How to Best Store Loose Tea Leaves
You’ve gone to great lengths to find a great tea. You’ve spent two to five times or more what it would cost to get an ordinary tea from the grocery store. But even fine teas can go stale, like any agricultural product. In fact, finer teas often have fewer or no artificial preservatives and can decay the quickest. But keeping your tea stored properly can make it last as long as a year.
A proper tin or chest is your best defense against the aging effects of air and light. You can find them in different materials and hundreds of stylish designs. But the two chief characteristics they need to have are to be airtight and light-proof.
Ordinary sunlight and indoor lighting both have a UV component. That energetic light wave can break down the molecules in tea, stripping color and flavor over time. Keeping your teas in the dark may not allow you to enjoy a display of the multi-colored fine leaves from around the world. But it is preferred in order to preserve the flavor and appearance of the brew.
Air contains oxygen, which readily combines with a wide variety of organic molecules, altering them. The result is rarely an enhancement of the flavor of tea. That oxidation breaks apart molecules and changes their flavor profile.
But air has more than just oxygen. It also carries odors from foods, air pollutants like hydrogen sulfide (a component of smog) and other compounds. Those readily find their way into both the water and the tea leaf and bag. Keeping air out during storage keeps those chemical reactions to the minimum. Those will happen on a very small scale when the tin or chest is opened, but not enough to cause a change that most can detect.
Air also contains moisture, water molecules that float around. Higher humidity climates have more, desert climates have relatively less, but all but the most extreme environments have some. Moist air carries odors, enhances the effect of oxidation and can itself produce chemical changes. It can also form an environment that is friendly to the growth of mold and other organisms that can ruin your tea.
Keeping the interior of the tin or chest moisture tight and dry helps your tea retain the optimum flavor. Get an airtight tin or chest, then add a small desiccant to absorb water that gets within the container.
Since tea leaves themselves will evaporate a certain amount over time, it’s best to keep each one separated. The flavor profile of your favorite oolong can be altered if it’s exposed to the same air as a good rooiboos. Whether you use individual tins, or a type of container in which each cubical is closed off is a matter of convenience.
A good tea caddy is your first and best line of defense. But help it along by keeping teas away from spices, heat and other things in the kitchen that can rob your tea of flavor. Storing the tea in a cool, dry area away from pungent foods - and away from other teas - will reduce the chances of your fine leaf being exposed or degraded.
What's the Best Way to Brew A Great Cup of Tea?
What could be more important than preparing a fine cup of tea the right way? You’ve spent the time to find and the money to buy a good product. It should be prepared as it, and you, deserve. But most don’t have time for a Japanese tea ceremony. A full ritual, with food and drink, can take up to five hours. So, for those with less time, but the desire for a good brew, here are some tips.
The first thing to examine is the water you use. Even the finest leaf can yield a less than stellar cup if the water is wrong.
It can be too heavily chlorinated, or full of minerals, or ‘stale’. Yes, water can get stale, in the sense that - since it absorbs odors from the air - it can contain chemicals that lessen the quality of your cup.
Water can contain heavy concentrations of calcium carbonate. That’s the white powder that builds up around the spout or on the tile in the kitchen or bathroom. It’s not harmful. In fact, a certain amount of it is healthy. But it darkens the brew. Pure H2O will leave a cup much lighter looking. Water can also have a large relative amount of iron. Again, that isn’t necessarily unhealthy, but it can alter the taste somewhat, giving it a metallic overtone.
Water temperature is important, too. Boiling hot water can be a little too ‘aggressive’ on a tea leaf. Water around 80°C/176°F, on average, is preferred. (Pure H2O at 1 atmosphere of pressure, around sea level, boils at 100°C/220°F.) The exact temperature varies a little bit with the type of tea, however.
Black teas do well with water that is nearer boiling. Oolongs are better at a slightly lower temperature. Green tea can become bitter if the water is too hot and white tea needs the lowest temperature of all. Some experimentation will be needed.
Adding the right amount of tea will take a little trial and error too. Start with one teaspoon per cup. Adjust to personal taste - some prefer a little stronger brew, others a lighter one. If you want a natural way of reducing caffeine, but don’t want to buy decaf, use the same tea for a second cup and discard the first. Most of the caffeine will get into the first one.
Steeping time varies a little, but 2-3 minutes is about right for most teas and tea drinkers. If you’re in a hurry and you use tea bags, you can speed up the process by dunking. But, beware. True aficionados will be horrified if they see you! Here again, personal preference will influence the time, since steeping longer brings out more flavor, color, tannins and caffeine.
If you add milk to your tea, and you should at least try it once, you’ll want to steep a little longer. Longer steeping times brings out more tannins and other compounds that will get ‘softened’ by the milk. But you’ll still want to drink something that tastes like tea, not like milk. It’s tea with milk, after all, not milk with tea flavoring. If you use loose leaf, invest in a good pot and/or tea strainer to keep the leaf parts from falling into the bottom of the cup.
Now for the most important step: drink. Oh, and there’s one final step… Enjoy!
Herbal Teas or Tisanes, Chamomile, Lemon Grass, Sage, Rose Hips, Rooibos
Herbal tea or tisane, which isn’t actually made from the tea bush Camilla Sinensis, has been consumed for at least as long as the genuine article - over 5,000 years.
Made from a variety of plants, and prepared in a similar way (infusing hot water through the substance), herbal teas provide many of the same values. They’re relaxing, enjoyable, tasty and have many health benefits.
Chamomile, for example, is one of the most popular of herbal teas. A plant known to have medicinal qualities at least as far back as ancient Egypt, it makes a pleasant brew. It can help relieve anxiety and act as a mild soporific (sleeping brew). It is naturally caffeine free and has a delightful floral aroma and taste.
Dried lemon grass is another very common base used to make herbal tea. Not surprisingly, it has a slightly lemony flavor and its spicy aftertaste brings a pleasant zing to the palate. Studies strongly suggest it has antibacterial properties, too, and it’s known to aid digestion.
Sage, though often used as an herb in cooking, makes for a superb tisane. The calming effect of sage herbal tea is well known, but it also has a very light taste. Slightly peppery, it goes well with a variety of dishes or stands well all on its own.
But bushy plants are not the only source of herbal teas. Rose Hips, for example, have long been used to make a fine brew. Produced from the fruit of the rose plant, this reddish drink has a delicate taste and provides ample vitamin C. A dried 100g sample will contain almost 2g of vitamin C.
During WWII, when imports of oranges were restricted by the war, the locals turned to Rose Hips to help supplement their need for that important vitamin.
While the alleged aphrodisiac effect of ginseng is still up for debate, both the delightful taste and the health benefits have been well established. It should be consumed in moderation, since drinking herbal ginseng tea can lead to excess nervousness.
Produced from the fleshy root of the Panax plant, ginseng has a very distinctive taste. Some find it bitter, others liken it to a mild soda pop. As with any herbal, you either like it or you don’t.
Rooibos, an African word for ‘red bush’, while not a true tea, is closer to black tea than many herbals. It is becoming increasingly popular in the U.S. and elsewhere, thanks to its distinctive taste and red color.
The color is appropriate, since the taste is - while hard to describe - also ‘red’. Tangy, flavorful and with the clarity of a fine, light, black tea it is a wonderful addition to the tea tin.
Whether your goal is to relieve the symptoms of a cold, strive for longer life or simply to relax and have a tasty hot brew, herbal teas are an essential part of the connoisseur’s cabinet.
