Can we drink a tea produced 2 yrs ago?

Oh you’re so bad!

I think as long as the teas are dry (haven’t gotten wet and molded), they are fine, although the flavors might have faded a little.

HAH! Love it.

Thanks for the replies, it is in small packs, not opened yet. I just opened a pack and does not seem molded but I am no expert and would not know how to tell if there was mold on the tea.

When you receive tea from China how long can you keep it usually?

Will try the green tea, thanks.

Various tea companies tell me to drink it within a few months.

I did not know that. I am learning a lot here.

thanks, I will smell it also.

That helps a lot, thanks. I will read all of the info.

Wow 7-8 yrs, that’s a long time :)

I will try that, never did it before.

Could you tell me how long I am supposed to keep tea packaged in small packages. Is it usually one year max for maximum flavour?

Thank you, I appreciate your replies. Do you like to steep once longer or 3-4 steep at 20-40 seconds each?

I’ve graduated to gaiwan style which allows you to enjoy the flavor nuances over several infusions, sometimes as many as 12 or 15, some lasting as quick as 5 or 10 secs. With high quality tea, this is really ideal. You’d be amazed on what you taste when it hits you in waves.

From the teas you listed, they’d all do well with gaiwan.

But western brew is fine. On all those teas you should get at least two, probably three brews. Maybe start off on lighter temp and increase by 5 degrees and maybe 30 secs to 1 minute with each brew.

Ok I am doing a test now. I don’t have any fancy equipment but I found what I needed in my cupboard to try the gaiwan style. I would love to own the right equipment but I’m afraid it will be hard to find in Canada. I just brew my green tea, rinsed 5 seconds, then steep 20 seconds. It is very good. I will steep again later today. I will do a research online if I can buy the gaiwan pot here. Thanks.

I bought a very nice celadon gaiwan from Camellia Sinensis in Montreal.

Thanks will have to look into it. My husband is actually working 6 wks in Brunei, Asia. I might ask him to look for one for me.

It depends on where you are in Canada, really. I’ve seen all sorts of traditional style sets in Chinatown both in Victoria and Vancouver. You can also do gaiwan-style just using an infuser and a tea cup that only holds 6-8 oz. I prefer to use a mesh infuser (like this with or without the handle http://organicteasandherbs.com/images6/mesh-tea-strainer-w-handle.jpg) in my porcelain cups, as the hard ones you get at stores like DavidsTea can scratch the finish if they rub on the bottom of the cup.

I want a gaiwan and a couple yixing pots, but I don’t need them. :)

I did my own system yesterday and it worked with the green tea I add. It was excellent. I drank this tea all afternoon.

Helene if you are looking to buy a Gaiwan locally I found this company in Gatineau that carries one ( there is no information on size though)http://chayi.ca/en/shop/ they seem to have a nice selection of teas. World of teas does not show any on their website but you may want to contact them anyways.
http://www.world-of-tea.ca

Camellia sinensis in Montreal has a selection http://camellia-sinensis.com/en/catalogsearch/result/?order=name&dir=asc&q=gaiwan.
Zen tea in BC often has reasonable teaware http://zentealife.com/catalogsearch/result/index/?p=1&q=gaiwan

Otherwise there are several international companies that people have bought them from online.

YYZ, thanks so much for taking the time to look up this info for me. I have never heard of them. I will go and have a look when I have time. They are about 30 minutes from my place. And I will look into Camellia also. Did not know about this store. So much to discover. Hubby is in Asia right now, in Brunei. I am wondering if they sell a Gaiwan in Brunei.

I’m agreeing with yyz – Zen Tea has reasonably priced teware, and Camellia Sinensis has some amazing pieces (not as inexpensive, but amazing pieces – their tea is AWESOME too)

I don’t know about Brunei, they seem to have a tea culture there but I am not sure about whether Gaiwans are regularly used there. Perhaps, you could send a picture and some specifications to your husband. I am not sure in what type of accommodation he is staying g in but if he is a major hotel he might want to ask the concierge and they might be able to look it up or give recommendations? I had never heard of Cha- Yi before either but they seem to have quite the collection of tea. I might order from them sometime;).

