How to keep your tea fresh

Even if you buy the highest possible quality tea, if you don't store it well, you will just waste your tea and money because the tea will lose its color, aroma and taste. Why does that happen and how should we store tea properly?

First of all, please allow me to explain some important characteristics of tea.

• Tea is good at absorbing moisture.

Experiments have been conducted on dry tea leaves left unwrapped indoors. After one day, the water content of the tea was about 7%; five or six days later, it had increased to more than 15%. In another test conducted in rainy weather, the water content in tea left exposed for one hour increased by 1%. If you don't believe me, you can perform your own test: put some dry loose tea in an open space next to a container of water overnight. The next day, you will find that the tea leaves will be more damp. Moreover, when the water content of tea reaches higher than 10% (the water content of good fresh tea is around 3%-5%), the tea will become moldy and lose its value.

• Tea is good at absorbing odors.

Again, you can test this by leaving your tea next to some ground black pepper, scented soap, or other odiferous things overnight. The following day, your tea will smell like black pepper, soap or something else. When tea loses its fragrance or is polluted by other odors, the value of tea greatly decreases.

• Tea is easily oxidized (i.e. it is a fresh product that can become stale).

Tea oxidizes naturally during storage. The longer tea is stored, the more its color, fragrance and flavor will change - especially green tea. Tea will oxidize
more quickly at higher temperatures or in a moist environment.


Secondly, let's analyze the factors influencing quality during tea storage.

1. Temperature:

The quality of tea deteriorates more rapidly at higher temperatures. Tests have shown that an increase in temperature of 10℃(50℉) causes an increase of 3-5 times in the rate of discoloration of tea due to oxidation. This is because the chlorophyll in tea easily breaks down when exposed to heat and light. Refrigeration is a good way to prevent this kind of deterioration.

2. Moisture:

When the moisture of tea increases, chemical components such as polyphenols and chlorophyll will break down more rapidly. It also creates an environment more attractive to mold, which of course accelerates decomposition. To prevent this the moisture content of tea should be kept below 5%. Accordingly, if you refrigerate your tea, don't let any moisture (e.g. condensation) inside the package.

3. Oxygen:

Roughly 20% of the air we breathe is oxygen, so if tea is left unsealed, exposure to air will speed up oxidization. Store tea in a container with an airtight seal.

4. Light:

Light also speeds up the chemical reactions in tea; when exposed to sunlight, tea will develop a stale taint and deteriorate more quickly. Tea should be stored in an opaque container.

To summarize, proper storage of tea has two fundamental requirements: first, a dry place; second, a temperature no higher than 5 ℃. The key to keep your tea as fresh as possible is to seal it in an airtight bag or in a jar/container and save it in a clean, dry, cool and dark place. It is good to store tea in the refrigerator (-4℃to 2℃), but you must make certain it is not exposed to other odors inside the refrigerator - this is especially true for a high quality green tea. In addition, a large quantity of tea should be divided into small packages, which can then be vacuum sealed. Black or oolong teas stored in a sealed package at a low temperature will keep for one to two years (although very delicate green teas won't last that long - a year is about the longest they'll last).

Of course, if you drink tea every day like me, you can simply finish it all before it goes bad. :P

Big Red Robe (Da Hongpao)-Wuyi Cliff Oolong Tea

Recently, I introduced a dark oolong called Big Red Robe (Da Hongpao 大红袍）to my friend. He inspired me a lot with his deep and joyful experience of this tea, so I have decided to share some of the experience of the extraordinary and phenomenal flavor and aftertaste of this tea with you.

Big Red Robe was created more than 350 years ago in the Ming Dynasty and is the most well-known of the Wuyi cliff teas in Fujian. Moreover, its aroma and flavor distinguish it from other famous teas in China.

As I brew the tea, the aroma not only fills my nose and mind, but also travels into the whole room and even all the way from the teashop to my home. This is a real experience which happened one week ago. After preparing Big Red Robe at the teashop, I left without washing my hands and took the bus directly home. After more than one hour of travel on the bus, I finally got home. I put down my backpack and rubbed my nose. Surprisingly, my fingers still held the toasty and orchid aroma of Big Red Robe. I was absolutely amazed by the distinctive powerful aroma, although it is hard to imagine such a nuanced, enduring, smokey, toasty, orchid fragrance was from the dark twisted tea leaves.

