Do tea leaves go bad?

October 9, 2006 12:58 PM

I bought some loose green tea (packaged in a brown paper bag) maybe five months ago. I stuck the bag in a drawer and forgot about it. Now I just found it again (unopened) and it would make a cute little present. But… is still good? Tea doesnt go bad, does it?!
posted by silverstatue to Food & Drink (13 answers total)

According to Alton Brown, it goes bad fairly rapidly. It probably won't kill you to drink it, but it will have lost most of its flavor. If you want to impress someone, you should probably buy some new tea.
posted by faceonmars at 1:04 PM on October 9, 2006

yeah seconding faceonmars, in that dry tea in a paper bag most likely will not go "bad", but will loose it flavor and will be a crappy gift tasting like dishwater.

Tea needs to be stored airtight if it isn't going to used right away.
posted by edgeways at 1:07 PM on October 9, 2006

Fine for you to drink, better to get fresh for a gift.
posted by desuetude at 1:08 PM on October 9, 2006

Tea loses its flavor rapidly. So does coffee, by the way.
posted by Hildago at 1:17 PM on October 9, 2006

The aroma in tea is mostly from the volatile compounds in it; if it's not airtight, the volatiles will leave.

That said, in my experience, tea lasts far longer than coffee (I insist on recently roasted beans).

Is there a plastic liner in the paper bag (or does the bag have a plastic coating on the inside?
posted by porpoise at 1:25 PM on October 9, 2006

Once upon a time I used to work for a tea company. The top cause of complaints about funny tasting tea was from people whose tea had oxidised after being left in an unsealed container. That said, this was black tea, and wikipedia seems to think that this lasts longer than your green tea...In short, if its not in an air tight package I think its knackered. (unless you're particularly sneaky and give it to someone who hasn't tasted green tea before...)
posted by prentiz at 1:37 PM on October 9, 2006

Unless the tea came in a sealed container it has certainly lost much of its flavor. While most people will not notice the difference unless they have A. Drunk the tea fresh before B. Are tea afficianados, passing off any old consumable product is generally regarded as impolite, and I would strenuously suggest that you buy a nice tea sampler package from a local shop instead.
posted by Vaska at 2:33 PM on October 9, 2006

Are the regular Chinese metal cans good enough to keep air tight?

I went to the Longjing factory in Huangzhou and they said that refrigerating tea extends the life slightly.
posted by kensanway at 3:18 PM on October 9, 2006

I think refrigerating helps a little, metal cans might be ok in the medium term (a few weeks, or so), or longer if the seal is really good. I'd still have them in a plastic bag within the metal.
posted by edgeways at 3:41 PM on October 9, 2006

It's probably lost a lot of its flavour. It would still be okay, but it wouldn't taste that great.

A trick to bring back flavour to old green tea, taught to me by a Japanese tea grower, is to gently dry roast it in a heavy based fry pan, over lowish heat, until the smell changes, maybe a few minutes (stirring all the while). But you probably wouldn't want to repackage it and give it as a gift after that. Still, it would make the tea taste a lot better, if you drink it yourself.

As for storage, airtight containers are best. Don't put it in the fridge though.
posted by Sar at 5:43 PM on October 9, 2006

I've seen some metal cans like you mentioned kensanway; they tend to fall into two categories - the one where it's really hard to take the lid off because of the suction should be fairly airtight.
posted by porpoise at 7:26 PM on October 9, 2006

Hey what about tea bags in sealed foil-lined packets? I don't drink tea often, but I've got all sorts of tea in packets like that. Anybody know the shelf life of them? I know the old unsealed Twinings bags aren't airtight and that stuff goes tasteless, but am wondering about the sealed kind.
posted by kookoobirdz at 9:02 PM on October 9, 2006

I have some black tea that I bought in Russia in 1982. It's wrapped in brown paper, and packed into a tin, with two compartments, one little package in each. About 20 years ago I opened one package to have a look at the tea, and it was fine, so I wrapped it up again and closed up the tin, which has a separate lid for each compartment, and then a main lid. Out of curiosity, I just checked it again, and it still looks/smells fine. I probably won't ever use it, but, having had it so long, and having bought it in Soviet Russia, I'll probably keep it too.
posted by essexjan at 10:43 AM on October 10, 2006