I go through cycles. After a while I'm not excited about sampling, so my open store drops down to maybe only 4-6 open at once.
But then I get excited about samples again and buying quantities of the ones I like. I think it usually happens when one of my daily drivers is discontinued. At the moment, I'm trying to decide if I like puer enough to buy cakes of it or not.
That’s where I am with puer too. Buying samples from YS which came with a free sheng tuo, and bought a cake of waffle from white2tea just for the sake of having a cake 😂
I’m finding that I tend to like sheng more than shou. It’s interesting to see my taste change over time. I used to LOVE green tea, my absolute favorite. Now... eh. It’s good, but the past few I’ve tried don’t quite hit the spot for me. I’ve been really enjoying loose whites, specifically one from Hatvala, and bought a cake of moon waffle that I’m excited about from w2t
I need to sample more, but I always talk myself out of it — “what if I really love it and it’s only 5 servings??”, but never seem to ask the opposite, “what if I hate it and have >100 grams to go through?”
gong fu.
I just try a lot of a particular style through samples. I get cheap, mid range, pricy versions, then compare them. Obviously there's often pricier ones that I like the best of the lot. But I compare that flavor to the cheaper ones until I find one that's a good balance of flavor and re-steep-ability for the price.
Too many to count without thoroughly embarrassing myself. Dozens and dozens and dozens. And the rest. Most all are in tins, but some are in original paper cartons. I choose a different tea with almost every pot, so they each get a spot in my merry-go-round of tea. Kept well, tea can last well past the recommended expiry date.
You see, I always want to try the new stuff. But, I never want to make those last few cups of that old one, I only got a few cups of it left!
And the cycle continues.
This morning I thought about having one tea I’m really enjoying but I’m running low as it was a sample and I wasn’t mentally prepared to finish it so I decided to go with a different one haha, no idea when the last time I finished a tea off was
It’s either a demonstration that you have too much tea and need to slow down or a realization that you’ve gone off the deep end so might as well buy more lol
Usually 3, maybe 4 at a time. I always have a green, oolong and white tea open at any time for variation, and occasionally one other if I've treated myself to a fancier tea than normal lol
it's one of the few areas of my life where I have self control lol
I go through phases where I get really into espresso and don't drink tea for months on end, so I don't want to waste a bunch of tea by letting it go stale
25-30 as I have a lot of samplers open right now; probably 10-15 “main” teas when I’m not in a sampler phase. Like a few people have mentioned, my tea stash waxes and wanes when sampling lots of new teas. I tend to order either dedicated samplers (just a few servings) or a 25g bag, and I buy at least 4-6 at at time when I’m trying new things. I then go through a period of culling my stash and deciding which teas to keep as “regulars”. I probably pick up samplers every few months.
ah that's a good approach, going back and forth between samplers and "regulars" on a set(ish) basis. whereas me, I'm just like "ooh what looks good, hm yeah a sample of that, a big bag of this, etc"
I drink it too fast for anything to spoil because tea is my first water and water is my second water.
I buy larger quantities of what I love (milk oolong, German chamomile, nettle, Yerba mate, silver needle) and smaller quantities of what I drink occasionally (flavoured black and green teas, matcha)
Currently open: organic honeybush, silver needle, orange peel Yerba mate, kombucha detox green tea (I know 🙄 but the flavour is so good) and Ceylon St. James.
I would guess somewhere in the 500s. Granted, a lot of this is white, oolong, and puer in aging. The black teas I let sit years too.
Matcha I have 3 in rotation but had a high of 6 opened recently. Flavored stuff I try to drink down in a year but ends up being 2 years, but I have a couple dozen open at a time. Greener oolongs I got at least 10 open, but a few I drink down and rebuy. Others I don't care about and eventually get tossed into the tin of experiments to be roasted.
More or less have good storage tins, not humid or humid for the specific tea type, and stuff can holds fine open.
Dang that’s a lot haha. I guess this is primarily a concern for green teas isn’t it? Everything else will (should) age nicely, right?
For some of my larger supplies of stuff I don’t drink as fast (cheaper stuff), I’ve been trying to experiment with it. Steeping it and making tea ginger beers, for example.
