So now let's take a look at them. You can't
really see much of a difference in terms of the look. The color looks the same, but if
I smell them [SMELLS TEA] that smells lovely and nutty and vegetal. [SMELLS TEA] And this
certainly does smell like a potpourri of aromatics. I'm smelling [SMELLS TEA] cinnamon, and some
sort of fennel seed spice, [and] a little bit of fenugreek. [SMELLS TEA] I'm smelling
all sorts of aromas. Now what we did is just leave the pouch a little peeking open. So
it wasn't like wide open. Just a little peek of the top of the seal was left open, and
the smells have definitely gone into it. So I can smell the difference immediately. But
we're gonna do blind tastings, so Celine is gonna come and brew these up for me, and then
I'm gonna see if I can taste the difference... Thank you. Okay, so here we go. We've got
two Sen Chas here. She's muddled them up. I didn't look, so I don't know which one is
the one that's been kept in the spice cupboard. I don't want to stick my nose in these tea
leaves, so instead we're gonna taste tea number one. Actually, let's take a look at the color
first, [to] see if there's any difference in color. So this is "number one", and [this
is] "number two". [There's] hardly any difference. [It's] maybe slightly darker, this one, but
very, very light in difference. Taste is everything, and the whole point here is to see whether
or not we notice it in the taste. Because it's all very well, me giving you advice about
how to store your tea, but if you don't notice it in the taste then what's the point? Here
we go. [SIPS TEA] [This is] very, very bright. [There's a] nice [SIPS TEA] buttered spinach
note going on. [SIPS TEA] But raw spinach, actually - not cooked. [It's] butter, raw
spinach, nice astringency, good umami level, [and] I don't taste any adulteration there.
I'd be very surprised if that was the adulterated one. But maybe it's just the smell of the
leaf. Let's see. [SIPS TEA] Uh-uh.Uh-uh-uh. [SHAKING HEAD "NO"] [You] absolutely can tell
that that one [has] got some funk to it. [With] this I can taste exactly what I smell. [It's]
a predominance of fennel seed, [SIPS TEA] [star anise] - those sort of anisey flavors.
Those are the strong ones that seem to seep into the tea quite a lot. And I've noticed
this before. Often times, when you taste a tea, I can tell when it's been kept in a spice
cupboard, because [SIPS TEA] no matter what you do tea has a way of absorbing aromas.
So I have no doubt about it, that this is the spiced tea. [Celine] has written down
the answers here, and I can see [that], yeah, "number one" is "tea cupboard", and "number
two" is "spice". That was probably the easiest one, and the reason for that is because this
is probably the most important factor of all, which is why I'm dealing with it first. This
is the most important one. Keep your teas in a container which is sealed, and away from
strong aromas. That means try to keep it away from spice cupboards, and preferably away
from kitchens in general. That was an easy one. Let's move on to the second factor, which
is humidity.. Why is humidity so important? Well, the amount of moisture in the environment
will catalyze those oxidation and fermentation processes. In other words, the more wet the
environment the faster the degradation of the tea. I have in front of me two yellow
teas. [This is] Huo Shan Huang Ya. This is "Amber Mountain" in our shop, and this one
here has been kept in a sealed pouch with a humidity-control pack by Boveda - [a] Boveda
humidity-control pack at 72%. This one here has been kept in exactly the same pouch [in]
exactly the same area, but with a lower humidity - [a] 49% humidity pack here. Those humidity
packs [are two-way control], and they control and regulate the humidity. So we've kept these
for eight months - [at] 72% and 49%. You can't really see - I have to say, [it's] surprising
to me - that much difference in the look of the leaves. There's lots of sort of similarities
in the shades, from those lime greens to those darker caulky greens in both. I would say
that you can't really tell a difference in look, but what about taste? Let's find out.
The brewed leaf here, you can see. I don't really see that much difference. If anything...
maybe... no I can't really tell a difference. Let's take a look at the liquor. Again, I
can't really [take much from this] in terms of clues. Yeah, [it's] very difficult to see
any difference there, so maybe this humidity difference from [72% to 49%] doesn't make
that much difference. [POURING TEA] Let's see. So here we go [with] tea "number one".
[SIPS TEA] [It's] lovely, [and] very, very fresh. [It's] got a little bit of citrus in
there - a little of pear. [SIPS TEA] [There's] a little tiny bit more texture than I would
expect from a yellow tea, because yellow tea, for me, is a lot about the smoothness and
silkiness of the tea. But it's] really, really lovely. [SIPS TEA] I don't taste much difference,
I have to say, but I do notice a textural difference. [SIPS TEA] [The] taste is still
bright, meadowy, [and] dewey - like morning dew - with a little bit of sweetness coming
through. The beauty of these yellow teas is the purity of the tea, [and] the purity of
the taste. It really, for me, is like drinking morning dew - that smell, when you wake up
and you open your tent, if you're camping, or you go out in the countryside. When [it's]
early morning, if you get up bright and early and you feel like you're ahead of the day,
that smell is what I love about the taste of a good Huo Shan Huang Ya. [SIPS TEA] Mmm!
