Why Tea Tins are Important

Two reasons:

1. The enemies of tea are air, light, heat and moisture: To keep your tea fresh, you need to store your tea (unless it is pu’erh) in a tin, and that tin needs to be stored in a cool dry place (not a refrigerator or freezer). Tea can be stored for up to a year in such conditions, though I’d personally advise drinking your tea (unless it is pu’erh) as quickly as possible for maximum freshness. The key is that the tin must be airtight and opaque (i.e. it shouldn’t have a clear window on top).

2. Teas soak up other scents/flavors like a sponge: This is great for producers of flavored teas, but not so good for consumers who want their tea to taste like its producer intended. Teas will pick up the flavors/scents of wherever they are stored: Even storing all of your tea in the same space (particularly if you have strongly flavored/scented teas in the mix), can lead to flavor contamination. It is for this reason that I encourage you to store even your bagged tea in tins.

Fortunately, tea tins are readily available from a several sources:

Teavana sells tea tins in a variety of sizes and designs. Their tins range from small logo tins (starting at $2.99) to some really gorgeous Asian themed tins at about $13.99 each. Shop Teavana for Teas and Tea Accessories

I am a huge fan of the super-premium bags in which TeaGschwendner packages their teas, but even those good folks know the importance of a good tea tin. Their website and shops offer tea tins in a a number of sizes and themes, and they range in price from $2.25 to $12.95.

If you are a complete tea addict, and are looking for utilitarian tea tins, try SpecialtyBottle.com. They have a huge variety of tins in many different sizes at wholesale cost. . .with no minimum order!

Incidentally, many well-known tea companies (Twinings, Mighty Leaf, etc) that normally box or bag their teas also offer their teas in tins.  The trouble is that you may have a hard time finding these tinned teas in many retail outlets. Fortunately, Amazon.com stocks a lot of tinned teas. You can also check out the websites of your favorite tea companies to see what they have on offer.

IMPORTANT: Strongly scented teas can and will leave a residue in their tins, so you can’t just reuse a tin for different types of teas. Use the same tin for the same tea or clean that tin very thoroughly prior to using it to store a different kind of tea.

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Tagged as: flavored teas, scented teas, tea, tea gshwendner, tea tins, teavana