Storing Pu'er Tea daily is often a challenging issue for many new tea enthusiasts.

Cleanliness, avoiding light exposure, preventing dampness, and ensuring there's no odd smell – it's essential to maintain good air circulation while also preventing excessive oxidation. Different approaches should be selected for long-term versus short-term storage, and choosing and using appropriate containers can also be confusing…

Today, Lu Li will address various issues related to storing tea at home for novice tea enthusiasts.

Long-Term Storage

The first principle: Store in a clean, dark, dry, and stable environment.

Temperature: The temperature for storing Pu'er tea should generally be around 20-30°C; higher or lower temperatures are not conducive to aging. It's also important to avoid changes in the tea quality caused by air conditioners, quartz lamps, etc.

Humidity: A relative humidity of around 65%-75% is ideal. High or low humidity levels are detrimental to the transformation of Pu'er tea. You can purchase a hygrometer to accurately monitor changes in room humidity.

For tea enthusiasts in the north, during dry weather, humidity can be very low, slowing down the transformation of Pu'er tea. Humidifiers can be used to appropriately increase air humidity, and wiping the floor with a clean, damp towel can achieve a similar effect.

In the south, during the plum rain season and other periods of high humidity, the air is very moist. Tea leaves will quickly absorb moisture from the room, potentially leading to mold growth. Dehumidifiers should be used promptly to reduce indoor humidity.

Ventilation: The main purpose of ventilation is to balance indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity. When indoor temperature and humidity are too high or if some odd smells accumulate, it's necessary to ventilate the Pu'er tea appropriately.

However, try not to expose the Pu'er tea cakes directly to strong air currents or leave them out on balconies, as these areas have larger airflows that can reduce the tea flavor and affect the internal quality transformation of the Pu'er tea.

The duration of ventilation should be flexibly chosen according to the season. During autumn and winter when air humidity is low, cross-ventilation can be selected. In summer when temperatures are higher, exchange ventilation (i.e., opening only the windows or the door) is recommended. Additionally, ventilation should be avoided in environments with high humidity.

Shade: Keep Pu'er tea in an environment where it is not exposed to direct sunlight, reducing the impact of strong light on the internal quality. Avoid exposing Pu'er tea to high temperatures, as this may cause the internal quality to lose its vitality and beneficial microorganisms to die off.

Knowledge Extension: Don't let your good tea be ruined by a single light bulb.

No Odd Smell: Pu'er tea has a strong ability to absorb odd smells, and once absorbed, they are difficult to remove. Therefore, strive for a clean and odor-free environment for storing Pu'er tea.

Items such as gasoline, paint, perfume, tobacco and alcohol, pets, ointments, bruise oils, electric mosquito repellents, hot pot, spicy sticks, pickles, etc. – these strongly-scented items are often overlooked sources of odors in household storage.

Therefore, if conditions permit, tea enthusiasts can reserve a separate room as an independent home storage space. Place smart temperature and humidity control devices in the room, and bind them to their smartphones via the Internet of Things to monitor conditions, which can reduce the difficulty of storing Pu'er tea.

The second principle: Ensure long-term stability of the small storage environment.

Traditional Pu'er tea cakes usually come in bamboo-wrapped packages or large bamboo-wrapped bundles. Keeping the original packaging intact helps prevent water damage and provides a relatively stable internal environment for the post-fermentation process of Pu'er tea.

Knowledge Extension: Bamboo-wrapped seven-cake bundles: the best carrier for microbial fermentation.

If stored in bulk without the original cardboard box, the bamboo-wrapped tea cakes can be placed in unused cardboard boxes (avoiding any odd smells) and sealed with tape in a cross pattern before stacking them for storage (do not exceed the weight limit).

However, try not to place cardboard boxes directly on the floor or in contact with walls. This is because cardboard boxes absorb moisture from the air, and walls and floors are often the dampest areas in a room.

Especially during the plum rain season in southern regions, when relative humidity can reach 100%, and even “water seepage” occurs on the ground, it's recommended to check the storage conditions of the tea every day to prevent mold growth.

Therefore, cardboard boxes containing tea should be placed on shelves that are at least 30 cm above the ground and 30 cm away from walls, and in a dry location. Tea enthusiasts with larger quantities of tea can also choose to custom-order shelves for storing Pu'er tea.

The third principle: Avoid mixing raw and ripe teas, as well as storing different-aged raw teas together.

Firstly, Pu'er raw tea and ripe tea are two distinct types of tea products in terms of quality and style, so they should be stored separately.

In terms of aroma, Pu'er raw tea typically features downy, lotus, fresh, chestnut, and aged aromas; Pu'er ripe tea typically features ginseng, soybean, aged, jujube, and camphor aromas.

Due to differences in aroma types, if raw and ripe Pu'er teas are mixed together, aroma substances will often cross-absorb, masking or altering each other, making it difficult for both types to develop pure and natural aromas.

Secondly, strictly speaking, raw teas of different ages should also be kept apart as much as possible. Raw teas aged for over 10 years and those made recently have distinctly different flavors and aromas.

Storing the two types of tea together in a small environment can easily result in the older tea absorbing the new taste of the newer tea, while the newer tea can absorb the scent of the older tea, resulting in a stale taste. The stale taste absorbed by the newer tea is partial and uneven, having a stale taste but not pure.

This point is also considered from a moisture prevention perspective. After long-term storage, older teas have lower moisture content, whereas newer teas have slightly higher moisture content. In a humid environment, storing older and newer teas together could lead to the older tea becoming damp.

Some experienced tea drinkers may store a small amount of older tea together with newer tea, allowing the newer tea to “inoculate” with beneficial microorganisms from the older tea, improving the aging efficiency, which is close to the concept of “tea seeds” in professional storage. This new exploration does not conflict with the above practices.

Daily Drinking

For Pu'er tea intended for daily drinking, attention should be paid to sealing conditions to prevent excessive oxidation. For precious aged Pu'er teas, you can choose to store them in sealed aluminum foil bags. Open the bag when removing tea, then reseal it after taking out the required portion.

In addition to sealed aluminum foil bags, non-permeable glazed Ceramic jars, tightly sealed tin cans, and purple clay pots can also be used. Although this might seem a bit cumbersome, as long as the seal is ensured, it can effectively prevent excessive oxidation.

Another approach is to break up Compressed tea completely and store it in a purple clay pot. This method is suitable for aged teas with odd smells, newly-made raw teas with prominent bitterness