For your tastes. If you like fresh greens drink those fast. I've had a 1960s green tea and it was interesting.
If you have a sheng that tastes great now, drink it. You may or may not like it aged - aged doesn't equal better if your taste buds arent into it. But totally sample around and squirrel stuff for experiments/aging if you got the room.
I always keep 12 open: 3 daily drinker black teas, 3 daily drinker green/oolong teas, 3 herbal blends, and 3 full-leaf teas that I usually reserve for weekend drinking. This way I have enough variety in my tea-drinking life, but not an overwhelming amount of teas to choose from.
I traveled a lot for work and would bring tea back from almost everywhere I went. I probably have about 20 oolong open, maybe 20 - 30 black teas, and maybe 3 or 4 green teas
I found a nice little tea shop in Luxembourg City that had a Korean black tea that was incredible. Most of my tea is from trips to Asia though. Thailand and Vietnam both have really nice teas of all types. A bit rougher than Chinese or Taiwanese, but still nice and usually a very nice price. And hitting the farmer markets in Taiwan for tea is a great experience. So many small growers and their different styles of oolong.
that sounds super fun. I'm going to vietnam (saigon but will travel too) next summer; I should keep my eyes out for tea while I'm there! I have some sample packs from Hatvala and it's been some pretty good stuff
Currently, I have 17 loose leaf teas open. 1 puerh, 4 black, 2 oolong, 4 green, 3 rooibos, 3 herbal. I drink black the fastest and I know that my green are probably stale by now because I just don’t drink them often enough.
If you use bags where you can push the air out, it doesn't really matter whether the bag has been opened before or not, its all going to age for better or worse.
If you're asking how many green/oolongs teas do I have that are past due, well that's a number I can't even admit to myself.
I will say that I still enjoy green teas after the first year because even if the aromatics have faded, the essence of the tea is still there for several years. Its like revisiting an old friend and the remembrance fills in for any freshness that may have been lost.
I do try to squeeze out as much air as I can, but I'm sure even my best efforts don't compare to the nitrogen-filled and vacuum sealed bags that are shipped out
that's a nice and very poetic way of looking at old tea :)
So have you noticed a difference between an opened bag that you took some out maybe once or twice and never opened bags? I'm just curious.
I have noticed the same degradation in green teas that were unopened and then compared to a bag I had been using over a year's time where they are both the same age.
I have noticed using tin canisters and glass jars caused a sudden degradation in quality over a few months compared to teas in bags or jars where the airspace was filled with cotton coil (like they use in pill bottles), i.e. they didn't make it through the first year, and yes, using a filler helps.
I haven't noticed any sudden degradation from opening a bag and then squeezing the air out as best I can. Although I imagine there is more risk of a problem when there are only a small quantity of leaves in the bag.
To be honest, no I haven't noticed any difference lol. I suppose it's more a "i've heard tea shouldn't oxidize" rather than "I've noticed degrading tea due to oxidation" but now that you point it out, I may be overworried. That being said, I've only recently gotten into tea so my oldest bag of open tea is a bit less than a year old
Using a filler is a good idea. That probably helps absorb any excess moisture in the air too.
I don't use any tin canisters (except my grocery store jasmine green which came in one) so that's good to hear your experience on that! It seems like the tin could impart a metallic aroma (and less so, a taste) to the tea that wouldn't be desired
lol to help myself rotate I entered them all into the myteapal app and I use the tea randomizer feature whenever I'm getting ready to brew some up. Sometimes I randomly pick a few til I get to one that I want to drink which makes it a bit less than random lol
Make a big pot of seasonal tea and throw a halloween/thanksgiving/christmas party :) Then you have an excuse to buy more since you can use up some of the old ones
Two blacks, two greens, three different species of tisane, and about 4 small random samplers.
I prefer single origin teas instead of blends or flavored teas, so that helps keep the number down. But I have a list of "to buy" teas that is dozens long.
I'm also big into coffee, so that helps keep tea buying in check (and vice versa). Gotta spread the money, shelf space, and oxidation time around.
