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Tea Tales

What To Do with Expired Teas?

Surely you all have experience of stumbling upon a bag of tea in your cupboard only to find out that it has already expired. Maybe it’s from a friend or a family member, or maybe it’s something you bought on a trip but completely forgot about until it’s too late. But is it too late? Are expired teas okay to drink?

Expiration Date of Tea Leaves

Well... it depends! Technically, teas do not have an expiration date. As long as the leaves in the package didn’t go bad, you can still drink it after years of storage. "Then where is the expiration date coming from?" In many countries, tea leaves are considered "Packaged Foods", thus are regulated according to food safety acts. In Taiwan, "Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation" requires all packaged foods to clearly mark an expiration date or a shelf life on the package. For tea, it is usually 2 or 3 years. However, as suppose to food, tea actually resembles wine more. As long as the storage condition is ideal, you can store and age your teas for as long as you want. The most common packaging for teas is to vacuum sealed them with aluminum foil bags. In this case, as long as the package is still intact, it is very unlikely for the tea to be affected by the environment. So it should be okay to drink. As for the ones that are already opened, there are a few tips to tell if they are still good to drink:

Is it moldy? Check to see if there are visible molds on the teas. If yes, then you should definitely throw it out.
Does it have a damp smell? Smell to see if it’s musty. If there is a damp smell, or if the leaves feels damp and not crispy, but it hasn’t go moldy, it is still salvageable. Put it in a rice cooker. Don’t add any water, put the lid on then plug it but don’t press cook. Let it gently heat up the tea leaves for an hour. Open the lid to let out the humidity. Repeat a few times until you can smell the aroma of tea instead of the moisture. Congratulations! You can now enjoy your teas.
Does it taste sour like vinegar? If you can’t tell from looking for smelling, brew a little and see if the tea smells or tastes sour like vinegar. Some teas are naturally citrusy, but a spoiled tea will have a different, strong, sourness to it. If that’s the case with yours, it’s better to throw it out.

How About A Best Before Date?

With that being said, although tea doesn’t have a set expiration date, different types of tea still have their best before date. In terms of fermentation, the more fermented (darker color) teas can be store longer than the less fermented ones; in terms of the shape of the leaves, ball-shaped teas are easier to store than striped ones.

For example, for non-fermented green teas, it is recommended to finish within two weeks, or as soon as possible after opening. That is because the aroma is very easy to fade away with time. Once it’s gone, green tea will lose it’s greatest feature. Same case with very light fermented Wulong teas. These kind of Wulongs are green in color, with grassy aroma. If you want to enjoy this kind of refreshing scent, we would recommend you to finish the tea in season. As for the other partially fermented teas (eg. highly-fermented Wulongs, Tiekuanyin teas, Oriental Beauty teas, etc.) and fully fermented black teas, they are all suitable to store. With enough fermentation, these teas have a richer taste that will become smoother with time, making them great for aging. Lastly, Puerh tea (Chinese black tea) is another tea that will age well under right condition. We will talk more about the interesting facts about Puerhs in another article.

Aged Lioujixian

Aged Assam Red Tea

Aged Tiekuanyin Tea

Keys to Store Tea Well

Well then, how to store teas so that they stay good and age well? The keys to preserve teas are "dry", "dark", and "clean". To keep it dry, if you like using a tea caddy to store your teas, choose a suitable container material. The best material should have high density and can keep the humidity out, such as tin/pewter, tinplate, or glazed clay. Non-glazed caddy or purple clay caddy are also popular for they can help the teas age, since they allow air to pass through, but you will have to store the caddy in a arid place to prevent humidity from accumulating in the caddy. No matter what kind of tea caddy you use, or even if you simply keep the teas in its original package, it is recommended not keeping them in places with complicated smells, such as kitchen, so the teas will not absorb the scents. Furthermore, if you plan to age the tea in for a few years, it’s better to store at least 2-3 kgs together at once, instead of only storing a small amount. This will help the tea to transform better and became less susceptible to humidity.

Although aged teas have many enjoyable features, in our opinion, tea is meant to be drunk and not just to be stored. In order to actually age the tea enough to enjoy the result of aging, you will need at least a few decades. It’s hard to say how many decades we have in a life. That’s why we always recommend to enjoy the tea while it’s good. There’s no point storing the tea in hope that it will become more valuable after aging. After all, if something goes wrong during the years of storing, say the tea became moldy by accident, won’t that be a even bigger shame? If you really want to have a taste of aged teas, you’re more than welcome to take a look at our aged tea selections. Our aged teas are stored in batch, so it will yield a better result. Before that, clear out your tea drawer to see if you have any forgotten teas, or the teas you treasured too much to drink. Open them up to enjoy, so they can be remembered by their best taste!