Friday, September 19, 2008

Plastic tea bags and storage

Reminder: fresh teas are best stored in a dry and cool place, without smells, little air and away from sun light.
The above blurry picture was taken from the inside of a silver tea bag like the one on the left hand picture. It shows that this kind of plastic tea bag lets some light through. This may harm very fresh and tender leaves like green tea or light Oolong. (For roasted teas, I don't think a little light won't matter much after all the heat they got through the roasting.)

Is it better to transfer the leaves to a tea box or tea jar then?

Fresh teas are meant to be drunk at a quick pace, within a season or 2. That means that the volume of tea will diminish over time. You would have to constantly transfer the remaining tea in smaller and smaller containers to minimize the air inside your tea box/jar.
Plastic bags offer a more practical way to minimize the contact of tea leaves with air: just fold the bag tightly and clip it tightly closed. And then, in a second step, put this plastic tea bag in a box to block the light.

Note: Not all plastic bags let light through. This dark green and gold tea bag, for instance, is thicker and blocks all light.

By the way, I've bought this new, professional vacuum sealer this week. It will give me more flexibility to make tea samples.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow... fancy new vacuum packer - business must be good

TeaMasters said...

The machine is great. It lets me control the sealing and the vacuum time. This is practical for tightly rolled Oolongs (long sealing time) and Baozhong type teas (short time to avoid breaking the leaves).

The previous machine was broken. I had to replace it. The funny thing is that I haven't received any order since I've got the machine! (Tea impacted by financial crisis, I guess.)

emmanuel said...

Good news for your business: stocks skyrocketed today!

Kahara said...

Hi. I did not realize until now that you're dealing tea. What do you think, would it be possible to ship to Finland?

TeaMasters said...

Emmanuel,
Yes, indeed, my e-mail is busy again!

Jonk,
If it's possible to ship to Sweden and Norway, Finland should also be OK. Please contact me at: stephane_erler@yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

Is the sealer any good? I've always worried that most non professional sealers would suck up the leaves. Also do you ship wholesale around the world?

TeaMasters said...

The sealer is excellent. But this one IS professional quality.

TALARICO Angélo said...

I would like to know if would it be possible to buy some silver tea bag and to ship in France ?

Unknown said...

Vacuum sealing is the best way to store food and many other things.