How long do tea leaves last

Question

How long do tea leaves last

Answer 1

a long time

Answer 2

Black tea leaves can be stored for a very long time in an air-tight container, away from light & free from moisture,  before its flavor and aroma will start degrading noticeably. Black tea was developed specifically for having a long shelf-life.

http://answers.teabase.com/does-black-te...

Under ideal conditions, this source was able to enjoy black tea that was stored for ten years:

"We brought three chests of packeted tea to England in 1955 and by 1965 we were drinking the last pack. If it is a high quality flavoursome tea with bite, the bite will slowly disappear over time but perfectly drinkable. It has a very long life and drink by dates are rather irrelevant to tea really. In my own opinion with the average quality tea that is sold in the U.K. they are unnecessary but the law has to side somewhere. The dating system is probably more applicable to a very high quality tea, where the sought after effect tends to die away over time. It does not mean the tea will be bad or undrinkable so long as the tea was packed correctly in the first place."

Since humidity, air and light are the enemies of tea, store tea leaves in a dry, dark place, & handle the packs as little as possible. Light will degrade tea, so foil is the ideal packing material because it keeps light away from the leaves. Keep tea leaves away from any strong smelling materials, because they can pick up the flavors of nearby objects.

http://www.wilstea.com/enjoy.htm

http://www.tealeaves.com.au/pages/defaul...

Green teas and white teas do not last as long as black teas. "An unopened package of our green tea will stay fresh for six months if stored at a cool temperature (under 20C, 68F) in a dark place."  If you put the unopened package of green or white tea leaves in the refrigerator, it will stay fresh for one year.

Store only unopened packages in the refrigerator.

"The air easily builds up condensation on the tea package some minutes to hours after being taken out from the refrigerator. So, we do not recommend storing open packages in the refrigerator... After taking an unopened package out of the refrigerator, we recommend waiting a few hours to a day until the temperature of the package is the same as room temperature. In this way, condensation will not adversely affect the tea quality.

http://www.hibiki-an.com/readings/how-to...

http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?t=4...

Good luck!!!    Hope this is helpful.

Answer 3

if you dry them out and keep them in the fridge, you can use them again if you want

if they're wet they'll start to go mouldy and will taste horrible!

*edit* ahhh sorry i thought you meant after you'd used them lol

they'll last for ages if you keep them in an airtight container!

Answer 4

ages but if you don't store them properly, they just lose some of their aroma...