Now [when] I "A/B" it this way, this one definitely is a little bit drier in its texture, but
also a litle bit more muted in that fresh vibrancy that I'm talking about. I would day
that there's not a huge difference, but if I was to pick my favorite it would be this
one. This one feels a little bit more preserved in its bright notes - in its early-morning
aroma and taste. So let's see. Yes, indeed. [HOLDS UP CARD] Okay, so that is the 72%,
[HOLDS UP CARD] and this is the 49%. So you can tell - well, I can tell - it's subtle,
but there is a difference. And this was over eight months, okay? So, of course, if you
drink your tea within a certain shorter period of time then it's not gonna make as much difference,
but try to control the humidity. And you can get these Boveda packs if you want to get
really, really exact, especially if you're living in a very high-humidity area. So that's
"humidity". Keep your tea as dry as possible if you want to preserve freshness. [We're
now] moving on to our third factor, and that is the temperature. Again, temperature is
important because it acts as a catalyst. The hotter the environment the faster these degradation
processes will happen. In front of me here we have green Oolong, [and] we have Tie Guan
Yin. And this tea here has been kept in a sealed pouch in our [boiler] cupboard - so
the cupboard where our boiler is. So that's obviously gonna have a higher average temperature
than this one here, which was again sealed in a pouch, but with our other teas which
we keep in a cool cupboard - so a cool environment. You can definitely tell a difference here
in the color. These colors here are a lot more vibrant, [and] a lot brighter than these,
which just look much more muted here. Tie Guan Yin, or these green Oolongs, is particularly
susceptible to temperature - I have to say, even more in my opinion, than green teas.
So watch out for those, and I have no doubt that I'm going to spot a difference here,
in terms of the taste, but you can certainly tell a difference in the look. Right, let's
get cupping... Okay, I don't know which one's which. Let's take a little look at the color
of the liquor. So this we'll call tea "number one" [HOLDS UP GLASS] and tea "number two"
[HOLDS UP GLASS]. So this is the first time I'm really seeing a big difference in color.
This one looks a lot brighter green to my eye. This looks a lot more muted. [It's a]
slightly lighter color, but more muted [and] less vibrant. This one has a lot more vibrancy.
So immediately I'm sort of being swayed onto this side here. Let's take a look at the leaves.
Again, I would say [that] this one has a lot more vibrancy than this one. So it's looking
like it's pretty clear, just on observation, [and] definitely in the cup as well. Let's
taste. [SIPS TEA] [There's] a particular taste when a Tie Guan Yin has been stored incorrectly.
It's lovely. It's still got nice notes. It's still foral. You certainly would think it's
a nice tea, but there's a certain - I don't want to say "musty" - but a sort of dankness
to the taste. [It's] almost like it's been kept in a humid environment, even though these
have been kept in the same humidity. Although I guess a boiler room, to be fair, would probably
be a bit more humid. But [they] have been kept in sealed pouches, so it's gonna [not]
be that much of an effect, and they've been kept [with] very little air - so sealed in
pouches with all the air taken out. It's just got a sort of dead flavor to it - a deadened
flavor. It doesn't have the bright aroma - that sort of "Whoosh!" that happens when you have
a really amazing Tie Guan Yin, [SIPS TEA] and this one has it in bucketloads. This is
full of floral aromas, and it's bright and rising. Whereas [with] this one you can taste
it, but it seems to just settle in the mouth. I have no doubt here that this one here has
been kept in cool temperature, [and] this one in warm temperature. This is a bit of
a no-brainer. Anybody would taste the difference. Yes, indeed. [This is] boiler-cupboard tea
[HOLDS UP CARD]. [That's] the boiler room tea versus room [temperature] [HOLDS UP CARD].
