How do you organize your teas?

I have an Excel spreadsheet for keeping track of what I have/don’t have at any given time.

http://imgur.com/a/bvHMj

As far as having it around here, the bulk of it is in a plastic drawered rubbermaid thing and on my bookshelf, where they are sorted by tea type. The rest is in the kitchen cabinet or in a bowl on the counter where I keep what I’m currently drinking. It sounds far more organized than it really is, but it works for me.

Dang. People have spreadsheets for their teas!? Wow that’s some great organization.
I’ve got all my teas in little plastic half shoebox sized containers on my bookshelf. They’re sorted by caffeine content so I know which ones to drink in the morning, and which ones to drink at night.
I also have a mug full of little slips of paper with each tea that I have written on them. If there’s a day where I just can’t decide what tea I want to drink, I reach in and drink the first one I pull out!

I’m really glad I read this thread!! I just have a bunch of tea shoved in my cupboard and it’s starting to get hard to find what I’m looking for! Now I have some good organizational ideas!

LOL. Mine isn’t that organized….I grouped particular teas together either by company or buy where I got them (Like say a store that sells many different types.) The majority of my Teavana stuff is in large tins, with the bags stacked in the tins. David’s tea is mostly in a David’s Tea box, with the 2 samplers that I have gotten as gifts right next to it. Re purposed a larger David’s Tea box for my Misc. tea like the few Tagalong tins that I’ve gotten, the 1 ounce bags of tea from my favorite tea shop that I havn’t had enough yet to warrent getting a tin for…(I have a 3 bag rule. If I get a tea 3 different times then I will get a tin for it.) and of course tea tins of my favorites. Thanks to stash sales and give aways I’ve been able to try alot of teas, many I’ve never heard of, plenty that I’ve wanted to try and some that I wouldn’t of thought to get for myself.

Spreadsheet: Love the concept and I am just alittle bit envious at those who can do a spreadsheet and keep it updated. (The second part is where it would fail for me.) While technically all my tea fits in the cupboard, (Though only if it’s placed in there a certain way.) I usually have to do a fair amount of digging to get to it.

In the future…Not sure but I would like something like a narrow bookcase (Think CD bookcase.) and put all my tins in various sized tins depending on how much I have when I get them, as well as a hutch to put favorites and tea ware. Also thinking of some kind of decoration that wouldn’t get ruined or flaked/washed off if put in the dish washer. To keep identity of the teas simple, # the tin and have a complete list with the numbers and corrosponding teas.

But then again…I’ve also been thinking of primarily sticking with samples with exception of certain companies that don’t do samples of course.) along with teas that I’ve gotten thru swaps, give aways and stash sales. All of this is pure speculation of course, since I’ll be moving in with my Mom in a few months, and will be keeping the majority of my teas in my room as I suspect she would be quite horrified to see how much I have….though in comparison to many people here…I’m a piker! heh.

I store my sample sizes in a wicker letter sorter thingy on my desk at work. It’s got four slots. Untested/once-tested Assams and Darjeelings each have their own slots since that’s what I tend to order samples of. A third small slot has empty pouches of Approved Samples, things I know I’ll want to order again, plus my tea scale and the wee trimmed paper cup I use as a weighing container. The big back slot is for larger packets, blends, and miscellaneous teas I want to test. Herbal teas from my favorite North Carolina mountain wisewoman live in double baggies in the file cabinet on the opposite side of the room so their powerful flavors do not affect the black teas.

I thought I’d revive this thread, since I just reorganized my teas this evening.

I don’t keep a spreadsheet, since I tend to use Steepster as my list of what I have on hand. Today I bought six medium-sized boxes (the kind used to store knick-knacks or office supplies on desks). Each box sits on the dining room table and is dedicated to a different type of tea. They’re vaguely colour-coded:

- Green tea = green box
- Black tea = black box
- Herbal/Rooibos = red box
- White tea (and various accessories like spoon, thermometer, bags) = white box
- Oolong/Pu’erh teas = patterned green box
- Mate/Guayusa = orange box

This has also really helped me get a sense of which types I have few varieties of – my green tea box is near bursting, while my herbal/rooibos box has enough room in it to accomodate my flavoured honeys.

Here’s a tea organization/storage idea if anyone is still looking.
http://instagram.com/p/ngeQedguHf/

What’s that on the shelf next to the tea? Some books? Oh, but look what happens when you open them :) My plan is to get book boxes large enough to put my loose leaf pouches in and dedicate a bookshelf just to tea and have them organized by type :)

I have started a spreadsheet for my samples and swaps but it will be interesting to see how I do at keeping it current. One of the reasons I started with a spreadsheet was to help remind me who gave me the tea. When you open a swap envelope you think you’ll remember. LOL Never gonna happen! Think positive! I can do this!

I like the idea of a spreadsheet to organise it all. Brilliant

Mine are all stored in airtight containers in a dark dry cupboard.

Aaaand I just hopped on the spreadsheet bandawagon too. Thanks to moraiwe for posting images of her spreadsheet – I used that as the inspiration for mine.

Mine is organized as follows:
- Each tab/sheet has columns for the tea name, the vendor, the type, the purchase date (or date I received in a swap), the steeping parameters, brief notes, my rating, and whether I would restock it.
- There are separate tabs based on whether I have the tea in-stock, whether it’s sipped down, or whether I got a cup to-go in-store.

I actually went back through my entire tealog to get an accounting of not only what teas I currently have, but which ones I sipped down or swapped away. Took me several days to comb through, actually.