I have teas from the mid seventies I still enjoy mostly Indian and
Ceylon. One of my favorites mid eighties Darjeeling still in original
clay jars. I have Chinese teas from the mid nineties still good to
drink. I describe my environment as a tea sarcophagus good to
preserve the oxidized teas and dry out the puer shu. Not so good for
the sheng. I prefer the discount I get at the English tea shoppe when
the Chinese teas dont sell.

Jim

PS My current tea blossom called Rare Twins looks like a 50s scifi
When Sea Anenome Attack..

On May 15, 2:44 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