Although, I have to say, our dry tea storage is [room temperature], but we really keep
it away from any sort of heat that would come from radiators or from sunlight coming [indirectly]
through close-by windows. It's very, very much our cooler area. No doubt [there's a]
big difference, and this is - I have to say - one of the biggest factors here, especially
for Tie Guan Yin, and it's one of the reasons why Tie Guan Yin producers often will keep
- or most of them will keep their tea that they haven't sold in very cold conditions,
like refrigerators close to freezing point. We, again, store our Tie Guan Yin in our warehouse
in cool conditions. Does that mean that you should keep your Tie Guan Yin in refrigerated
conditions? My general advice is no, don't do it. The reason for that is because refrigerators,
first of all - unless you've got a refrigerator which is dedicated to tea - the refrigerator
will have food smells. And we've seen before that the adulteration caused by food aromas
is very, very quick and very, very easy. Even if you keep it in sealed containers in the
fridge, you can do that but you've got to be very, very careful with condensation. What
that means is that if you take the bag of your Tie Guan Yin - or any green tea that
you're keeping in cold conditions - and you open it up while it's still cold, then little
condensation droplets may well form inside the bag and that will ruin the tea. As I said
before, humidity has an effect, but if you've got actual water droplets in the bag of tea
that's going to really, really affect and degrade your tea in a big way. So if you're
planning to keep your Tie Guan Yin in a refrigerator you've got to make sure it's sealed, away
from any food smells, and when you take it out to use it you need to wait, be patient,
let the tea get up to room temperature, fully - not cool anymore - so just to the touch
it's room temperature before you open that bag. And when you close it, and you put it
back in the fridge, you need to seal out all the air. You need to try and get as much of
the air out, seal it in room temperature, and then you can put it back in the fridge.
I would say [to] just avoid it. [There's] too many potential pitfalls with refrigerating
your tea, unless you were going to be very, very careful. So, if I were you, just keep
it in a cool cupboard [in] the coolest part of the house. [It's] a big, big difference
- temperature. Let's move on to the next one, which is oxygen. Obviously, oxidation requires
oxygen. We've got the same Tie Guan Yin here - so exactly the same batch of Tie Guan Yin.
Eight months ago we sealed this one up in a pouch completely sealed, [and] left it in
our tea cupboard. This one we left in exactly the same tea cupboard, but we left the pouch
open to allow oxygen to potentially affect the leaves. The color difference here is not
that extreme. [This] may be a little bit darker, but there are those dark notes here, so it
could be just simply [which leaves] we pulled out of the pouch. They look very, very similar
to me, but let's get on with tasting... The look of the leaves, really again, [with the]
brewed leaf I can't tell much difference between them. Maybe this one's slightly darker, but
[it's] very, very difficult to spot any difference. The color of the liquor may be [a] tiny bit
darker, but [it's] very, very, very, very difficult to see much of a difference going
on here. Right, let's taste. I have a feeling this is going to be a little bit more challenging.
[SIPS TEA] [It's] really, really lovely. I don't feel that there's any degradation in
the taste. [There's] honeysuckles, nice [sour apple candy] note towards the end. [SIPS TEA]
Obviously, we're getting some vegetal, some green, [and] a little bit of that leaf sap.
[SIPS TEA] [It's] delicious. [I'm very happy with that. I would not have noticed any degradation
there. [SIPS TEA] [It's] very difficult to taste any difference. [SIPS TEA] [It's the]
same profile, [with] honeysuckle, [and] a little bit of banana cream going on. A little
bit creamier maybe? [SIPS TEA] Uh-huh. Once you pick up the note I can taste it in this
one as well. This one, [if you] had just served me these teas back-to-back as the next infusion,
or like you poured from this Gong Dao Bei and then I'd just given you my cup and you
poured from this Gong Dao Bei, I would not notice any difference. [SIPS TEA] [There's]
very, very little difference. I'm going to take a guess, but it's just an absolute shot
in the dark, that [SIPS TEA] this one - and it's literally because it looks a little bit
darker - might be the open pouch. But I can't taste the difference, and that's the most
important thing. Let's see. [HOLDS UP CARD] Oh! I was right, but honestly, I wouldn't
take anything from that, because the taste was very, very, very similar. So what we can
say here is that whilst oxygen - or having oxygen mixing with the tea - is obviously
going to contribute to oxidation, that process is actually slower than you think, even with
these green teas. I know it's oftentimes that you receive these teas in vacuum seal. We
certainly put oxygen-depletion pouches in all of our teas - or the majority of our teas
- to try to reduce the content of oxygen that the tea is being stored in. So it's gonna
have an effect, but it's not as extreme as most people think. It is extreme, of course,
if that open pouch is in an area where there are strong smells. But that goes back to the
first thing. That's really why we wanted to do these experiments, to sort of isolate the
differences. However, it is good advice to try to keep your tea in as air-tight an environment
as possible in order to maintain freshness. But don't worry too much about it. All right,
on to our last one, and that is light. So we have the same Long Jing green tea here.
