plastic wrap- yes, no, or when?

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Posts: 575
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2018 2:10 pm
Location: Germany

Thu Jul 22, 2021 2:12 pm

I've noticed that typically this is done with older pu cakes/bricks, but also sometimes with younger ones as well as other teas (liuan baskets, etc). I'm guessing there are a number of reasons for doing this with older cakes- wrappers falling off/disintegrating, protection of expensive tea, preventing cakes from influencing each other too much, maintaining moisture in display situations... but I'm wondering to what extent this also helps with preservation or concentration of aromas/flavors in tea that is considered more of less 'finished' or ready to drink - sort of as a step prior to and to help maybe speed up the waking process. I'm wondering for a few of my teas if I should be doing this process or something similar because I'm finding their flavor lacking compared to samples I had of the same tea out of mylar bags previously.

I have a few basket stored teas kept in their own individual smaller mylar/zip packs and they seem to do fairly well, but my larger baskets despite being in closed boxes stuffed with other tea and kept at 65% RH seem to be really lacking in flavor and aroma when I check in on them. While they can still do with more aging from experience I know they are drinkable now too and can/should taste much richer. I can see wrapping/sealing a tea at different points in its storage could be quite bad for it if you want it to actually age, especially early on (interestingly it seems Hojo actually like to do with their Pu cakes) but at what point could wrapping the tea or getting it into smaller sealed containers actually be better for it and how far out might one want to do this for when the tea would be considered ready? For example a 15-20 year old basket would you maybe want to seal it for a few months or maybe even a year or more prior to drinking it coming out of general storage?
tolean
Posts: 82
Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2021 12:13 am

Wed Jul 28, 2021 3:15 pm

Interesting topic. Sadly no replies here. Maybe mostly because there is no ,,real,, answer to this question. It depends of tea, zone, climate and many factors. I am pretty new in the tea world. Not really aging tea, my oldest cake has 1 year ( i mean i store it for 1 year) and at some moment i also found that my teas started to loose their aroma, but not the taste. I wrapped it in mylar bags and gave them a little more humidity. In some months they came back and maybe became even better. I will see how they will transform. Some of my friends ( they have a tea shop) say that ppl pay too much attention and that there must be some basic rules like no light, smells, not too wet not dry...
Still their storage place has some humidity control and temperature.
Also i am opening once in a while my plastic bags and breathe into my tea:).
I am not sure if it's a good idea but it makes me feel that i am taking care of it. Would be nice to see some more experienced ppl opinion!
Andrew S
Posts: 704
Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2021 8:53 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Fri Jul 30, 2021 3:17 am

I'm only familiar with the practice of wrapping up old and expensive pu er and liu an, for the obvious purposes of protecting cakes and baskets from damage, avoiding the loss of precious leaves, and preventing them from being affected negatively by poor storage conditions (whether they be too wet, too dry, too many bugs, not enough bugs, strange smells, or just loss of aromas).

These teas were originally protected by bamboo wrappings and stored in large quantities (even tongs would have been wrapped together into bigger collections of tongs), and as they get traded about (and become more expensive), tongs get opened up in order to sell individual cakes, and it's worthwhile protecting them, especially if they're considered to have reached some sort of optimal maturity or at least aren't expected to keep improving if they're out of relatively humid natural environments and are being stored in people's homes.

You might feel more comfortable buying an expensive old cake (especially at an auction) if you can see that it's been sealed up for some time than if you're concerned that the previous owner might have stored it in their kitchen next to the herbs and spices, especially if the cake is something like a 50s red label or a 70s yellow label which has ceased to be a tea and has become a status symbol which is traded about by individuals from year to year, rather than being sold by the tea shops that have been storing them for years.

But I have no idea why anyone would do that to young teas. Perhaps someone who ages their tea with those moisture packets can chime in.

Andrew
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