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[Joss]

Love it :-)

[ValeTudoGuy]

Seriously though, is that where it was filmed? It looks the spitting image.

[Joss]

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Star Wars was in Tunisia. As it happens, they filmed The Martian there in Wadi Rum last year, not seen it but its in cinemas now about an astronaut trapped on Mars. Its also where Laurence of Arabia is set.

[Niela]

Seek out a good Middle Eastern food store, you'll get good quality loose tea of various flavours without the 'specialist' or 'gourmet' price tag that gets added on in regular stores. Iranian cardamom tea is good. Not sure about Japanese tea but I know that some pay thousands for specialist green teas that are used in the tea making ceremonies.

Heres a pic of me drinking Bedouin tea on a recent trip to the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan. Loose black tea with the addition of sage, other mountain herbs and lots of sugar.. Delicious.

Best, get educated about it and you will start to enjoy it a lot more and find the odd gem somewhere. But just like with cigars and all other good things, quality comes at a price. I had tea in Taiwan that cost ?1000/kg. It was Hand made in an organic garden and won awards in Taiwan and I have to say it was worth every penny. This tea was simply so much better than anything mass produced.

Sure, you can have a tea that's much cheaper and still great. But there is a limit like with everything else.

Same with matcha. Once you saw what goes into making it and how many steps and people are involved, you see that a certain quality simply can't come with a cheap price tag. Just like you won't find a cigar that tastes like an aged Edicion Limitada and costs a quid.

When you say cardamon tea, I am sure it taste great,like cardamon. And I am sure it is cheap, as cardamon is a lot cheaper than tea and when you blend tea with other flavours, you also don't have to use good tea because you won't taste much of the tea anyway. :-D

Love those pictures...!

[ValeTudoGuy]

I'm going to treat myself to some Macha when payday comes round. I think I'm going to try on Sencha for day to day drinking too.

Does It keep long? I'm guessing in airtight opaque containers.

[Niela]

Generally, green teas are best when fresh. Any good tea should come with an oxygen absorber and an airtight bag. Store in the fridge and it should keep for 1-3 months.

Matcha usually comes without oxygen absorbers, but also keep in the fridge and it'll be good for 1-3 months as well.

Generally tea doesn't go bad, but bland. I have had matcha that was half a year old before and it still tasted great. But with loose leaf tea you will get better flavours the fresher they are.

[EarwaxUK]

Matcha usually comes without oxygen absorbers, but also keep in the fridge and it'll be good for 1-3 months as well.

That's interesting. I'm a massive coffee fan and whilst I know that tea and coffee are different, I also know that the staling that you get in both is because of oxidation of the volatile flavour compounds like 2-ethyl phenol, acetylmethylcarbinol, dicaffeoylquinic acid, acetaldehyde, and trigonelline. The rates of reaction for the oxidation and sublimation of these molecules is slowed by reducing the temperature but is can be accelerated by UV light and moisture. Moisture is the main killer of coffee (especially if it's stored ground) and so the worst thing you can do to store it is put it in the fridge.

If your teas come with O₂ absorbers (any idea what they're made of?) and are stored in airtight bags, it seems reasonable to assume oxidation is the main issue here as well so it suprises me that you'd keep it in the fridge. Have you ever tried freezing it?

[Niela]

I have to check what the oxygen absorbers are made of, but all bags are sealable.

Basically, what you want to avoid is as you rightly said:

Oxygen
Moisture
Light
Heat

Tea traders in Japan have communal storage facilities in which they deepfreez their stock at -60C.

We ourselves store bulk bags in the freezer to keep freshness. Oxygen absorbers are vital in the final packages. We tried to pack without them in the beginning and the tea lost its fresh flavours after a fortnight already, even in an unopened bag.

Which is something that irritates me with some tea shops as well. Many store all their teas in large tin cans that get opened constantly. That might be alright for some black teas and oolong, but it is a sure death of flavour for anything more delicate, like green or white tea.

[EarwaxUK]

Have you tried freezing the final packages? General chemistry would suggest that freezing will prolong the life of the tea further, even at home, so long as you thaw and use promptly. And the moisture in a fridge can be a real killer.

I'm not surprised oxygen catchers are essential. With roasted coffee beans, they degas after roasting so a one way valve in a sealed bag is more than sufficient. Plus the carbon dioxide they give off is inert so there's no oxidative activity until the bag is opened.
With tea, that won't happen.

