Seven Cups Tea Forum Topic: storing tea properly

Seven Cups Tea Forum Topic: storing tea properly http://www.sevencups.com/forum/ Seven Cups Tea Forum Topic: storing tea properly en Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:42:28 +0000 admin on "storing tea properly" http://www.sevencups.com/forum/topic/41#post-160 Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:45:52 +0000 admin 160@http://www.sevencups.com/forum/ Hi Andres As you say more, it has caused me to wonder whether or your problem rests in the tea you are buying rather than your storage technique. Good jasmine tea holds it's smell well for quite a while no matter how it is stored. Let me explain. The very best jasmine to is expensive and time consuming to make. Good green tea comes is the spring, but jasmine comes in the summer. Good jasmine maocha is produced in the spring but the moisture is not completely removed and the tea is stored with care so that it will not yellow while it awaits the jasmine. When the jasmine blooms the tea is infused with the blossoms and then slightly roasted. This is done five or 6 times until the tea is infused with jasmine "to the bone". This process can take as long as twenty days. Most common jasmine tea comes from summer harvested green still the quality is still determined by how many time the tea is infused with jasmine. Of course jasmine is expensive so there are short cuts taken, the most common is using magnolias or chemicals, or combinations of both. The way to judge jasmine is not too difficult. One first sniff of the dry tea should not be sharp, it should draw you in, rather than cause you to back up from the intensity. Brew you tea multiple times paying close attention to the smell. Good jasmine will hold a consistent fragrance for 6 or more infusions. Jasmine tea that has been scented by chemicals will lose it's fragrance after a few infusions. Jasmine that has used magnolias will reveal itself by the fragrance changing in it's floral character as it is infused, you should be able to detect the fragrance of to different flowers. The blossoms are removed from the tea, but if you find a dried blossom the is red in the tea, it began as a white magnolia flower. The blending of flowers is quite common, and some blossom blends are tightly guarded secrets and there are well known tea houses in Beijing that specialize in such blends. Jasmine tea in China is primarily consumed in the north of China away from the tea producing areas of China. Part of the reason for it's popularity in the north is the ability of jasmine tea to maintain it's character under difficult conditions, where the freshness of tea becomes less of issue. Of course what you are saying about storage is very true, but the sensitive of good jasmine is not as volatile as green tea and some lightly oxidized oolongs. These are just some more considerations to think about as a jasmine aficionado. Austin andres on "storing tea properly" http://www.sevencups.com/forum/topic/41#post-159 Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:20:40 +0000 andres 159@http://www.sevencups.com/forum/ I was writing about preserving jasmine teas in general. Jasmine teas from SevenCups have not been a problem in the bags that you mail them in. However, I have also tried other jasmine teas from other local sellers here and not all of them preserve that well. In that respect, I have found one specific tea here that seems to be my favourite (very strong and fresh jasmine flavour/fragrance) and that is somewhat similar to your jasmine pearls (but has even stronger jasmine flavour). I would gladly purchase a tea like that also from you but I checked all the jasmine teas you offered and did not find that specific one (called here "Tai Mu Long", source unknown but claimed to be direct from China, and seems to be of good quality, except for the preservation problems). There are many similar jasmine teas (called mostly "Dragon Pearls") available here locally but they are of inferior quality, and I have found only one source (out of the many) which can be compared with the quality offered by Seven Cups. The most similar one you offer is jasmine pearls, which is very good too but has a little less jasmine flavour/fragrance. If you could expand the selection of jasmine teas you offer, I'd be glad to try the new ones out. Otherwise, I hope to remain a loyal customer of Seven Cups since the Meng Ding snow drops tea is really very good, and your jasmine pearls are very good too. As for some more discoveries, it still seems that an airtight silicon-sealed glass container kept in *dark* and cool may be the best option. I experimented with it and in such a container, the fragrance/flavour loss of jasmine teas seemed to be minimal compared with other containers I tried. admin on "storing tea properly" http://www.sevencups.com/forum/topic/41#post-158 Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:11:26 +0000 admin 158@http://www.sevencups.com/forum/ Hi Andres I am reading this en-route coming back from China, so I will not try to go into to much detail. The enemies, as you seem to have discovered, are light, humidity, air, and other smells. Please tell which jasmine tea you are referring to. Some or less stable then others. I am assuming that you are talking about one of our teas. Jasmine tea stores by in large well compared to greens, that is why they are so popular in the north of China where fresh tea is harder to get. I hope you are well. Austin andres on "storing tea properly" http://www.sevencups.com/forum/topic/41#post-157 Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:31:03 +0000 andres 157@http://www.sevencups.com/forum/ Proper tea storage seems to be a problem which has not been paid enough attention. I have experimented a little and found out that jasmine tea is particularly vulnerable to changes in aroma and flavour: oxygen seems to be the worst enemy. Unfortunately, I am a little addicted to a certain aroma- and flavour-related aspect of some jasmine teas, and it is this very aspect that tends to get lost quite soon upon improper storage. As for tea I have purchased from Seven Cups, the coated bags you use seem to be one of the best options for efficient preservation of the original aroma and flavour. (And your teas really have it right when I purchase them!) However, these bags have just one little minus: when I re-close the bag, I have to be extra careful and check that the bag is really closed indeed, otherwise the tea would go bad. Of course I can do (and am doing) that but I am interested in keeping my everyday tea in a more solid container, especially one with a more solid closing mechanism, so that I won't have to worry about whether I closed the container properly or not. For longer-term storage I find these bags to be the best option indeed. I have experimented only with jasmine teas as I do not drink other teas very much. In a non-airtight container, a good jasmine tea will obtain an excessively sweet aroma (unwanted, although some people may even like it) or a specific extraneous scent (unwanted) just in days. I also experimented with a stainless-steel container closed airtight with a silicon-sealed lid (the lid itself is unfortunately made of transparent plastic, so I had to cover it to prevent exposure to light - but it is still plastic). Even with this container it seems that tea somehow loses some of its original aroma in a matter of days (even though in such a container, tea does not obtain any unwanted aroma -- just loses a little of the original). Maybe it is the plastic lid that does this? I suspect that stainless steel could be guilty too. Hence, I have found out that the usual metal tea boxes (non-airtight) sold everywhere are out of question for jasmine tea (and probably for other teas). Anything other non-airtight is very bad. Any rubber sealings are bad too (only silicon sealings seem to be OK). Wood seems to be bad. Plastic seems to be bad. Any other porous material seems to be bad. Glass is reported to be bad because letting light in. (But otherwise the best tea I can buy locally in my country has been kept in a glass jar not exposed to light, with a silicon sealing and a stainless-steel lid, and this tea definitely has the right aroma and flavour when I buy it.) This has led me to the conclusion that glazed ceramics (plus silicon sealings) may be one of the best options for storing jasmine tea. Another good option seems to be glass+silicon (and possibly stainless steel lid) if kept away from light. Opaque glass (airtight with a silicon lid) could be even the most efficient method but I have not seen such containers anywhere. Coated bags (as also used by Seven Cups) seem another great option but they have the minus I mentioned above. I have not finished my search yet, therefore, I thought that it could be most welcome if Seven Cups could share the expert experience about various options for properly storing delicate teas (especially jasmine tea) -- maybe in a video or here at the forum.