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Especially whites, but have had it for a few oolongs and blacks too. Wondering if it's a storage issue.

It's just been at most a few months.

Could be too humid?

Yes, excess humidity will leave a sour taste. What kind of teas is this happening with? If it’s a previously roasted oolong, you could try re-roasting for 15 minutes and then letting tea rest a week or so before trying.

Thanks it just happened today when I re-tasted an oriental beauty. I gave it really high marks originally, now two months later it's sour. Can't imagine it being high humidity indoors but maybe some condensation occurred. A month ago I kept doors and windows open for a week to air out some paint smells.

It wasn't stored with any boveda packs, just in a zip lock bag with a sealing pin (not 100% airtight)

It happened to a few whites I had too, recently re-tasted. Maybe a black but not obvious.

I could put the oriental beauty in the oven and see how it goes Let me try that for experimentation.

Another question, some aged whites Ive tried have been sour, but after a rinse or two, the sour is gone. Happened to a few of them to be a one off. Just typical aged white funkiness?

I do noticed a source note in aged white tea when I over steep it. Maybe you can try less leaves, faster steep, and a slight lower temperature to see if it helps.

DailyTX wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 29, 2020 5:26 pm

I do noticed a source note in aged white tea when I over steep it. Maybe you can try less leaves, faster steep, and a slight lower temperature to see if it helps.

I did note that a lower temperature makes the sour note disappear.

26uk wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 29, 2020 5:32 pm

DailyTX wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 29, 2020 5:26 pm

I do noticed a source note in aged white tea when I over steep it. Maybe you can try less leaves, faster steep, and a slight lower temperature to see if it helps.

I did note that a lower temperature makes the sour note disappear.

Same with chinese hong cha of lower quality

Good whites get better with age but all aged teas that taste good will go through a phase where they aren’t so good, though not necessarily a rancid smell.

I believe what you are smelling are oils in the leaves going rancid. I can only speculate whether this odor will pass with time. My hunch is that it does.

Baisao wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 29, 2020 11:43 pm

Good whites get better with age but all aged teas that taste good will go through a phase where they aren’t so good, though not necessarily a rancid smell.

I believe what you are smelling are oils in the leaves going rancid. I can only speculate whether this odor will pass with time. My hunch is that it does.

Very interesting. Will keep this in mind.

I also only add my guess on that. If your tea came from higher humidity place like GZ , SH, HK or even Fujian , there is a fairly amount of moisture in leaf which needs to be maintained in ventilated condition. If you keep sealed , high possibility of “fast fermenting” process which is sort of composting ( burning ) the leaves and that stage acidity is common ( happens with bad fermented batch of shu or very wet stored shu ...aka alcohol / bourbon notes )
Id suggest to keep it open , but of course issue later might be that your tea will dry out / fade out the taste.
This is also a common issue with puerh from hot & humid places being transferred to relatively dry place. For that there is also a solution ...search for Puerh storage issues and solutions.