# How to Store Tea So It Keeps Its Flavor

Tea is stored in airtight, opaque containers, away from light, moisture, heat, and foreign odors. The exception is pu-erh and other fermented teas: they need air access and moderate humidity, so they are never sealed tight.

Tea leaf is hygroscopic and greedily absorbs everything around it: a jar that once held spices, or a shelf next to the coffee, will kill a subtle aroma within a week. Proper storage doesn't improve tea (except pu-erhs and whites), but it keeps it from degrading for months.

1. **Remove tea's five enemies.** Tea is spoiled by light (destroys chlorophyll and essential oils), moisture (triggers mold and oxidation), foreign odors (the leaf absorbs them irreversibly), air (slowly airs out the aroma), and heat (accelerates all these processes at once). A good storage spot cuts off all five factors.
2. **Pick the container.** Best of all: tin and ceramic caddies with tight lids, or multilayer foil zip bags. Worst of all: clear glass in the light and plastic that gives off a smell. A paper bag works only as temporary packaging for a couple of weeks.
3. **Keep green and yellow teas cold.** Longjing, Biluochun, and yellow teas lose their freshness fastest of all: within 3–6 months at room temperature. A hermetically sealed reserve can be kept in the refrigerator at 0–5°C, but be sure to let the pack warm to room temperature before opening, or condensation will settle on the leaf.
4. **Keep oolongs and red teas in a cupboard.** Red teas and dark oolongs like Da Hong Pao live comfortably for a year or two in an airtight caddy in a dark cupboard. Light rolled oolongs — Tieguanyin, Alishan — are fussier: they are often kept refrigerated in vacuum packaging, and an opened pack is drunk within a month or two.
5. **Let white tea and pu-erh breathe.** White tea and pu-erh are the only classes that improve with time. Sheng and shu cakes and pressed Lao Shou Mei are kept at room temperature, 50–70% humidity, away from odors and direct light: in paper, cardboard boxes, unglazed ceramics. Airtight seals and the refrigerator are contraindicated — fermentation would stop.
6. **Separate and label.** Don't store different teas in one container and don't put shu pu-erh right next to green tea: aromas migrate. Label caddies with the purchase date — it's easier to drink tea while it's at its best than to discover a forgotten pack three years later.

## Tips

- Bought a large pack? Split it: seal the main reserve airtight and keep a "working" caddy for a couple of weeks at hand, opening that one more often.
- The kitchen is the worst place for tea: steam, stove heat, and food smells. Better a cupboard in a living room, away from the radiator.
- If a tea has gone stale, don't throw it out: slightly "tired" oolongs and red teas can be warmed in a dry pan over minimal heat for a couple of minutes — some of the aroma returns.

Source: https://www.dao-cha.info/en/guide/tea-storage