When it comes to storage, tea leaves can be grouped with other dried foods. This include dried fruits such as mango slices, goji berries and jujubes (red dates) as well as dried meat.
Why Tea & Food Is Dried for Conservation?
In fact, drying is one of the oldest methods of preserving food and it’s part of different tea processing methods for thousands of years. From a tea production point of view, drying simply can be seen as extracting water content from the leaves.
Different types of tea undergo different levels of water extraction. Green tea is only shortly air dried and pan-fried in China, which is why it’s water content remains high and the color of the leaves is still green. In contract, the water content in black tea is extracted to a minimal amount, which is why the color turns black.
The less water content the leaves have the longer the taste and aroma can be preserved. This is why green tea should be preferably consumed within the year of production, while black tea can be kept at least for two years. However, when stored in an airtight jar and stored in a fridge, green tea be preserved for up to 2 years.
Even black tea can decay fast if you expose the leaves to humidity and oxygen. The dry leaves act as a magnet that will absorb liquids from the air. Therefore, airtight glass jars can come in handy as well for black teas to keep the leaves dry.
Glass jars have the following benefits:
- Airtight jars can seal the content away from humidity and air. This makes them also suitable for storage in the fridge, which is highly recommended for green tea.
- Protects the tea from bad odours. Store tea unsealed in the kitchen or fridge and they'll easily absorb the smell of food and spices. Airtight jars will prevent this from happening.
- Glass is smell free and therefore won't affect the taste of tea and food.
- They look great and fit in almost any kind of kitchen decor.
Because of the above benefits, glass tea jars are highly popular among tea users. However, there’s also one major disadvantage that you should be aware of:
- Glass material doesn’t protect the content from light and heat. Therefore, glass jars should preferably be stored inside a cabinet or fridge.
How Much Tea Can Fit?
How much can fit inside a jar really depends on what you want to store in it. Even if you plan to store tea, tightly rolled teas can fit up to 3 times as much compared to a loosely rolled tea. In the video below we demonstrate this with a Tieguanyin (tightly rolled), Dahongpao (loosely rolled) and dried Jujube fruit slices using this jar.
Why You Should Fill Up Jars as Much as Possible
Even though the air is kept outside, there's always some room left inside the jar that contains some oxygen. To keep this to a minimum amount, it's better to store as much as tea as possible in the jar to leave less room for air.
Curious about our other tea storage ideas? Simply visit our tea storage products page.