Oolong storage and humidity

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oeroe
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Wed Feb 28, 2018 9:39 am

Hello friends,

What are your thoughts on humidity and medium-term wulong storage?

I mostly drink pu'er, and when drinking wulong I prefer aged, roasted and/or oxidised stuff. My understanding has been that darker wulongs are easy to store, the usual advise seems to be just keep them protected from excessive humidity, airflow, smells, light.. So I've just stored my wulongs in jars and airtight packs. So easy compared to the humidity requirements of pu'er!

Now I've been revisiting some roasted taiwanese teas I bought two years ago, and they are quite mild, and a it sour. Not at all what I remembered. At first I assumed it's my brewing, as I said I mostly drink pu'er and I often feel a bit out of touch when brewing wulong. But this effect seems to be quite consistent, so I started to think that maybe this tea has deteriorated in the not-perfectly-airtight jar. Thin sourness in pu'er makes me think too arid storage, so I figure maybe wulongs would actually like South-East Asian humidity levels as well, when stored non-airtight. I'm going to start an experiment to see if exposure to higher RH would benefit any of my wulongs, but in the mean time I'd like to hear your thoughts, especially other people storing tea in the West?
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Bok
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Wed Feb 28, 2018 10:09 am

For Oolong, sour means too much humidity. Taiwanese Oolongs are also re-roasted every few years to drive out that excess humidity. Oolong ages better airtight and without humidity.
oeroe
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Wed Feb 28, 2018 11:04 am

Bok wrote:
Wed Feb 28, 2018 10:09 am
For Oolong, sour means too much humidity. Taiwanese Oolongs are also re-roasted every few years to drive out that excess humidity. Oolong ages better airtight and without humidity.
That doesn't really make sense in my case, our temperature is 19° and RH 30% on a good day, that's very arid. In Taiwan it would probably never get this dry.

I know that that's what they often say, but most aged taiwanese wulongs I've are not roasted, just some forgotten batches which have turned dark over the years. Not sour. Though these are just personal anecdotes, I don't understand this so comprehensively.

Don't people also seal wulongs for aging in jars, sealed with wax etc? Those leaves would have their original humidity, while mine would be slowly getting even dryer..

This makes me think though, it would be fun to try a gentle reroast in a house oven, just as an experiment!
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Bok
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Wed Feb 28, 2018 8:12 pm

oeroe wrote:
Wed Feb 28, 2018 11:04 am
That doesn't really make sense in my case, our temperature is 19° and RH 30% on a good day, that's very arid. In Taiwan it would probably never get this dry.

I know that that's what they often say, but most aged taiwanese wulongs I've are not roasted, just some forgotten batches which have turned dark over the years. Not sour. Though these are just personal anecdotes, I don't understand this so comprehensively.

Don't people also seal wulongs for aging in jars, sealed with wax etc? Those leaves would have their original humidity, while mine would be slowly getting even dryer..

This makes me think though, it would be fun to try a gentle reroast in a house oven, just as an experiment!
No, 30% will never happen, not even close. Most days I turn on the de-humidifier and it shows 70%.
Yes, they do way seal, but even in those cases teas are typically checked and tasted every 3-5 years to see the development and re-roasted. You can not really leave them for 10 years and expect them to turn out fine, supervision is necessary or you risk loosing a batch.

Not sure what is going on in your case, maybe the base material was not done properly? Or some humidity crept in at some point? Where I am from we also do have bone dry climate as well, which does not exclude basements getting moldy without proper ventilation after some rainy weeks.
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octopus
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Fri Mar 02, 2018 12:43 am

your storage is not airtight enough, too much humidity = sour

try adding more layers of plastic bags and seal better or even better: buy only enough tea to drink when is good so you won't end up ruining it
oeroe
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Fri Mar 02, 2018 6:27 am

octopus wrote:
Fri Mar 02, 2018 12:43 am
your storage is not airtight enough, too much humidity = sour

try adding more layers of plastic bags and seal better or even better: buy only enough tea to drink when is good so you won't end up ruining it
I think I'm going to try to make my storage more airtight, as that seems to be the general consensus!
Ruining tea is not good, though I had been thinking that wulongs are easy to store.
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tealifehk
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Fri Mar 02, 2018 6:43 am

You may be able to drive off the moisture, or even give the tea a little roast. :)
.m.
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Fri Mar 02, 2018 7:03 am

Your storage sounds fine, from what you say its very dry. There might have been too much humidity in the tea already when you got it.
I've had so far a good luck with storing roasted oolongs in jars, they mostly got better (more mellow, better body and aftertaste). But there are people on the forum with more experience than me who may give you a better advice.

You should definitely try reroasting the tea it gently. You can experiment with heating up a few grams in a small pot (or hojiki roaster) on a stove before brewing it. Once the tea releases the moisture and aroma its about ready, past that it might start to get burned. You can also use oven on a very low heat level (its easy to ruin the tea that way by burning it if the oven is too hot).
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octopus
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Fri Mar 02, 2018 8:02 am

reroasting the tea is a good way to salvage what is going bad or has the “return to green" flavor but i would be very careful in doing it.
I use a kind of large machine that's specifically for tea roasting and adjust settings based on the tea but if you dont and you roast at too high temperature or use amateur machines is possible to ruin the tea completely.

the best thing to do is still to drink tea when is at its best and get what you can drink.
also very important store a lot of tea together if you keep it, as much as possible together and well packed.
if you are planning to "age‘ tea then things are completely different though.
Last edited by octopus on Fri Mar 02, 2018 8:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
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