gurdymonkey | Today's tea: You poor Darjeeling

Today's tea is a victim of abuse and neglect. It's hot and it's wet, but it's a pale shadow of what was probably once a very nice Darjeeling. I know I bought it in March 2019 from an SCA merchant who does what a lot of non-SCA merchants do: buy tea/herbs in bulk, decant them into little plastic bags or clear plastic jars, and sell on to their customers. None of this stuff ever has a date on it either.

I have a supermarket brand teabag Darjeeling. I bought it three or four months ago and it's still better than this one was, even though it was cheaply packaged in a plastic covered cardboard box and each bag is in a paper packet.

I have been a tea abuser, but I'm also learning to do better. Even if you're happy with dunking a teabag in your mug and calling it good, fresher* is better and makes a nicer cup of tea. So here are some ways to do that. (*Some teas are deliberately aged, like the puers, but they call for careful storage as well.)

If you don't know how long it's been in the back of that cabinet, throw it out. If you're sufficiently bothered, put some sort of date label on it when you buy it, so you will know next time. (I shudder to think how old that Moroccan Mint is.)

EDIT: After I posted this on Facebook, some folks said, don't throw it out, there are things you can use it for. Definitely compost for your garden (which I don't have as an apartment dweller), a vague reference to cleaning and cosmetic applications. Go Google "uses for old tea," you'll find things. Right now I'm going to call unpackaging it and lobbing it into the green bin good. I threw out a LOT of old tea this week, freeing up some pantry shelf space.

Plastic can impart its own odor and clear plastic allows light in. Both can make the flavor of your tea suffer. Black or silver food safe mylar bags, however, are a good storage option and are often used by high end tea vendors. (You can see some in my Tea album if you've been following along.)

Odors and humidity can also affect flavor, so if at all possible, don't store your tea over the stove or near your sink. (Mine lives on a storage shelf facing the fridge.)

Tea bags sold in foil packets or better yet, in their own tin canister, are likely to stay fresher longer. Tins can be re-used, and fun, decorative ones are their own rabbit hole. Wait until you see the one I have on order.

Some bag brands come in paper packets, or really old school ones like Yorkshire Tea, are in a box by themselves. If you're not going to go through them quickly, put them in a tin. Yorkshire - my latest go-to for iced tea - fit nicely in a toffee tin. If you opt for a glass jar or canister, store it out of the light.

Don't overbuy. I am so guilty of this and I just threw out a bunch of stuff I found lurking in corners that I'd just never gotten to. I abhor waste and I feel terrible about doing it, but I also know it's just not going to be worth drinking.

It can't hurt to put a date label on things either. I cut labels off some teas I just bought, wrote the date on, and stuck them to the bottom of my pretty canisters with double sided tape. These babies are too good to waste.