Need storage ideas for 10lb of tea

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lam
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Joined: Sat Feb 13, 2021 2:50 pm
Location: Midwest, USA

Sat Feb 13, 2021 3:00 pm

Hey, I'm new here and fairly new to drinking tea in general. I invested in all the basics, including one pound bags of a variety of loose leaf tea. I bought 16oz glass jars thinking these would each hold a 1lb bag's worth of leaves but was wrong. I'm writing this post to ask for help finding proper storage for these individual bags: ten total. So I need at least 10 individual jars/canisters/bags and am hoping you'll point me in the direction of a bulk option that isn't too expensive. What I'm looking at now on amazon.com would cost me several hundred dollars to fulfill my needs. Any ideas that aren't so pricey? I'm from midwest USA. Thanks for your time.
Last edited by pedant on Sat Feb 13, 2021 3:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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26uk
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Location: Bay Area, Ca

Sat Feb 13, 2021 3:37 pm

If the bags are resealable, you can store them in their original bags.

How fast are you going to drink those 10lbs of tea? That will determine whether you are storing for the short term or long term.

Also what tea are they? Different teas can have different storage requirements.
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pedant
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Sat Feb 13, 2021 3:49 pm

welcome, @lam! please say hello :mrgreen:

10lb of tea is a lot. i hope you like it ;)
fwiw, depending on the kind of tea, i would consider buying in smaller quantity going forward as many teas don't stay at their best forever.
lam wrote:
Sat Feb 13, 2021 3:00 pm
I bought 16oz glass jars thinking these would each hold a 1lb bag's worth of leaves but was wrong.
technically, you bought 16 fl oz jars, not 16 oz jars. these units have completely different dimensions (volume vs weight).
i'm not sure if this was your mistake, but just in case: while a pound is the same as 16 ounces, that doesn't mean that a pound of tea occupies 16 fluid ounces of volume. different materials have different densities. referring to a fluid ounce as an ounce leads to much misunderstanding :(

what are the teas in right now? some kind of bag you said?
i think the cost of the tea kind of dictates how much money and effort you spend on storing it. teas vary a lot in value, and you'd hope that the storage expense is only a fraction of the tea's value.

for a cheap overall option, i'd load them up in quart-sized (or larger) jars. be sure to run them through the dishwasher first because new jars are not clean from the factory. they have a smell to them that will taint your tea.

last year, i bought 3 cases of 12 ball brand quart jars (36 jars total). shop around. at the time, the cheapest i found them for was about $42 shipped via some third party seller on walmart (about $1.17 for each jar).

the enemies of tea are light (especially sunlight), heat, humidity, and oxygen. so store them with that in mind.
it's best to keep the bulk of the tea in big containers that you open only to occasionally refill smaller everyday containers or bags. that way you aren't constantly exposing most of the tea. what's a good "everyday" size to draw from? probably a container or bag that holds about 50g.

another thing to look into getting is an impulse sealer, but it may not make sense for you at this stage.
i love mine, though. i use it all the time, and not just for tea.

you could also go the bag route, but if you don't have an impulse sealer, you need ones that have re-sealable zippers.
look at aluminized mylar bags on amazon.
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