special-TEA- tuesday

Well, I just bought about a kilo of English Breakfast tea from the tea provider that we use at Fujimamas, for home use. Now the question is where do I store so much tea so that it can be used over the next 6 mons. ? Debate raged in the casa de shannon tea household. And it got split into two glad ziplock backs and put into the freezer drawer of our fridge. A nice dark, little use space... but obviously very cold.

then this morning in my mail box. Low and behold, the answer came from some other tea-drinker's same dilema. My TEA MUSE newsletter came from Adagio Teas and this month's letter from MR. TEA set things straight.


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Dear Mrs. Frigidaire,

Before I get to your (excellent) question, I must take this opportunity to clear up some confusion that seems to have arisen. When perusing my many (excellent) questions and assorted fan emails, I've been noticing a disturbing trend.

Supposedly, there is there is another "celebrity" out there posing as me. To clear a few things up: no, I do not have a mohawk. I once had a fairly bad haircut, but it grew out. I do enjoy gold, as long as it is in the form of Golden Monkey tea. Finally, I've never gotten into fisticuffs with Sylvester Stallone. And I pity the poor fool that does -- he's quite a fighter!

Answer: The best way to keep tea fresh is by putting it in a dark, dry space (like your cupboard, etc.), kept as air-tight as possible. This should maintain freshness up to one year (a little less for green and white teas). I do not recommend putting in the freezer, in that it will add moisture to the tea leaves, greatly reducing the flavor.

Keeping it fresh,
Mr. Tea
Lover, not a fighter

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so time to make some space in the shannon cupboard!