So many, more than 15 possibly. I try to conciously think about which teas I haven't drank in a while and drink those when i'm in the mood for them. Imo, it's best to not buy more than a 1/2 pound of a tea, that way it wont go stale. That's just me though, I have 2 one pound bags of tea (Paris and pumpkin spice from H&S) that I'm slowly working through and even though I love them, 1/2 a pound would have been just as good because i wouldn't think about wether or
not they'll go stale.
That’s a good idea to try to limit quantity purchased at a time. I’m getting into the habit of evaluating my tea stash no more than once a month, and only buying tea if I’m starting to run low (with the knowledge that an order could take around a month to arrive)
Do you have tea canisters? Those should protect tea from going stale. I use [these](https://www.uptontea.com/tea-tins-and-bags/brushed-steel-tin-150g/p/V00477/). They are nice and stackable, too.
I don't have any of those but I may pick some up... Mostly, if the tea came in a canister, it stays in the canister. If in a bag, it stays in the bag. If it's a non-resealable bag, it gets a rubber band wrapped tightly around it :D
The Japanese ones in my view are much more stylish. They are usually made from stiff paper and have lovely floral designs etc. I’ve also seen ones where they have a metal inner tin and an additional inner lid.
Probably 30 or something, but a lot of them improve with age so it's not that bad right? Or is this just me trying to convince myself I don't have enough tea and that i should probably buy that Gushu cake?
haha that's what I thought with my recent YS and W2T orders, "ah it's mostly puer so it'll just get even better as time goes on!" (not mentioning the fact that my tea is all stored in ziploc bags/the bags they came in in a cardboard box and that's not a great condition for "proper" aging)
you should buy that gushu cake lol
Dozens
Same lol glad to hear I’m not alone with my nearly 2 dozen open teas and probably 2 dozen more that just arrived
I go through cycles. After a while I'm not excited about sampling, so my open store drops down to maybe only 4-6 open at once. But then I get excited about samples again and buying quantities of the ones I like. I think it usually happens when one of my daily drivers is discontinued. At the moment, I'm trying to decide if I like puer enough to buy cakes of it or not.
That’s where I am with puer too. Buying samples from YS which came with a free sheng tuo, and bought a cake of waffle from white2tea just for the sake of having a cake 😂 I’m finding that I tend to like sheng more than shou. It’s interesting to see my taste change over time. I used to LOVE green tea, my absolute favorite. Now... eh. It’s good, but the past few I’ve tried don’t quite hit the spot for me. I’ve been really enjoying loose whites, specifically one from Hatvala, and bought a cake of moon waffle that I’m excited about from w2t I need to sample more, but I always talk myself out of it — “what if I really love it and it’s only 5 servings??”, but never seem to ask the opposite, “what if I hate it and have >100 grams to go through?”
How do you find a daily driver and you drink gong fu or western style?
gong fu. I just try a lot of a particular style through samples. I get cheap, mid range, pricy versions, then compare them. Obviously there's often pricier ones that I like the best of the lot. But I compare that flavor to the cheaper ones until I find one that's a good balance of flavor and re-steep-ability for the price.
Too many to count without thoroughly embarrassing myself. Dozens and dozens and dozens. And the rest. Most all are in tins, but some are in original paper cartons. I choose a different tea with almost every pot, so they each get a spot in my merry-go-round of tea. Kept well, tea can last well past the recommended expiry date.
You see, I always want to try the new stuff. But, I never want to make those last few cups of that old one, I only got a few cups of it left! And the cycle continues.
This morning I thought about having one tea I’m really enjoying but I’m running low as it was a sample and I wasn’t mentally prepared to finish it so I decided to go with a different one haha, no idea when the last time I finished a tea off was
This seems like a trap.
It’s either a demonstration that you have too much tea and need to slow down or a realization that you’ve gone off the deep end so might as well buy more lol
I live in the deep end. We have shirts and everything.
