Wine cabinet for storing puer
I live in a cool climate with low humidity and am looking into how I can store puer. I don't particularly want to have dedicated controlled storage just for tea when I need one for my wine as well. I can get a split wine cabinet with two temperature zones and keep my wine cold and tea... warmish. Good wine cabinets are humidity controlled to stop corks drying out. Does anyone have experience or thoughts on storing puer in ~20 degrees Celsius and a bit over 50% humidity? I know this is not what people consider ideal but certainly better than my climate.
sounds like it could be better but could also be a lot worse.
what's your climate? or rather what's temp and humidity like inside your house where you're storing them now?
General consensus tends towards the temperatures in the range 25C-30C as significantly better for storage and aging of pu-erh then 20C, but not everybody has a special temperature controlled setup (at least i don't have one at this moment, so a room temperature it is for my cakes). Here's a whole thread on pu-erh storage. I'm guessing those wine cabinets may not come with a heating option? 
My concern would be uncontrolled mould growth.
A bit of mould on a wine label or the outside of a cork is not abnormal, especially in natural cellars, but it could be dangerous for your tea (and for you), and I do not know how wine fridges control mould growth, or how they circulate air, or how hard they'd be to clean out if there were some sort of infestation that took root (assuming you detected it in time).
Andrew
A bit of mould on a wine label or the outside of a cork is not abnormal, especially in natural cellars, but it could be dangerous for your tea (and for you), and I do not know how wine fridges control mould growth, or how they circulate air, or how hard they'd be to clean out if there were some sort of infestation that took root (assuming you detected it in time).
Andrew
Around 20 degrees would be the 'heating option' in a wine cabinet. On the plus side they are already set up to circulate air to prevent mould growth.
I haven't used a hygrometer but just know it's relatively low. On average it would be 18C.
I thought perhaps this could be two birds one stone, not having to justify a separate purchase for a dedicated tea cabinet. "Could be better but could be a lot worse" might be acceptable. At least on a dew point calculator the storage conditions look safe. I may consider just doing it for now and perhaps looking at something in the future if the collection grows very large.
I have had a good look at people's storage solutions here. I would definitely prefer a cabinet of some sort that is regulated on its own, which it looks like a few people have rigged up. Looks like there's not many 'ready made' able to be purchased. I would imagine this would be comparable with people storing somewhere dark, odourless with good airflow in a stable ~20C climate and >50% humidity, which if that was my local climate I would probably feel reasonably happy just storing naturally.
I haven't used a hygrometer but just know it's relatively low. On average it would be 18C.
I thought perhaps this could be two birds one stone, not having to justify a separate purchase for a dedicated tea cabinet. "Could be better but could be a lot worse" might be acceptable. At least on a dew point calculator the storage conditions look safe. I may consider just doing it for now and perhaps looking at something in the future if the collection grows very large.
I have had a good look at people's storage solutions here. I would definitely prefer a cabinet of some sort that is regulated on its own, which it looks like a few people have rigged up. Looks like there's not many 'ready made' able to be purchased. I would imagine this would be comparable with people storing somewhere dark, odourless with good airflow in a stable ~20C climate and >50% humidity, which if that was my local climate I would probably feel reasonably happy just storing naturally.
If you live somewhere cool and dry, you are in excellent tea-storage weather for most other types of tea -- I would take advantage of this to store other teas.
If you have a special fondness for pu'er, I would make the goal maintaining the flavor over short-term storage, and leaving the long-term storage for elsewhere. You can console yourself with the fact that all the teas that you can store easily would soon spoil in the humid climates that pu'er loves, or require fussy special treatment such as re-roasting.
If you have a special fondness for pu'er, I would make the goal maintaining the flavor over short-term storage, and leaving the long-term storage for elsewhere. You can console yourself with the fact that all the teas that you can store easily would soon spoil in the humid climates that pu'er loves, or require fussy special treatment such as re-roasting.
That's a good point.
@zirkus; you might have a dreadful climate for ageing puer, but a wonderful climate for ageing other kinds of tea, like yancha, or anything else that you will. Or an excellent climate simply for storing most kinds of tea, as opposed to ageing them. And while ageing puer at home is very fashionable, ageing yancha or other teas at home can be far more rewarding.
If you are somewhat new to puer, I would suggest trying some old dry-stored puer, some old traditionally-stored puer, and seeing where your preferences lie. They're really not the same tea, and dry storage at 50% humidity won't ever give you the same kind of tea that you can buy now from places like Hong Kong that has gone through proper wet storage.
I think that ageing puer is not similar to ageing wine. A wine that's been stored at 15 degrees might be a bit less mature than one that's been stored at 18 degrees, but I think that a puer that's been stored drily will simply not become similar to a puer that's gone through humid storage. At least, not during our life times.
But of course, it is up to you, and if you have a wine fridge with a bit of spare room, I'm sure that others around here will be interested in seeing how your storage experiments go.
Andrew
Some excellent points here. Yes, there are certainly other ageworthy teas I could look into. Though I do have to admit a slight aesthetic aversion to tea in plastic/aluminium etc.Andrew S wrote: ↑Sat Oct 23, 2021 5:02 pmThat's a good point.
zirkus; you might have a dreadful climate for ageing puer, but a wonderful climate for ageing other kinds of tea, like yancha, or anything else that you will. Or an excellent climate simply for storing most kinds of tea, as opposed to ageing them. And while ageing puer at home is very fashionable, ageing yancha or other teas at home can be far more rewarding.
If you are somewhat new to puer, I would suggest trying some old dry-stored puer, some old traditionally-stored puer, and seeing where your preferences lie. They're really not the same tea, and dry storage at 50% humidity won't ever give you the same kind of tea that you can buy now from places like Hong Kong that has gone through proper wet storage.
I think that ageing puer is not similar to ageing wine. A wine that's been stored at 15 degrees might be a bit less mature than one that's been stored at 18 degrees, but I think that a puer that's been stored drily will simply not become similar to a puer that's gone through humid storage. At least, not during our life times.
But of course, it is up to you, and if you have a wine fridge with a bit of spare room, I'm sure that others around here will be interested in seeing how your storage experiments go.
Andrew
I think it would be a good idea to try to buy some older examples from different storage conditions. I may also just give it a go as you say and see the results (though obviously would be some time!). I did read on Cloud's website temperature recommendation of 15-30C, humidity 60-80, so I don't think it would be too far off. I would have to get a hygrometer and actually measure humidity.