Enjoying the beautiful aroma is a great pleasure and an important part of the process when tasting a cup of tea. After that, I sip a little of the velvety amber liquor and the complex flavor permeates my entire mouth. The lush, mellow aftertaste with its slightly syrupy finish was so pleasant. There was none of green tea's bitterness or black tea's astringency. The flavor of the tea was vivid, rich and expansive. It was also a flavor of nature - from an earthy, misty cliffside - and filled my senses in a way I cannot express. Chinese people call this special flavor and aroma yanyun (岩韵). Yan means "cliff"; yun has no exact match in English. Its means that something is harmonious, graceful, delightful and meaningful.

My friend sent me an email about his experience drinking this tea. "The second infusion is even more smooth and more powerful. As I sip the second cup, my soul is filled with strong emotions and my mind is in another world. A world free of earthly stress, negativity and all that exists is warmth and artful beauty," he wrote.

Yes, I was his witness. The inspiring aroma and taste also bring me to a peaceful spot, relax my body, calm my mind, stimulate my passion and purify my soul. In other words, if excitement and passion are fire, while relaxation and calmness are water, then I have both fire and water balanced together at the same time. That's yanyun.

Tea leads me to understand more about human nature and to develop a more embracing spiritual life. Savoring a tea is like understanding a human being. Enjoying tea emphasizes the people you drink with, the atmosphere and environment around you. Drinking tea with a peaceful mind, in a quiet place and with a few close friends is the perfect harmony between human and nature. However, sometimes, I still find it hard to believe how so much power could come from a sip of tea in a tiny Chinese cup.

Unique Puerh tea

Generally speaking, the fresher a tea is, the better its quality and more expensive it is, with one notable exception: Puer.

Puer (also written Pu-erh, Pu-Er, Puerh) tea is named after the city of Puer in Yunnan Province, located in southwest China on the border of Laos and Burma. The reason Puer tea has the same name as the city of Puer is not because tea was traditionally grown there; rather, as the city of Puer was the main trading center for this type of tea, its name became associated with the distinctive type of tea sold there.

Puer is a type of dark tea (黑茶 hei cha, lit: 'black tea'). Here I should probably mention that the type of tea called 'black tea' in English is referred to as 'red tea' (红茶 hong cha) in Chinese. This means that Darjeeling, Assam and blends such as English Breakfast are all called 'red tea' in Chinese. The English name is a reference to leaf color, whereas the Chinese name refers to liquor color.

Puer is famous for improving with age. In fact, the longer Puer is stored, the more vitality it accumulates. It is like a relationship. We need time to build it and discover the beauty of each other. The more attention and care you invest, the more value you will receive.

What makes Pu-erh tea so unique?

1. The tea varietal used to make Puer:

Puer is made from a special "broad-leaf" varietal of C. sinensis var. sinensis that is different from the varietals used to produce green, oolong and other teas. Puer leaves are classified into one of four categories according to the type of tea tree from which they are harvested: 1. "new plantation tea" (from artificially propagated large-leaf tea bushes, not yet old enough really to qualify as "trees"), 2. "arbor-type tea" (from

mature trees from older - and sometimes formerly abandoned - plantations), 3. "old tree tea" (from wild tea trees that are 30 to 50 years old) and 4. "ancient tree tea" (from wild trees older than 50 years - some of which are even thousands of years old).

2. The categories of Puer:

Puer is the only major category of tea that is actually fermented. Although common parlance refers to oolong and black teas as "fermented," in fact, they are oxidized. No fermentation takes place. Like wine and beer, Puer changes with age due to the activity of micro-organisms that cause fermentation. There are two forms of this process used in the production of Puer:

1). Naturally Fermented Puer (aka "uncooked" or "raw" Puer 生普洱)
2). Artificially Fermented Puer (aka "cooked" or "ripe" Puer 熟普洱)

Raw Puer is produced using traditional methods. Initial processing - including compressing the tea into cakes - is done prior to fermentation so that a new cake of raw Puer has approximately the same degree of oxidation as a green tea. Many buyers purchase very young Puer - when its taste is still quite bitter and astringent, but its cost is quite reasonable - and then increase its value by storage. Stored in a proper environment, the tea naturally ferments, and the taste, color and flavor change as time goes by.