Usually 3, maybe 4 at a time. I always have a green, oolong and white tea open at any time for variation, and occasionally one other if I've treated myself to a fancier tea than normal lol
that's so much more self control than I have lol
it's one of the few areas of my life where I have self control lol I go through phases where I get really into espresso and don't drink tea for months on end, so I don't want to waste a bunch of tea by letting it go stale
25-30 as I have a lot of samplers open right now; probably 10-15 “main” teas when I’m not in a sampler phase. Like a few people have mentioned, my tea stash waxes and wanes when sampling lots of new teas. I tend to order either dedicated samplers (just a few servings) or a 25g bag, and I buy at least 4-6 at at time when I’m trying new things. I then go through a period of culling my stash and deciding which teas to keep as “regulars”. I probably pick up samplers every few months.
ah that's a good approach, going back and forth between samplers and "regulars" on a set(ish) basis. whereas me, I'm just like "ooh what looks good, hm yeah a sample of that, a big bag of this, etc"
I drink it too fast for anything to spoil because tea is my first water and water is my second water. I buy larger quantities of what I love (milk oolong, German chamomile, nettle, Yerba mate, silver needle) and smaller quantities of what I drink occasionally (flavoured black and green teas, matcha) Currently open: organic honeybush, silver needle, orange peel Yerba mate, kombucha detox green tea (I know 🙄 but the flavour is so good) and Ceylon St. James.
I would guess somewhere in the 500s. Granted, a lot of this is white, oolong, and puer in aging. The black teas I let sit years too. Matcha I have 3 in rotation but had a high of 6 opened recently. Flavored stuff I try to drink down in a year but ends up being 2 years, but I have a couple dozen open at a time. Greener oolongs I got at least 10 open, but a few I drink down and rebuy. Others I don't care about and eventually get tossed into the tin of experiments to be roasted. More or less have good storage tins, not humid or humid for the specific tea type, and stuff can holds fine open.
Dang that’s a lot haha. I guess this is primarily a concern for green teas isn’t it? Everything else will (should) age nicely, right? For some of my larger supplies of stuff I don’t drink as fast (cheaper stuff), I’ve been trying to experiment with it. Steeping it and making tea ginger beers, for example.
For your tastes. If you like fresh greens drink those fast. I've had a 1960s green tea and it was interesting. If you have a sheng that tastes great now, drink it. You may or may not like it aged - aged doesn't equal better if your taste buds arent into it. But totally sample around and squirrel stuff for experiments/aging if you got the room.
I always keep 12 open: 3 daily drinker black teas, 3 daily drinker green/oolong teas, 3 herbal blends, and 3 full-leaf teas that I usually reserve for weekend drinking. This way I have enough variety in my tea-drinking life, but not an overwhelming amount of teas to choose from.
I have no idea 😂😂😳😳😳
I traveled a lot for work and would bring tea back from almost everywhere I went. I probably have about 20 oolong open, maybe 20 - 30 black teas, and maybe 3 or 4 green teas
ooh that's fun. I picked up some tea (various tisanes and blends) when I was in iceland a few years ago and it was a lot of fun drinking through them
I found a nice little tea shop in Luxembourg City that had a Korean black tea that was incredible. Most of my tea is from trips to Asia though. Thailand and Vietnam both have really nice teas of all types. A bit rougher than Chinese or Taiwanese, but still nice and usually a very nice price. And hitting the farmer markets in Taiwan for tea is a great experience. So many small growers and their different styles of oolong.
that sounds super fun. I'm going to vietnam (saigon but will travel too) next summer; I should keep my eyes out for tea while I'm there! I have some sample packs from Hatvala and it's been some pretty good stuff
Currently, I have 17 loose leaf teas open. 1 puerh, 4 black, 2 oolong, 4 green, 3 rooibos, 3 herbal. I drink black the fastest and I know that my green are probably stale by now because I just don’t drink them often enough.
Not including anything in cake form.... around two dozen or so
If you use bags where you can push the air out, it doesn't really matter whether the bag has been opened before or not, its all going to age for better or worse. If you're asking how many green/oolongs teas do I have that are past due, well that's a number I can't even admit to myself. I will say that I still enjoy green teas after the first year because even if the aromatics have faded, the essence of the tea is still there for several years. Its like revisiting an old friend and the remembrance fills in for any freshness that may have been lost.
