Youssef said

Drawer pumidor?

I have just recently started out on tea, and in my first shipment from Yunnan Sourcing 3 cakes are going to be heading my way. So, I don’t really use my clothes cabinet very much, so I thought that maybe since there isn’t that much airflow I could store my 3 cakes in there. Would this be an issue though?

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Psyck said

No issue, it is a perfectly fine place to store it. You probably have decent enough humidity in Ohio, so that shouldn’t be an issue either. Other than keeping them away from strong smells there isn’t much more you need to worry about in the case of fermented teas (you don’t need to protect them too much from light, air, humidity – like in the case of other teas).

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Youssef said

Oh, ok! I read all of these posts about teas being ruined because they were not properly stored, so I thought that I will prepare the best place for my tea before they came.

Psyck said

Very high temperature/humidity can cause mould and lower temp/humidity would slow down ageing. Once you get to storing tons of cakes for several decades, then you may need to worry more about controlling these parameters for optimal results; but for now what you are planning should be perfectly fine.

wobudong said

completely agree

mrmopar said

Just make sure the drawer has no odor at all. If it does it will transfer to your tea.

Ken said

Whats optimal storage humidity 65%?

Psyck said

It isn’t a fixed value, it gets higher during a rainy season and lower in dryer months (hot or cold). Depending on what you are trying to achieve, you could take a look at the weather patterns of known tea storing locales to determine where you are or want to be. So you can check the temperature/humidity of Hong Kong for the high end of the spectrum, one that would lead to wet storage and potential mould issues, and you could look up places like Kunming for clean dry storage.

Ken said

Kunming is 40-60% humidity if not mistaken?

I was more asking for what i want to aim for in my box, Ive heard 65% as it will promote aging without much risk of mold.

Psyck said

As this post was about storing it under natural conditions, I had assumed that was how you would be storing it, with the consequent fluctuations. The examples I gave were the different ends of the scale. If you are maintaining it artificially, 65% should be good I believe.

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Youssef said

Do you think, as time goes on and I get more and more cakes, that I could actually use my drawer in my dresser for aging teas? (I just bought it so the only smell it has is of faint wood)

Psyck said

I don’t know. I would guess that you would need more heat+humidity for better ageing than you have. Ageing is a long process and if your conditions are less than optimal, it would basically take even longer.

You could also consider storing the teas sealed until the new wood smells fade.

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Dr Jim said

I don’t see how you can maintain humidity in a drawer. In my New England home I struggle to keep the humidity in the low 30s during the winter months. This is much too dry for the tea, so I have pumidors to keep the tea in the 50-60% range. What you have is a storage drawer, not a pumidor.

Youssef said
Yea, I think when the time comes that I want to start aging teas myself I will get a proper Pumidor, but until then, I think I will store my teas in there as I drink them, so that they will be away from light, and not that much air will come to them either.

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Ken said

Louisanna or south florida would probably get the closest to HK style aging.

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Cwyn said

The wood smell will leach into the teas. Tea cakes are sponges for odor. But your post is cute. A tea person who doesn’t need their clothes closet at the outset is a collector in the making. ;)

Youssef said

Haha, thanks! I don’t store much of my clothes in drawers anymore, so I cleared out a space in the bottom drawer to store tea. The wood oder isn’t strong at all, I have to stick my whole head in there to smell it, and even then it is still kind of faint. But I don’t think I will be aging anytime soon, I don’t have the patience to stare at a cake and not drink it! :D

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I did this when I started out. Now that I know more, it was too dry for my hot dry climate (Los Angeles). The wood absorbed the humidity for sure, I got some brittle cakes that lost their scent. It is night and day how my pumidor smells vs my dresser.

Go hit up Target and buy a big glass crock for less than $20. Keep out of sun. That’ll keep you going until you get into pumidor land.

Youssef said

Thank you so much! Could I even age them in the crock pot?

Should be able to, it is stoneware. You can just use the liner and not the entire machine.

I used a few lidded stoneware casserole dishes. LA wasn’t the area for the traditional kraut crocks, so I made do with glassware, foodware, and cookie jars.

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Ubacat said

I have been keeping mine in a drawer in an antique cabinet. There’s no smell to the wood and I add a tiny little container of water with colloidal silver in it (to stop any mold). Even during dry weather it’s been keeping my tea at 60-70% humidity. I know it’s not the perfect storage but I intend to cut back on my pu-erh over time so I don’t want to invest in a proper storage.

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