They were both kept in glass containers, but this one was kept in a dark cupboard, and
this one was kept on the window sill. Now London is not known for being bright and sunny
all the time, so it wasn't direct, direct sunlight, but there was sunlight hitting these
leaves over the eight months. You can tell a distinct difference in color. This one looks
much more sort of bleached out and pale, compared to this one with more of those darker greener
notes. They both have those yellow notes, which are characteristic of Long Jing tea,
but this one looks more yellowed to me. So photo degradation is similar to oxidation,
but it is slightly different and will alter [not just] the look of the leaves, and the
taste, but also the nutrients in the leaf. Let's see if I can taste a difference... There
is a distinct difference in the look of the brewed leaves as well. I would say that this
one here, to my eye, looks more yellowed than this one here, but I'm going to try not to
allow that to affect my taste - although that is impossible. [POURING TEA] So let's give
this a taste - Long Jing. [SIPS TEA] Mm-Hmm. [SIPS TEA] [It's] nice.. nice. [It's] a little
bit nuttier than green. Now we've talked about Long Jing in previous videos. Sometimes that
nuttiness is the desired flavor. For me I like a little bit more of a balance. [SIPS
TEA] This is more on the side of those broad beans, edemame - toasted broad beans though
- nutty note. [POURING TEA] Let's taste this one here. So it's the same Long Jing that
we used. [SIPS TEA] Mmm. [It's] definitely brighter, definitely more juicy [and] less
nutty - both nice, actually. In fact, if you've got a green Long Jing and you want to nuttify
it a little bit then maybe throw it out into the sun a little bit [LAUGHTER]. [SIPS TEA]
[It's] definitely, definitely much more toasted broad beans and [SIPS TEA] cereal notes - like
breakfast cereal style warmth to the taste. [SIPS TEA] And this one is much brighter,
much fresher, [and] much lower in those notes. Certainly [there's a] big, big difference
here in terms of the taste. So I'm going to guess that this one here is being kept on
the window sill. [HOLDS UP CARD] So [there's some] pretty conclusive stuff there. [HOLDS
UP CARDS] Photo degradation, I would say, is a much bigger factor than oxygen degradation.
But bear in mind, people, that this is eight months sitting on a window sill under the
sun. So please don't freak out if you've left your tea outside for a little bit. That's
not gonna be the issue. This is eight months continuous, right? So the takeaway points
here we're gonna go through, but it's very important to note not to freak out about tea
storage. Yes, there are factors that you can control, and you should try to control them,
but you're not going to affect a tea really detrimentally if for a short period of time,
or in the short-term, you're not storing the tea absolutely perfectly. So let's go through
the different factors. The first one is aroma. [This is] very, very important. Keep your
tea away from aromas [and] away from smells. The second is humidity. It is important that
you try to control the humidity, especially if you are living in a high-humdity area.
You may want to get some of those humidity control packs. Temperature also makes a big
difference, especially with teas like Tie Guan Yin. Try to keep your tea in a cool environment.
Next up is oxygen. It's not a huge deal, but try to minimize the amount of oxygen, and
you certainly can get those oxygen-depletion packs that come in all of our teas. You can
just take that pack out and throw it into your tin. It's always a good thing just to
try to keep that going, and eek as much out of that little sache as you can. And the last
is photo degradation. Try not to keep your teas in direct sunlight. It's okay for you
to keep your teas in glass jars, as long as you keep them out of direct sunlight [and]
in dark environments. It's that direct sunlight - UV light, over extended periods of time
- which will degrade your teas. Okay? And that leads me on to where is the worst place
for you to keep your tea? The worst place, firstly, is in your kitchen area, because
there's gonna be a lot of smells in that area which may affect your tea. But even worse
than that is the cupboard above your sink, or the cupboard above your kettle, where you
keep all your other drinks like your coffees and hot chocolates, etcetera. This is where
the majority of people keep their teas, and it is absolutely the worst. First of all,
you're gonna be picking up the smells and scents of those spices - the coffees, the
hot chocolates, etcetera. You're also gonna be getting a lot of the humidity coming up
from the sink or from the kettle - [like] steam rising up. So you're gonna be putting
your tea in a smelly, humid environment. You're also gonna be adding extra temperature because
of the hot water and the kettle. So it is just the worst place for you to keep your
tea. So if there's anything you take away from this video [it's] get your tea out of
those cupboards. Try to keep your teas in tins. These are the Mei Leaf tins. We're gonna
be doing a whole video about how you can use these tins, and why they're an excellent way
for you to organize your tea, next week. But, of course, the seal on it is relatively airtight,
which means you're gonna control the amount of smells that potentially can go into your
tea leaf. It's also gonna mean that you're gonna control the amount of oxygen going into
your tea leaf. You can put an oxygen sache in here. [The] humidity you can control using
humidity packs, We made the tin exactly the same size as the Boveda humidity packs, so
you can have two-way humidity control. Obviously it's gonna prevent light from going in as
well. The only thing you can't control with these tins is temperature, so make sure you
keep your tea in a cool environment. That's all the information you need to know about
preserving the freshness of the tea. I hope that it helps you. Check out our other videos,
fire over any questions, comments, or video ideas. Other than that, I'm Don from Mei Leaf.
Thank you for being a part of the revelation of true tea. Stay way from those tea bags,
keep drinking the good stuff, and spread the word, because nobody deserves bad tea.