Store tea in an airtight, opaque container in a cool, dark, dry cupboard, away from the stove, sunlight, and strong smells like coffee or spices. Skip the fridge; its humidity and food odors do more harm than good. Stored this way, green and white tea keep six months to a year after opening, and black tea about two years.
Dried tea looks inert, but it isn't. Inside a tin, the leaves go on slowly changing, and left to their own devices they change for the worse: the aroma fades first, then the brightness, until a tea that once tasted vivid tastes merely brown. Good storage won't stop that process, but it slows it enough that you'll finish the tin long before it matters.
Tea's four enemies
Nearly all storage advice comes down to protecting tea from air, light, heat, and moisture.
- Air drives oxidation, which flattens flavor a little more each day.
- Light breaks down the compounds responsible for color and aroma.
- Heat speeds up every kind of deterioration at once.
- Moisture is the worst of the four. A little invites mustiness or mold, and damp leaves soak up surrounding smells even faster than dry ones.
Everything below is just a practical way of keeping those four at bay.
Give it an airtight home
Move your tea into a container with a tight-sealing lid. Opaque metal tins are the classic choice because they block light and air at once. Ceramic canisters with a gasket work well too, and glass is fine if it lives in the dark. A traditional double-lid caddy, with one inner seal and one outer, is both practical and handsome.
If your tea came in a resealable foil bag, keep using it. Press out the extra air and seal it after every scoop; for extra insurance, put the whole bag inside a tin.
Keep it cool, dark, and dry
Light, heat, and moisture share a single remedy: a closed cupboard or pantry shelf away from the cooking. The places to avoid are, unhelpfully, the convenient ones. A sunny windowsill bathes tea in light. The shelf above the stove or beside the kettle bathes it in heat and steam, and steam can undo an otherwise careful setup. A spot that stays at a steady temperature is better than one that swings warm and cool through the day.
Keep it away from strong smells
Tea absorbs odors readily. That's part of what makes scented teas like jasmine possible, and it's a liability in a crowded kitchen. Stored beside coffee, spices, or a jar of garlic, tea takes on all of it, and no amount of brewing will get last week's curry out of a delicate green. Give each tea its own container, too, so a smoky lapsang souchong doesn't perfume the white tea beside it.
Do you need the fridge or freezer?
Usually not. For everyday teas a tin in the pantry is all you'll need, and the fridge works against you: it's humid and full of food smells, which are exactly what you're trying to avoid.
The freezer is the exception, and only for long-term storage of something delicate and perishable, such as a fine green tea or matcha bought in quantity. The rules are strict. The container must be truly airtight and dry, or you'll trade slow staleness for freezer burn. And when you take it out, let the sealed container come all the way to room temperature before opening it. Open it cold and condensation forms on the leaves the moment warm air reaches them, delivering the very moisture you meant to keep out. Our guide to refrigerating and freezing tea covers the details.
Date the tin
When you open a tea, write the date on the container. It takes a few seconds and spares you from mystery tins. Delicate, lightly oxidized teas like green and white fade fastest and are best within six months to a year of opening. Black tea holds up for a couple of years, and some pu-erh is made precisely to be aged. A date on the lid tells you which tea to drink next, before it starts to fade.
Treat your tea this way, sealed and cool and in the dark, and it will taste the same in its last cup as in its first.