On May 15, 4:44*am, Nigel > wrote:
> On May 13, 12:59*pm, taopants > wrote:
>
> > Has anyone's '09 tea's come in? how do they look compared to last
> > year. *II usually wait until june to order from the bigger houses, as
> > I think that the old tea stock will be gone. Is this necessary? I'm
> > not sure how tea is rotated in the wharehouses
>
> Well made and well stored teas keep for many years - I have drunk 12
> year old teas that I manufactured in Pakistan and stored in the UK -
> and they still had the freshness and fragrance of newly made tea.
> Green teas and China greens in particular used not to be well dried
> and lost their quality quickly. *I suspect this reputation remains
> even if not supported by current fact. *Freshness is certainly hyped
> up to convince gullible purchasers to shell out extra cash for new
> season teas. *And faddy consumers play the game by falling for it.
> Back to the days when buyers waited for the tea clippers to race new
> stock from Shanghai to London - first ship in got the sky high
> prices.
> As Jim say's in this thread - he will trust his palate and clean up on
> the discounted 08 stock. *Personally I am happy that my current stock
> of Georgian handmade tea was grown in 2006 and 2007 - and all the
> better for being kept awhile.
>
> Nigel at Teacraft

I actually just broke out some Dragonwell from 2004 that had been kept
in airtight glass and it was fine, but I could tell it wasn't quite
perfect. Gyokuro doesn't stand up to aging well even kept sealed,
after a year you can tell. But I do have some bancha from like 3 years
ago or more that is 100% perfectly fine.

Outside of some greens, I have had teas with additions like jasmine
petals or sassafras that have gone bad even well sealed. It is very
few and far between though. I can taste and do have an affinity for
absolutely fresh yellow tea, I find it deteriorates the quickest of
any tea I drink. Some BLCs would be a close second.

- Dominic