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JimMinor wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 13, 2017 12:06 pm

I have a basic set up for my pu'er, cardbox in by bedroom.I live in a dry place (30%-60%RH), but sometime my teas taste to flat and dry...

Hey Jim, general guidelines even for "dry" storage recommend a minimum (!) of >60% RH at room temperature, as with temperature variations, the absolute amount of water fluctuates wildly. Your tea is probably drying out, which would manifest with flat, muted flavors and rough mouth feel. See http://chadao.blogspot.jp/2008/06/persp ... -puer.html for an excellent 5-part primer on what storage is, and http://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.jp ... ative.html for the often avoided discussion of the stark differences between relative and absolute humidity.

As for myself, I live in southern Japan and store my sheng and shu separately in a glass fronted dish cabinet. With the sliding glass doors closed, it's sealed enough to preserve a microclimate without an extreme amount of air exchange. Humidity here drops pretty low in the winter, (40-50% at around 10°C) and all my cakes are entering into hibernation as of now. In the rainy season and warmer months, my indoor humidity hovers between 60-80% at an average of 20°C. They're alive and actively fermenting at an approximation to Kunming dry storage about 6 months of the year. Could be faster for my tastes, but I can't be bothered to put together something more involved...

My usual setup is using cigar humidors with 72% relative humidity packs. It has served me well so far and I have had no mould instances as these humidors are opened at least twice weekly. During winter with lower temperature in the house (my wife and I do not like overheated environments) I change the packs to 69% relative humidity.

This setup is probably not ideal but I seem to get better results than just leaving the cakes lying around the house.

JimMinor wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 13, 2017 12:06 pm

Hi Guys!

I have a basic set up for my pu'er, cardbox in by bedroom.I live in a dry place (30%-60%RH), but sometime my teas taste to flat and dry, like today i drunk B__P__ by W2T, last week was smooth e nice, with some notes of woody and mushroom, not a great aroma, but still good for me, but the today session was to dry, flat, and a not so smooth body, i really didnt enjoy so much.( i know pu'er can change a lot)
Do you guys think it's because the the fluffy air in the bedroom, i have to switch to a better storage?(and i smoke sometime with the window open)
Btw, i dont like to storage for the long term, and i like more the young stuff, so my stash last 1yr o so ( cheap student )

I have the same issue. RH is 30% now that the heat is on inside and now my puerh tastes flat. I bought a few boveda packs and have the tea in a plastic bag that they came in. A small plastic container would probably be a better option for me. I also have no interest in storing tongs of tea, but don't want my few bings to go stale.

wabichajin wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 14, 2017 12:36 am

JimMinor wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 13, 2017 12:06 pm

I have a basic set up for my pu'er, cardbox in by bedroom.I live in a dry place (30%-60%RH), but sometime my teas taste to flat and dry...

Hey Jim, general guidelines even for "dry" storage recommend a minimum (!) of >60% RH at room temperature, as with temperature variations, the absolute amount of water fluctuates wildly...

beachape wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 14, 2017 6:36 pm

I have the same issue. RH is 30% now that the heat is on inside and now my puerh tastes flat. I bought a few boveda packs and have the tea in a plastic bag that they came in. A small plastic container would probably be a better option for me. I also have no interest in storing tongs of tea, but don't want my few bings to go stale.
[/quote]

Thank you for the info.
I'll probably use a plastic box with some packs of Boveda 62% RH(8 packs should be fine(?)).

JimMinor wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 15, 2017 4:35 am

wabichajin wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 14, 2017 12:36 am

JimMinor wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 13, 2017 12:06 pm

I have a basic set up for my pu'er, cardbox in by bedroom.I live in a dry place (30%-60%RH), but sometime my teas taste to flat and dry...

Hey Jim, general guidelines even for "dry" storage recommend a minimum (!) of >60% RH at room temperature, as with temperature variations, the absolute amount of water fluctuates wildly...

beachape wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 14, 2017 6:36 pm

I have the same issue. RH is 30% now that the heat is on inside and now my puerh tastes flat. I bought a few boveda packs and have the tea in a plastic bag that they came in. A small plastic container would probably be a better option for me. I also have no interest in storing tongs of tea, but don't want my few bings to go stale.

Thank you for the info.
I'll probably use a plastic box with some packs of Boveda 62% RH(8 packs should be fine(?)).
[/quote]

Considering you're in a dry place, I'd recommend getting the 72% ones. It's probably better to have a little more humidity than too little. I was just reading a comment from someone that's using the 69% ones complaining about the humidity sometimes dropping as low as 56% RH with those, though not sure of the size of his container.

Also, do what you can to keep the place where you keep your tea warm. I've been using a seedling mat recently on the inside of my fridge door to keep the temp around 70-75 F, but before that I had to keep my room at least around 69-70 F.

Even though we don't get much rain, where I am in LA it's close enough to the ocean that the humidity apparently averages about 60% year round.....so I just have my tea sitting in a trunk in the living room.