Ripe Puer was invented in 1973. This utilizes an artificial fermentation process (called wodui 渥堆 in Chinese) to remove the astringent taste of the tea and effectuate the same health benefits that obtain for mature aged raw Puer. That said, Ripe Puer can also be post-fermented through storage, to develop more refined and superior attributes - although many would assert that a Ripe Puer cake could never evolve to the heights that make aged Raw Puer cakes so expensive. Accordingly, the price of Ripe Puer is typically at least half that of a Raw Puer from the same production year. Economically speaking, Ripe Puer is more popular than Raw Puer.

3. Decades of shelf life:

In China, another nickname for Puer is "the drinkable antique" because its quality and value improve with age. It becomes more flavorful, more full-bodied, more subtle, more smooth, more sustained and more luxurious after a period of storage. Most of the aged raw Puer on the market is 10 to 50 years old, but there are also cakes which date from the late Qing dynasty and early Republican era. The price of a well-aged Puer cake can be up to thousands of dollars.

4. A wide variety of shapes:

Raw and Ripe Puer are sold in both loose-leaf form and as compressed cakes (jinya cha 紧压茶).

The most common shape of compressed tea is a disc (called bingcha 饼茶 in Chinese), followed by bowl or nest shape (tuocha 沱茶), brick tea (zhuancha 砖茶), square tea (fangcha 方茶), mushroom-shaped tea (jincha 紧茶), and melon or 'gold melon'-shaped tea (jingua 金瓜), in addition to a number of others.

From ancient until quite recent times, the transportation for exporting tea from Yunnan to Tibet (including parts of modern Sichuan) was very primitive. There were no cars or trains or other vehicles. So how could tea merchants export the Puerh tea? The answer is the Old Tea-Horse Road (茶马古道). Compression of Puer tea into dense cakes eased horseback transportation and helped make the tea more durable.

5. The distinctive warm silky taste:

If someone invites you to taste a well-stored Puer tea over 20 years old, you should never say no, even if you have never liked Puer, because you will have a remarkable experience. The amazingly smooth mouthfeel, impressively rich, thick, mellow, vivid and full body of taste will spread to every corner of your mouth, and the sweet aftertaste will linger on your tongue and in your throat. You will feel the warmness of the tea from your mouth all the way down to your stomach. It feels like a beautiful peaceful candle in a frozen dark winter evening. The smoothness of aged Puer tea is like a 100% silk scarf - comfortable, soft, gentle and soothing.

Of course, if Puer tea is not mature enough, especially a young Raw Puer, normally what you will taste is bitterness, astringency and harshness - yet you might still find the pleasant sweet aftertaste underneath.

Please don't be frightened by what I just wrote. One can still find decent Puer at a reasonable price here in the US.

6. The flavor of an ancient forest:

If this tea doesn't remind you of nature, then I don't know what could possibly send you a stronger signal. Do you know what the forest floor smells like? Earthy. There is a special earthy flavor to Puer. Its flavor and aroma reveal a wealth and complexity gained only with maturity, just like a fine wine.

7. Multiple infusions:

Puer is a languorous sleepy beauty: it needs extra heat, time and infusions to wake up. A good-quality, well aged, mature Puer brewed in a clay teapot or Gaiwan can withstand 20 or more infusions. An average Puer can be steeped about 7 or 8 times before starting to fade; the best flavor is in the 3rd or 4th infusion.

My parents grow and process a small amount of tea every year at home but that is green tea and the taste and character of Puer is certainly different. For many years I didn't like Puer at all and didn't understand how people enjoy it so much. It was too deep, mature, calm and complex for me, but today I am fascinated and attracted by Puer. I love its silky mouthfeel - the smoothness on my tongue, gums and throat lasting for a long time, relaxing my body and calming my mind. Image a leaf gently, slowly floating on a quiet stream with nothing to stop her, or a small pinch of soft cotton floating through a sunny day in a blue clear sky with white clouds and comfortable breeze. That leaf or pinch of cotton would be me; the floating free feeling would be the magic of Puer. Moreover, it warms me up both physically and emotionally and is a welcome respite from a busy, tiring, stressful and complicated life. I hope it can be for you too.

