The storage of pu-erh tea has a very important impact on its unique quality and aging aroma. The storage of pu-erh is relatively much easier compared to green tea and oolong tea.
As long as you can avoid direct sunlight, dry and hygienic environment, good ventilation, and no other miscellaneous odors, you can pay attention to the following points for home storage.
1, moisture-proof
The main condition of tea mold is moisture, as long as it is not damp, tea will not mold, but there is no certain humidity tea will not be transformed. If the environment is too dry you can put a cup of water to increase the humidity, which facilitates the natural transformation of tea.
When the rainy season comes, the humidity is high, you can properly close the doors and windows to block the moisture.
Tea should be stored off the floor and not near the walls and ground. Tea leaves should be shelved some distance away from the ground and walls to prevent being affected by re-humidity. Storage tea place square a temperature and humidity meter, the relative humidity of the environment should not exceed 75%, there are conditions can spare a dehumidifier, or use air conditioning dehumidification.
2. Avoid light
Strong light will destroy the substances contained in the tea leaves, storage tea leaves must be prevented from direct sunlight. Tea should be stored in a relatively dark environment, and the curtains of the room where the tea is stored should be fitted with sunshades. Tea that is opened for drinking can be placed in a thick kraft paper pocket. If the tea is to be stored for a long time, it is best to keep the original box without splitting it, keep the complete shoot shell well, and just control the environmental humidity.
3、Environmental cleanliness
Tea leaves have strong adsorption and can absorb odorous substances in the air, so the storage environment must be clean and odor-free to ensure a perfect transformation environment for the tea leaves. Newly made ripe tea will have dry fire and heap smell, new ripe tea within two years should not be stored together with raw tea, and the raw and ripe should be opened separately.
4、Moderate ventilation
In order to bring fresh air and moisture to the tea, the tea storage room should be ventilated at the right time, but the time of ventilation should be short. Excessive ventilation will lead to the loss of tea fragrance, so when storing tea, you should ensure that the tea is in a relative and airless environment most of the time. The room where the tea is stored should be kept tightly closed most of the time, so that the fragrance dispersed from the outside can be smothered indoors. The tea stored in the zisha jar is easy to smother the full aroma, but the lack of ventilation can easily lead to slow aging, so the number of ventilation can be increased appropriately in the storage process.
5、Temperature
In addition to the above points, the temperature should not be too high or too low when storing pu-erh, it is best to keep it between 20℃~30℃, too high temperature will accelerate the fermentation of tea leaves and will have a sour feeling.
For old tea over 20 years old it is recommended to keep it sealed up, too much ventilation will lose the tea quality, it is better to keep it sealed up, the best transformation cycle of tea is 10 years, after 10 years the inner quality of tea is decaying.
The most important point for individuals under limited conditions is to do a good job of preventing moisture, moisture and mold is a big taboo for tea. The second thing is to prevent the tea from absorbing the odor around, and must be kept away from the kitchen, bathroom and other places with heavy odor substances.
Raw and cooked tea must be separated and opened, different hills origin raw tea should be distinguished and opened in an orderly manner, cooked tea can be sealed and stored during the wet season, and can be ventilated and stored during the dry season, raw and cooked tea should be kept ventilated at all times, so that the tea leaves will have a better transformation environment.
It is not recommended that individuals store loose tea, after all, storage conditions are limited, loose tea is easy to adsorb miscellaneous odors and moisture, tightly pressed formed cake brick tuo tea, one is small in size to facilitate storage, the second is tightly pressed tea has a relatively closed cycle environment, more conducive to the transformation of tea leaves, more reflective of the characteristics of pu-erh tea the more it ages.