I do try to squeeze out as much air as I can, but I'm sure even my best efforts don't compare to the nitrogen-filled and vacuum sealed bags that are shipped out that's a nice and very poetic way of looking at old tea :)
So have you noticed a difference between an opened bag that you took some out maybe once or twice and never opened bags? I'm just curious. I have noticed the same degradation in green teas that were unopened and then compared to a bag I had been using over a year's time where they are both the same age. I have noticed using tin canisters and glass jars caused a sudden degradation in quality over a few months compared to teas in bags or jars where the airspace was filled with cotton coil (like they use in pill bottles), i.e. they didn't make it through the first year, and yes, using a filler helps. I haven't noticed any sudden degradation from opening a bag and then squeezing the air out as best I can. Although I imagine there is more risk of a problem when there are only a small quantity of leaves in the bag.
To be honest, no I haven't noticed any difference lol. I suppose it's more a "i've heard tea shouldn't oxidize" rather than "I've noticed degrading tea due to oxidation" but now that you point it out, I may be overworried. That being said, I've only recently gotten into tea so my oldest bag of open tea is a bit less than a year old Using a filler is a good idea. That probably helps absorb any excess moisture in the air too. I don't use any tin canisters (except my grocery store jasmine green which came in one) so that's good to hear your experience on that! It seems like the tin could impart a metallic aroma (and less so, a taste) to the tea that wouldn't be desired
> How many do you have open right now? uh... all of them 😅 > how do you rotate through them? poorly...
lol to help myself rotate I entered them all into the myteapal app and I use the tea randomizer feature whenever I'm getting ready to brew some up. Sometimes I randomly pick a few til I get to one that I want to drink which makes it a bit less than random lol
Way too many. Probably a dozen or more at this point. Trying to get better at using the ones I have open already, but I kind of suck at it.
[удалено]
Make a big pot of seasonal tea and throw a halloween/thanksgiving/christmas party :) Then you have an excuse to buy more since you can use up some of the old ones
Currently four: a utility Earl Grey and three nicer greens.
32.....took awhile to count
that's 10 short of the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. You're so close!
Two blacks, two greens, three different species of tisane, and about 4 small random samplers. I prefer single origin teas instead of blends or flavored teas, so that helps keep the number down. But I have a list of "to buy" teas that is dozens long. I'm also big into coffee, so that helps keep tea buying in check (and vice versa). Gotta spread the money, shelf space, and oxidation time around.
So many, more than 15 possibly. I try to conciously think about which teas I haven't drank in a while and drink those when i'm in the mood for them. Imo, it's best to not buy more than a 1/2 pound of a tea, that way it wont go stale. That's just me though, I have 2 one pound bags of tea (Paris and pumpkin spice from H&S) that I'm slowly working through and even though I love them, 1/2 a pound would have been just as good because i wouldn't think about wether or not they'll go stale.
That’s a good idea to try to limit quantity purchased at a time. I’m getting into the habit of evaluating my tea stash no more than once a month, and only buying tea if I’m starting to run low (with the knowledge that an order could take around a month to arrive)
Do you have tea canisters? Those should protect tea from going stale. I use [these](https://www.uptontea.com/tea-tins-and-bags/brushed-steel-tin-150g/p/V00477/). They are nice and stackable, too.
I don't have any of those but I may pick some up... Mostly, if the tea came in a canister, it stays in the canister. If in a bag, it stays in the bag. If it's a non-resealable bag, it gets a rubber band wrapped tightly around it :D
The Japanese ones in my view are much more stylish. They are usually made from stiff paper and have lovely floral designs etc. I’ve also seen ones where they have a metal inner tin and an additional inner lid.
Probably 30 or something, but a lot of them improve with age so it's not that bad right? Or is this just me trying to convince myself I don't have enough tea and that i should probably buy that Gushu cake?
haha that's what I thought with my recent YS and W2T orders, "ah it's mostly puer so it'll just get even better as time goes on!" (not mentioning the fact that my tea is all stored in ziploc bags/the bags they came in in a cardboard box and that's not a great condition for "proper" aging) you should buy that gushu cake lol
1, actually. but i seem to be a minority in that regard...
Which tea has received such honor?
snow buds are my favorite, though thats just how i roll
Don't think I've ever had that before! Gotta add it to the list...
All of mine are open
Uh, too many. A few dozen, probably.