Most of my pu-erhs are in their original covering and stored in cardboard boxes kept atop wooden cabinets. Some are stored in porous jars and large clay containers. Sheng and Shu are in different rooms and within these sections they are segregated usually by vendor/brand (I have not separated them by age/smokiness/prior storage/etc.). They are mostly kept closer to the center of the house and away from the kitchen and the balconies where incenses may be lit.

I'm wondering what RH would be considered wet storage? 80%. I'm trying to go for dry storage for my cakes and have them at ~69%.

Teachronicles wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 19, 2018 3:44 pm

I'm wondering what RH would be considered wet storage? 80%. I'm trying to go for dry storage for my cakes and have them at ~69%.

Depends how you define wet storage. I've more recently seen people refer to all teas stored in Southern China/Southeast Asia/Taiwan as wet storage. Nonsense, dry storage started in HK! To me wet storage means actually artificially inflating humidity, sometimes by literally pouring water on the tea!

tealifehk wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 19, 2018 7:47 pm

Teachronicles wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 19, 2018 3:44 pm

I'm wondering what RH would be considered wet storage? 80%. I'm trying to go for dry storage for my cakes and have them at ~69%.

Depends how you define wet storage. I've more recently seen people refer to all teas stored in Southern China/Southeast Asia/Taiwan as wet storage. Nonsense, dry storage started in HK! To me wet storage means actually artificially inflating humidity, sometimes by literally pouring water on the tea!

Linda Louie from Bana Tea Company echoes this same thing here:
https://www.banateacompany.com/pages/storage.html

tealifehk wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 19, 2018 7:47 pm

Teachronicles wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 19, 2018 3:44 pm

I'm wondering what RH would be considered wet storage? 80%. I'm trying to go for dry storage for my cakes and have them at ~69%.

Depends how you define wet storage. I've more recently seen people refer to all teas stored in Southern China/Southeast Asia/Taiwan as wet storage. Nonsense, dry storage started in HK! To me wet storage means actually artificially inflating humidity, sometimes by literally pouring water on the tea!

I've really enjoyed the samples I've gotten of YQH, stored in Taiwan for most of there life, I believe. Thats more towards traditional storage yea?

Edit: oh I see you mentioned Taiwan. Ok, well either way we'll see what storage in a pumidor in the west yields in 10 years haha. I feel lucky to have gotten interested in puer pretty early in my life so I have plenty of time to see my tea develop over the years.

Teachronicles wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 19, 2018 10:31 pm

tealifehk wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 19, 2018 7:47 pm

Teachronicles wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 19, 2018 3:44 pm

I'm wondering what RH would be considered wet storage? 80%. I'm trying to go for dry storage for my cakes and have them at ~69%.

Depends how you define wet storage. I've more recently seen people refer to all teas stored in Southern China/Southeast Asia/Taiwan as wet storage. Nonsense, dry storage started in HK! To me wet storage means actually artificially inflating humidity, sometimes by literally pouring water on the tea!

I've really enjoyed the samples I've gotten of YQH, stored in Taiwan for most of there life, I believe. Thats more towards traditional storage yea?

Edit: oh I see you mentioned Taiwan. Ok, well either way we'll see what storage in a pumidor in the west yields in 10 years haha. I feel lucky to have gotten interested in puer pretty early in my life so I have plenty of time to see my tea develop over the years.

YQH is light dry storage I believe. I haven't actually tried any YQH yet!

tealifehk wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 20, 2018 10:56 am

Teachronicles wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 19, 2018 10:31 pm

tealifehk wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 19, 2018 7:47 pm

Depends how you define wet storage. I've more recently seen people refer to all teas stored in Southern China/Southeast Asia/Taiwan as wet storage. Nonsense, dry storage started in HK! To me wet storage means actually artificially inflating humidity, sometimes by literally pouring water on the tea!

I've really enjoyed the samples I've gotten of YQH, stored in Taiwan for most of there life, I believe. Thats more towards traditional storage yea?

Edit: oh I see you mentioned Taiwan. Ok, well either way we'll see what storage in a pumidor in the west yields in 10 years haha. I feel lucky to have gotten interested in puer pretty early in my life so I have plenty of time to see my tea develop over the years.

YQH is light dry storage I believe. I haven't actually tried any YQH yet!

All the samples I've got have been very enjoyable to drink, very little to no storage flavor or aroma and very smooth.

I have a question, what is meant by very clean storage? Like the opposite of sitting in a room with the shop owner chain smoking? No off odors and such?

Teachronicles wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 21, 2018 8:50 pm

<...>
I have a question, what is meant by very clean storage? Like the opposite of sitting in a room with the shop owner chain smoking? No off odors and such?

I don't think smell has much to do with it, puerh hardly has anything much in the way of aromatics anyways compared to other teas. For me, non-clean storage is mainly a matter of taste. Appearance is also important as the links inside this post show, especially the comprehensive coverage by the Bearsblog.

https://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=15820

Interesting reads, thank you for sharing that.