plastic wrap- yes, no, or when?
Posted: 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?
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?