[Niela]

Have you tried freezing the final packages? General chemistry would suggest that freezing will prolong the life of the tea further, even at home, so long as you thaw and use promptly. And the moisture in a fridge can be a real killer.

I'm not surprised oxygen catchers are essential. With roasted coffee beans, they degas after roasting so a one way valve in a sealed bag is more than sufficient. Plus the carbon dioxide they give off is inert so there's no oxidative activity until the bag is opened.
With tea, that won't happen.

We usually pack tea to order, but sometimes we do prepack some larger quantities. However, none of the teas stay on the shelves for too long, so there's no need for freezing.

Two things about cold storage:

1. When frozen or your fridge is very cold, give the pack some time to get closer to room temperature, that way you avoid any condensation inside the pack after opening.
2. Keeping tea fresh in the fridge or freezer mostly applies to green, white and some oolong teas. Black tea or highly oxidized Oolong has much more tolerance to storage. Black tea is fully oxidized, so further contact with air will not change the flavour easily. (unless the air is full of smells) Black tea was actually developed by the Chinese for the European market. Back in the days, transport took too long and was too warm for green tea to stay fresh. So they developed black tea, which can be easily shipped. For that reason Asia still drinks green teas and oolongs mostly and the west drinks black tea.

[EarwaxUK]

I was thinking more about your customers than you, I can see why you wouldn't always freeze.

Good advice about allowing the temperature to equilibrate before opening the packs too.

My wife is quite into teas, I'll get her to have a look at your site when she orders next

[Joss]

When you say cardamon tea, I am sure it taste great,like cardamon. And I am sure it is cheap, as cardamon is a lot cheaper than tea and when you blend tea with other flavours, you also don't have to use good tea because you won't taste much of the tea anyway. :-D

Love those pictures...!

I cant remember the brand but to my untrained eye its great quality, loose leaf tea. The cardamom has been infused into the tea rather than added as a powder so theres no less tea in a tin.

[Niela]

I cant remember the brand but to my untrained eye its great quality, loose leaf tea. The cardamom has been infused into the tea rather than added as a powder so theres no less tea in a tin.

Don't get me wrong, there is great tea out there and sometimes at good prices as well. And in the end, the only thing that matters is that it tastes good to you. I have teas that some people absolutely love and I can't stand them. Just like with cigars as well.

But generally speaking, if you have a great tea, you don't blend it with spices. Just like you don't make a cigar of premium leaves and then add a pineapple infusion to it. For these kind of teas you use low to medium grade leaves. And that is absolutely fine, because with the cardamon or smoke flavour or bergamot oil or cherry flavour and what not, you won't taste the difference in the tea itself as much.

I enjoy an Earl Grey when I'm in a cafe or hotel for that reason. The bergamot is the main flavour and I don't mind the lack of flavour from the tea or the faults it might have.

Personally though I don't like getting any other flavours in the way of a fine tea. No sugar, no milk, no general flavourings. Like with cigars, I enjoy the pureness of a fine tea.

It's like with everything (cigars, whiskey, wine...), the more you try, the more your taste develops. Some teas are simply undrinkable for the untrained tongue. But once you develop a taste for fine teas, a whole new world opens up.

Let me mention one more thing. We traveled throughout Asia to find small producers of artisan teas. Because we love to learn about tea as much as we can and also because we want to know exactly where our tea comes from. Some teas, like the Japanese ones, have to be ordered through merchants as the farmers do not produce the final product. So we met people in the industry all over the world. I have yet to meet one who's in it for the money. The level of companionship and mutual support is something I've never experienced in any other industry. (maybe cigars are similar in that) Everybody we work with and met just loves tea and that's the reason why they got involved in the first place.

[Joss]

Yeah its definitely on a par with Earl Grey, which I also enjoy occasionally. Ive no experience of top end teas but I get what you're saying. Im a purist in terms of drinking malt whisky but thats not to say don't partake in a JD and coke now and then.. They are two different things.

[Niela]

Yeah its definitely on a par with Earl Grey, which I also enjoy occasionally. Ive no experience of top end teas but I get what you're saying. Im a purist in terms of drinking malt whisky but thats not to say don't partake in a JD and coke now and then.. They are two different things.

Couldn't have put it better. Have you been to the whiskey show this month? If not, go next year. Heaven for every whiskey lover. And this year they actually had a whiskey / cigar matching workshop.