Hello,

I recently found myself searching for inexpensive, airtight, welded seam
containers to store tea samples. I had several old tins from Republic
of Tea (back from 1995 and 1996), but was dismayed to find that they are
folded seam and thus not airtight! Put water a RoT tin and it leaks
like a sieve! That means stale tea...

The only cost effective canisters I found that are truly airtight are
the Green Canisters made by Stash.

www.stashtea.com

I have several of these canisters and they are lovely - airtight,
double lidded, welded seamed. The only drawback, is that even the small
canister is too large for keeping tea samples fresh.

After more searching, I found an inexpensive solution for small volumes
of tea. Paint cans - perfect airtight storage!

I ordered 1/4 pint ($9.34 for 12) and 1/2 pint ($10.56 for 12) paint
cans from Enco after talking to their tech support to verify that the
cans were safe for food storage.

www.use-enco.com

Not only are these cans extremely effective for keeping tea fresh, you
can make your own fancy labels.

The 1/4 pint can holds 1 - 2 oz. of small leaf, pearl and gunpowder
style tea. The 1/2 pint can is perfect for 1/2 oz - 1 oz. of large leaf
and oolong tea. I imagine the 1 pint cans would hold 3.5 - 4 oz. of
average sized leaf.

Anyway, I hope some of you find this useful. I know I'm not the only
one here with 20 or more tea samples and a need for cheap, effective
storage.


Kim