Helene this is another great Ottawa company.https://www.shantitea.ca

They specialise more in Indian tea though.

Dexter: Thanks I will have to really look into this. I just got serious about tea not too long ago and want to learn. I can’t believe that people really take the time to answer my questions here. On some forums (not tea) it’s hard to have people involved when you ask something.

YYZ: Thanks for the Ottawa info, I need some matcha tea. I’m not sure if they carry quality but they have some on their website. I am thinking of, like you said, take a picture and send to him because he does not know anything about tea. They are in apartments right now because they work there and they will be there for a while. It has to be very simple when I ask my husband to buy me something. If not he does not ask questions because he does not like it. I am quite the opposite. When I go visit Cha – Yi I will let you know how it went.

This is an amazing community. I too walked in here being fairly new to tea, and with the help of all the wonderful people here, I’ve learned lots, tried a ton of tea, let my cupboard explode out of control, and made some really good tea friends. Most people here will help you, just keep asking and usually someone will come up with the info you are looking for. :))

I am relatively new as well, just this calendar year. But I have learned a ton and really enjoy the friends I have made here. I read some other tea forums but I don’t feel at home on them like I do here.

Best of luck in your searches. I am interested to here how you find them or if your husband is able to find a Gaiwan in Brunei. This is a great community.

Dexter and Marzipan: I am so glad because on some cooking forums it’s hard to get answers. I might end up with lot’s of teas at the end of the year :)

yyz: will let you know if he at least tries to find me one :)

Remember that some storage devices such as metal, plastic, wood canisters might not be airtight and tea inside is getting exposed.

Which truthfully is a good reason for not keeping a bunch of teas (I know! Don’t kill me!lol.)with alot of teas it would be all to easy to forget about a few.

I’ve been mostly interested in samples, I just wish places like David’s Tea sold more stuff by sample (They do have sample packs offered every season and a few with other themes, which is better then nothing)samples tend to be (mostly) reasonably priced, a small quantity easier to store (often times coming in a baggie that should be ok till you drink it, depending on how it’s stored.) and the biggest plus for me about samples is that you get an idea as to how that tea tastes…

What cooking forums do you belong to? I am a beginner foodie (And in some ways a beginner cook.)

I like samples also and don’t want to have my cupboards full of teas. I just go to a french forum, once in a while now.

Shou, yes.

But I thought Sheng was pretty much like a green or white. It’s withered probably one additional time because of the pressing into cakes, but the other steps are same as usual treatment (frying, drying, etc.)

Is it maybe because of the bigger leaf, older trees???

Never really thought about it until I started reading this post.

The whole point of sheng is the aging over time, which is a fermentation process. Shou is post-fermented, the Chinese found they could cheat 20 years of aging time with pile fermentation. The flavor doesn’t have the depth that develops with long aging, but it gets the bitter green out.

right, so why can a sheng age and get better, but a green, white or oolong treated the same way washes out and loses flavor?

Is it the kinds of leaves used because they’re coming from older trees, maybe bigger, more robust leaves?

whites and oolongs are aged on purpose. I’ve seen aged greens as well.

Sheng is the purest tea. There is absolutely no processing. It’s picked and sun dried, then either sold as maocha or steamed quickly to make the leaves soft again and pressed into cakes. Shou is maocha that has been put into piles in a heat and humidity controlled area to speed up fermentation, and then sorted into grades and either pressed or sold loose. Puerh is ageable because of microbes that grow naturally on the leaf. In white tea, green tea, etc, those microbes are killed in the processing. Tea that has been heated over 150ºF no longer contains live microbes.

Puerh also ages well because it is from old-growth assamica trees, which contain more nutrients for the microbes to feed on than younger trees do.

ah thank you. this is exactly what I was looking for.

No worries :-)

Actually puerh does undergo heating by wok pan frying and a kill green process. This kills some of the microbes but not all. Without it, the tea would just completely rot down to mush.

I am trying a green I had for 14 months and it’s good but probably not at his best, like you said.

it’s not going to go bad, just flat. unless you store it in horrible condition. hell, I drank some aged tea yesterday, one was very close to a green.

It was actually very good and bright green. I steeped it 4 times already today.