Storage Tips for Teas.
There are many different storage tips for teas you can find online or in books, but what we share here would be specifically for Taiwanese oolong teas. To retain freshness of teas, we can not stress enough on how important it is to store them properly so that they don’t spoil or go stale quickly. We want you to be able to savour your teas as much as possible.
The general guideline is to seal them up properly shortly after scooping out your teas from the package they come in. The best package would have teas enclosed in a zipper bag or pouch with aluminum foil lining inside, vacuum-sealed bags or in a tin container that is opaque in colour with some thickness. If your package comes without a zipper, make sure you seal it up with a clip after opening. For plastic packages, as the plastic can affect the flavour or aroma of your tea in the long run, we would suggest you to transfer them into one of the above or into a ceramic or tin caddy with tightly-sealed lid. The sealing limits the amount of oxidation or exposure to air so that your teas can stay as fresh as possible.
Also, try to store teas in a dry and cool place, away from the sun, heat source (eg. oven), light and moisture. Some blogs suggest storing teas in the refrigerator, but our recommendation is not to do so for oolong teas. It is also important to keep your teas in a drawer or shelf space away from other strong spices, coffee, room diffuser or anything that your teas can absorb smells from.
Teas can’t really go bad unless you put soaked or partially-wet tea leaves back into the package. So make sure your tea leaves are dry at all times. However, even by doing your best to store your teas, there is a limited shelf-life for each tea and this depends on their oxidation and roasting levels.
The rule-of-thumb is that the more oxidized or roasted a tea is, the longer shelf-life it has. That being said, highly-oxidized Eastern Beauty Oolong and medium-oxidized Hong Shui Oolong, or highly-roasted Dongding and Tieguanyin can be stored for longer (about 3 years) than lightly-oxidized and unroasted high mountain oolongs like Dayuling, Lishan and Shanlinxi (about 2 years).
Oolong Tea Type / Oxidation Level / Roasting Level
Baozhong / 8-12% / 0%
High Mountain Oolong / 12-15% / 0%
Dongding Oolong / 20-35% / 60-80%
Tieguanyin Oolong / 40-50% / 60-80%
Eastern Beauty Oolong / 50-60% / 0%
Happy Brewing!