Tips on how to savor a cup of tea

When tea is served in a tiny Chinese tea cup, the size of the tea cup and the amount of tea might make you feel it is barely enough for a mouthful, to be drunk in one gulp. Please don't do that.

The processing of tea is an art, the preparation of tea is an art, and drinking tea is as well. If you don't believe me, please just try the method I am going to introduce; you will find tea is much more delicious and beautiful.

When a small cup of tea is served, first admire the color of the liquor. Not only is the color a visual pleasure, but from the appearance of the liquor you can have a general idea of the amount of oxidization and the quality of the tea - all without ever having seen the tea leaves.

Second, enjoy the aroma of the liquor. The lovely fragrance fills the room to create an atmosphere connecting both the inner world of the human heart and the outer world of nature. The fresh scent of tea is filled with natural beauty, with smells of mountaintops, forests, flower gardens or the feeling just after the rain. Moreover, this is another way to recognize the variety and quality of tea.

Finally, taste the tea. Sip a little from your small cup. Take three times to finish the whole cup. Oh, one more moment please - while tasting, hold the liquor in your mouth and turn your tongue while inhaling to appreciate the full flavor of the tea. Finally, slowly swallow the tea. "Three" might be a magic number but coincidentally the Chinese character for "taste" is "品," a combination of three "口" mouths.

When and where should we drink such wonderful tea?

You should drink it when you have the time to fully appreciate it, not when you are busy or in a rush.


You should drink it when you are in a pleasant quiet room, in a little backyard shaded with apple or plum trees, in the shelter of a cool pavilion surrounded by lotus flowers, in a forest or among high and straight bamboos, in a little boat floating on a peaceful lake. It is better to avoid a public place with many children playing and crying, or chaotic and crowded situations in general because loud voices will strip tea drinking of its elegant charm and vitality.

That's why tea culture has long been associated with Qin (called guqin - the oldest instrument in China, and one of the oldest in the world), Qi (a Chinese strategy game called go in English), Shu (calligraphy), and Hua (painting). The peaceful and relaxing atmosphere is suitable for listening to refined music and inspires people to deepen their wisdom, improve their self-cultivation and create a spiritual state. In Chinese tradition, tea has long been the best accompaniment for poetry, especially group composition of linked couplets.

Again, savoring a tea is like savoring wine, or even life. We don't drink wine the way we drink water. We enjoy every sip slowly. We normally prefer to appreciate a fine wine with the right people in the right place with the right mood. We experience the pure taste of wine instead of adding milk or sweeteners.

Well, the same is true for tea.

If you feel you need to add something to your tea because the quality of the tea is not good enough, you are simply adding another flavor to cover the unpleasant taste of the tea.

For the Chinese people, their neighbors (Koreans, Japanese & Vietnamese) and others who developed a taste for tea, it is far more than just a drink. The taste and spirit of tea are deeply engraved in the national character of the Chinese people.

Let's sip a little culture, literature and beauty together!

How to prepare oolong tea

I tend to enjoy and appreciate oolong tea more than other teas, not only because it helps to relive thirst, to digest, to stay awake and healthy but is also a sensuous and spiritual pleasure. The refined ceremonies that have developed over time for oolong tea require that one must be very particular about water, teaware, occasion, time and the people one shares with. That's why the preparation of oolong tea is also called gongfu (aka "kungfu") tea.

In china, gongfu has two meanings, one specific and one general: the specific meaning refers to certain martial arts, whereas the general meaning indicates something done with a high degree of skill - something that can only be learned with great dedication, i.e. lots of work.

Currently, there are three major styles of brewing oolong tea: Taiwan style, Fujian style, and Chaozhou/Shantou style. No matter which style, every little detail or step has a specific reason and needs to be done with care and precision. In addition, the special tea sets and the art of preparation are both enchanting and beautiful.

There is an old Chinese saying: Water is the mother of tea, teaware the father of tea. When you have a high quality loose tea, you'd better have good water and appropriate teaware in order to let the tea fully express itself - to exhibit its fragrance, flavor and character.

There are many different reasons to drink tea and different methods of preparation. If you are not ready to undertake the traditional art of oolong described below, you can always simplify.

