Storing Puerh Samples
How do people care for their samples? I’ve got dozens of those paper/foil pouches with varying amounts of sheng plus dozens more little baggies from swaps, TTBs, etc. I’ve afraid they are 1) going bad; and 2) no longer indicative of what the tea is really like.
During the summer, I would open all the pouches on humid days, but with New England winter approaching that is no longer an option.
I vacuum seal some of my samples to keep them in stasis and that has been working well as it also stopped contamination. I use a foodsaver vacuum sealer that I mostly use for freezing food and sous vide cooking.
Other than that, I group alike, stuff them into a crock and try and drink them sooner than later.
The samples from sellers like Wymm Tea, wrapped in pu’er paper make me happy and do the best. I place those sheng samples with my sheng cakes. However, those paper wrapped samples are the worst for mess and figuring out what each one is.
I use small ceramic and clay jars. I store away along with my larger stored puerh.
The jars take up a lot of storage space, but I feel it gives the tea room to breathe. This makes sure you can fully enjoy the sample and better judge if you want more. Also, it helps with accessibility. You only need to find the jars and pick out which sample you wish to try. With re-sealants or vacuum sealed you need to reseal and re-vacuum each time you wish to drink from it.
I read MarshallN’s feedback on a pu sample thats been in plastic for a long time. Lost its flavor so i guess they do need airing out.
I started worrying about this when the 2nd Puerh TTB came back. Some of the teas I used to start the box were not nearly as good as tea from the original cakes that I’d kept at home. I’ll admit that 2 round trips across the country is an extreme case but I started thinking about all of the samples I have lying around the house.
I take one a day to work with me to use and drink one at home a day ontop of my other tea usage, so I actually don’t store them long…
You could just drink a lot :)
I do. My problem is that 1) I buy a lot, and 2) I hate letting go of the last few grams.
So for whatever reason, one of which being that I am really hyper and happy, I thought about the concept of tea addiction mixed with alcoholics anonymous to come up with:
T&A
TeaAddicts Anonymous
or
TA&A, but that doesn’t provide a funny look as would:“I’ll talk to you all later, I am heading off to my T&A group”
LP — Some of us Steepster tea addicts joked last year about having a “12-steep” meeting.
I believe our motto was “I admit I’m powerless over tea, and I just bought some more. Wanna’ see?”
I’m thinking I’m going to just have a huge Sample Sipdown when I get a couple of days off after Christmas, with no one in the house to interfere with the marathon 4-day tea-drinking session I intend to have. It’s going to be glorious.
A sample sip down would take me a long time. I’ve got an awful lot of 25g Yunnan Sourcing samples that would take months to go through. Plus I have samples from a half dozen other vendors, not to mention samples from swaps. I’m sure I have more than a kilogram of samples when added together.
That describes my problem exactly. Plus add about 25 small plastic bags from various TTBs and swaps. I’m trying to at least use up the baggies, but I’ve got dozens. If it is a single sample, I need to wait for a time I can really appreciate the tea. On a night when I’m watching football, I just break a chunk off of something I’ve got lots of.
I’ve been doing my best to plow through my samples while I’m out of work. Averaging about 3 teas a day right now, which works out to 15 to 25 grams a day…. Unless I have something with extreme durability or crazy strong qi. I did a couple of days in a row of qi heavy teas and felt like a strung out junkie, almost wasteful but I wanted to drink them all together while they were fresh in my mind. Got a couple more weeks and it seems like they just multiply when I’m not looking, but I’m starting to notice a dent finally. Of course when I’m out of them I’ll be wishing I had some so I don’t drink all my cakes up lol
I keep it in the bag where it came or put it in a glass pot (avoiding sun light) like other teas as I try to drink sample first.
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