Freshness in Tea

I've been obsessing on the freshness of coffee, and I started wondering if the same issues apply to tea.  When does tea ... peak?  Does it have an optimum flavor period, after which it begins to degrade in the same way that coffee does?  It seems appropriate to end Hot Tea Month with some answers to these questions.  Not from me, mind you, I only had questions.  These answers posted to the Teamail list came from Cindy, the Tea Fairy who sent me all those wonderful yunnan teas to try, with contributions also from Jill of Special Tea Pots.

How Old is Too Old?

Green teas need to be as fresh as possible to be flavorful. After a year, they're probably too old. Indeed, some would argue that once the picking season has passed, they've already lost much of their flavor.  I believe that white teas are the same but am not as familiar with these. I'm also not very well-versed in Japanese greens, which are processed differently than Chinese. Oolongs are best fresh, and I find that mine lose much of their flavor after a year. I tend to toss any left after 2 years.  I'm assuming that those greener oolongs, such as baozhongs, are more susceptible to fading flavor. Black teas last longer (I suppose this is due to roasting?). I've read that 2-3 years is probably the time limit. I think that some black teas actually need to sit for a bit before the flavor is full. At last year's Tea Expo, I was thrilled to try some Nilgiri that had just been picked and processed the week before (the plantation manager/owner was giving a tea-tasting). He noted that this was much too soon to be sipping, but he wanted us to try it. Very raw-feeling and not something I'd want to drink much of, but a great learning experience! Aged teas, like puerh and aged oolongs, are meant to be stored for quite a while. I have several puerh cakes and touchas that are stuck in the dark nether-regions of my cabinet drawers (or tucked in a dark closet), waiting for another decade or two. I believe that aged oolongs are re-roasted(?) annually, so I tend to purchase rather small amounts of these pricey teas from superior vendors who deal with them for me. Scented teas are good for 9 months for optimum flavor, depending on how they are scented.  Some teas like Market spice have a 2 month shelf life. Herb teas - Some herbs like Rooibos do not expire.  Some herb blends keep their flavor longer than the teas. Of course, all of the above depends on some really important factors: If the tea is sealed in airtight containers and kept out of the sunlight, it will last much longer. This is how a quality vendor would store the tea. How many times the tea has been moved from one container to the next (as it passes from processing to retailer, importer, retailer, shops) can impact the quality of the tea. Harvest and processing dates.  Teas are processed soon after picking, so the harvest date should be similar to processing date -- these dates are important for two reasons. First, so you can know how fresh the tea is (especially relevant for greens/oolongs). Second, it lets you know that vendor is nowledgeable, cares about the tea, and has a good relationship with the company/farm/plantation the tea is purchased from. Here in the U.S., it can be hard to get greens and oolongs during the harvest season, except from those vendors who actually travel to the country's tea farms.

So I guess I need to check the tea in my cupboard for dates. But I honestly don't know if I'd recognize staleness in tea. I've done quite a lot of tea tasting this last month, now I just need to get a little more refined about it. I've decided I need to do the same thing with tea that I did with coffee... compare.  Eddi-cate myself.  Get some fresh, and compare it to some old stuff, and calibrate my tongue.  Ok, then.  Ready, set, shop!

Comments

[Flowers Tea]

With so many tea varieties around, it's really hard which one to choose or which is the best. Good thing there are blogs like yours around to educate and inform us.

[Nina]

I like green tea and oolong tea from www.teacuppa.com

teabags i would go for bigelow when I am in hurry!

[Zen]

You're kidding, right? Bigelow tea is tea-bag tea. Yech. Who cares if it's fresh or not?

[Kathy]

It says on the www.kasora.com website that the mark of a good Chinese black tea is that it ages well. I wonder if this is the case with Indian black teas too?

[Kimberly]

I just linked to this in my comments (http://kimberlys-cup.blogspot.com/2007/01/tea-things.html) as someone had asked me similar questions. Thanks for the info!
BTW- I've not been getting comments coming through properly since the beginning of January. I just found a few from this site that were left weeks ago, but I did not discover until today, Feb 9th. Feel free to come back by!

[Sabine]

Thought you would be interested in this...words from Cindi Bigelow about what makes our teas really good (staying fresh is a big factor!), check it out:

http://www.bigelowteablog.com/2007/01/19/a-tea-drinker-asks-and-we-answer/

For more go to our blog to learn about Bigelow tea, www.bigelowteablog.com

thanks,

Sabine for Bigelow Tea

[Reese]

Thanks for the info. Very useful.

I have a question, maybe you have an answer. For my birthday my hubby took me out to a Chinese restaurant and the kind staff there presented me with a little sampler packet of loose teas. There are 4 oolongs (I think), a green and a black. Of the ones I've tried, when I steep them the leaves get a slimy, slug-just-crawled-through sheen at the top. I'm thinking this isn't normal. :) Should I throw them out? What would cause that? I've never seen it before with any of my other teas.

Thanks for any tips you may have!

Reese

[Pebbles]

Wow - this is such a useful post for me! I have become a huge tea drinker over the last year and this information will come in handy, for sure! Thanks!