Here are the fundamentals for both simple preparation and sophisticated gongfu tea style:

Water: Natural spring water is the best; pure water, mineral water or filtered water are also good. (Note: never use water that has been previously boiled and leave it to sit. Water as it boils looses oxygen, so allowing it to cool and reboil will affect the flavor of the tea leaves.)

Loose tea leaf quantity: Of course, this can be done according to taste, but the typical quantity of an oolong rolled into a ball (e.g. Tieguanyin, Dongding) is 1/3 to 1/4 of the teapot. If the tea leaves are long, twisted, light and loose (e.g. Wuyi cliff tea, Eastern Beauty), the quantity is half of the teapot.

Water temperature: Water should be at a medium boil, 203-212°F (95-100°C), which is called a "fish eyes" boil in Chinese. This is a higher temperature than that used for green tea, since oolongs are oxidized and more heat is needed for them to release their character.

Steeping time: This depends on the character of a particular oolong. Generally speaking, a ball-shaped oolong (e.g. Tieguanyin or Dongding) should be infused about 30-45 seconds for the first brew, and 45-60 seconds for the second - this time should be slightly extended for each subsequent brew. Wuyi cliff tea from northern Fujian and Phoenix Dancong from eastern Guangdong should only be steeped 15 seconds for the first infusion.

Number of infusions: For a properly brewed, good-quality tea, each pot can be infused more than 7 times and the third & fourth infusions (some people say second & third) typically have the best taste because the tea has fully opened and the flavor is well balanced.

Necessary tea implements for simple preparation:

* A pot or kettle (to boil the water)

* A teapot (Yixing clay teapots are best, a porcelain gaiwan or pot is also acceptable)

* Teacups (tiny Chinese teacups are best, especially when you use a clay teapot or gaiwan - the size, shape and material are designed to maximize one's appreciation of the tea's attributes)

* Strainer or tea infuser (some teapots come equipped with one)

Gongfu teaware accessories:

* All of the accessories listed above

* A tea tray

* Tea tools (1. a holder to keep the tools together, 2. a scoop for scooping loose tea, 3. a poker/pick to clean out the spout of teapots, 4. a scraper for scraping tea from the inside of teapots or to loosen tea cakes, 5. a funnel to help pour loose tea into little teapots without spilling, and 6. a pair of tongs for picking up hot teacups during the rinsing process.

* A pitcher (to balance the color, aroma and flavor of the tea, so the infusion poured into each teacup is consistent)

* Scent-smelling cups (to enjoy the aroma of the tea before the first sip)

Simple brewing method: This is similar to preparing a teabag tea, but it's important to maintain the fundamentals mentioned above and remember to separate the leaves from the water at the end of each infusion by lifting out the infuser or by straining the tea liquor from the teapot.

Steps for Kungfu tea:

1. Boil the water in the kettle.

2. Rinse and warm the tea set (teapot, pitcher, teacups and scent cups).

3. Add tea leaves to the teapot or gaiwan.

4. Rinse the tea leaves by quickly filling and emptying the teapot with boiling water (called "foot water" in Chinese) in order to remove dust specks and impurities. Another major purpose of this brief infusion (the "foot water") is to help open the tea more - the taste of this initial rinsewater is weak and unbalanced, and isn't worth drinking anyway. (Note: please only rinse the leaves for no more than three seconds - otherwise, you will begin to leach the nutrition and flavor from the tea.)

5. Refill the teapot with boiling water.

6. Remove any floating froth (the dust from the tea leaves) with the lid, then replace it.

7. Pour boiling water over the outside of the pot (to raise the pot's temperature and help to wake up the tea and release its fragrance more quickly).

8. Place the strainer on top of the pitcher and pour the tea into the pitcher.

9. Pour the tea from the pitcher into the scent cups.

10. Cover the scent cups with the teacups, then turn upside-down, so that the tea now sits in the tea cups, and each scent cup sits mouth-down inside a teacup.

11. Gently lift the scent cup from the teacup and smell the aroma.

12. Lift the teacup and taste the tea.

Since this is my blog, I'd like to mention that in my opinion, milk and artificial sweeteners should not be used with oolong! Adding milk or sweeteners is ok for black tea but not for oolong. An oolong is like a champagne or fine wine. One doesn't add milk to wine, does one?

Next, I'll write more tips about how to savor a cup of tea.