HOW TO AGE WHITE TEA - results of our storage experiments
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- čas přidán 11. 12. 2020
- It is a question we are asked on a weekly basis - how should I store my White Tea for ageing. So nearly 9 months ago we launched our community-based study to get some answers. While there are many opinions out there we wanted to study this as a community.
Everyone who took part in this study - let us know your results in the comments below.
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VIDEOS:
The original study: • Learning How to Age Wh...
Everything that you need to know about White Tea: • CHINESE WHITE TEA - Ev...
Bizarrely Aged Dianhong: • THE WEIRDEST TEA! Tast...
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Thanks for sharing the findings.
I have a gut feeling that this might bring some insight. Keeping airtight as fixed, the 65-69-72% choice could depend on the type and character of the leaf used. Large leaves, buds, SCOPE variables could be indicators of just how much humidity is ideal.
This has been my experience in aging cigars that also use the same percentages. Cuban cigars are complex, volatile, thrive in 65%, and go acidic in 72%. Dominican cigars are vice versa. The same ideas could be adopted to bud heavy or large leaf heavy.
2022 will show the true colors of aging. That funky one might mellow out eventually, who knows.
Absolutely love the video! Thanks for all the amazing content Don and Celine!! Hello from France!
Another great video Don!!! Thank you for this review, enjoyed every second of it!!
I’ve been ageing my whites in a glazed stoneware crock with 65%rh and low airflow for a couple years now. I came to the same conclusions as you from my tests. I also have your ageing study on the go though, going to give it a few more months before I sample them
Keep us updated.
By the looks of it dry long term storage is the safest bet unless you really know what you're doing with the humidity parameters.
I dont like wasting tea.
Have you tried moonlight white?
Yue Guang bai- if I'm not mistaken.
The one made in the dark so they say.
Has a black pepper note to it that I'd rather steer clear of. I don't like black pepper and wouldn't want that note developing in my tea
@@reubenk1615 I use 2-way humidity control in case the humidity gets too high, but that's a very rare issue. I live in Canada where the Winters are dry and the Summers aren't often very humid. The lid I have on the crocks are not air tights so there is a small amount of air exchange that can happen, but the most air flow is when I open them to check. I use humidity sensors that are all 2-point calibrated annually. Temp is not controlled, but I do have the crocks elevated. Temps are usually 20-23c. Lowest dip I've had is 18c and the highest is 26c. Never had a condensation issue, and I shouldn't ever with 2-way control and the location + elevation. I've checked dew point calculations to be sure. If it ever did happen, it would likely not be on the inside either. It's been very successful so far. I have 3, for keeping shou, sheng, and whites seperate.
I do have 3 batches of Moonlight White ageing. One is a mid-grade 2016, the other two are MeiLeaf 2018 and 2019 batches. They say it's made in the dark and never sees daylight during processing, but that's rarely, if ever, true. Most are made during the day but are brought inside after picking to whither inside for a longer period of time. The 2016 and 2018 don't have any black pepper notes. I don't recall with the 2019. I haven't sampled them in while since they've been ageing so I'm not sure how they've changed. I'll try soon and let you know.
@Chris Ladouceur I have some nice shou mei and Bai mu dan that I got from zhenghe last year, still in sealed bags (with air), but now I want to store them properly to age (for 5 yrs +). I was thinking of using the 2-way boveda humidity packs in a large airtight container that I open and air up every now and then. Would you say 65% gave you the best results? I'm also in Canada and indoor temps are also around 23 most days
I have a whole lot of Jade Star 2 aging at my parents home in the north of Israel.
It must have been a year or two of aging so far and they seem to be changing for the better, I'd say they are becoming more intense towards the rich thick wet storage type.
Not controlled by any means.
Just sealed in their original pouches placed on the top shelf inside a clothing closet in the living room.
The house does get very humid in the summer, winter gets cold and dry it seems. With RH value maybe they aren't so dry but my hands say it is, cracking and such.
Right or wrong this is the set and forget method seeing that the conditions here in Israel are favorable most of the year.
I don't see a reason to make changes just yet.
Alongside the jade star 2 I have a bunch of After Party Enchanter Shou.
Hasn't changed much besides perhaps becoming a little smoother. Might need a decade or two to really notice a major change.
What do you guys think?
How are your teas aging?
@@laraz1409 there are different approaches.
I think 70 or 75 Humidity would be better.
Too dry and your pretty much ensuring that your tea while being stored well may not change.
So long as you dont go too far over 80 I think your good.
85 and over is where I'd be cautious because that's where molds may grow.
Idk... maybe if you find the good ones and encourage them to grow you will have really good tea but I wouldn't go there unless you really know what your doing or know and are willing to take the risk for us all.
Best of luck
I have been waiting for this video, did not expect it so early. Still very awesome and interesting, something for the community
The different shapes of those fairness cups DEFINITELY influenced the taste. Do it again!
Tokaji wein, wooow didn't expect to hear that tasting note :D Cheers from Hungary !
Jo napot nemetorszagbol :)
Rögtön felfigyeltem az aszúra. :)
En is rogton visszaleptettem jol halottam-e :D Cheers :)
@@damanda5973 Hoppá! Magyarok! Hogyhogy itt?
An excellent experiment Don. I am from Thailand and just fell in love with drinking tea lately. I found all your vdo amazingly helpful in understanding a variety of aspects about tea. I am curious to see the temperature effect on keeping white tea. In Thailand, we have a room temperature of 30 degree C while it is absolutely much cooler in the UK. My guess is oxidation and fermentation will take place much faster so we probably will take less time to age tea in Thailand. I will wait for your next experiment with temperature taken into account. Thanks for making drinking tea such a big fun for me and i believe for many others, too. Keep up the great works, cheers!
Awesome experiment Don!!!!! loved this one.
So cool! Awesome video.
Would love to get into tea brewing more!
Excellent. Thank you very much for this!
Excellent. Thank you very much for this😊
Super interesting, Don, with the fermentation progress.
Has there been any updates to this? Assuming you kept up with the humidity part of the study?
How about storing compressed white tea cakes, like Jade Star, for aging? Is it better to break up the entire cake and store it loose? Or better to leave it in compressed form and break off what you need every time you have a session?
I'm also super interested to hear more about Mei Leaf's take on aging White Tea cakes, especially Jade Star series!
So what I do know is that the cakes are specifically made for the aging of puer and white teas. They supposedly age better when pressed as cakes.
I don’t know any of the reasons for it but I’m sure there are many.
I don’t know about how breaking up the cake affects it.
One thing I feel confident to speculate on is one aspect of cake aging, oxidation, the outside of the cake will be more readily oxidized than the interior resulting in a gradient from fresher inside to more oxidized outside, this variance should make for more complexity than if it was aged broken up with uniform oxidation
I actually only did dry and 72% low and high o2. Honestly my taste isn't nearly as refined. I'm about 2 months later than the video, just haven't gotten around to it so I did my tasting now at 10-11 ish months.
I think I'm seeing the exact same thing going on with the o2. The humidity I'm getting the exact same experience. Had I just watched the video I may have thought the difference was exaggerated. However upon trying it myself I would have to completely agree. If I had been told they were different teas I may have believed it. The 72% may have given me more of that fermented taste than I would prefer. So I think my preference would have been 65% had I tried it.
Well worth the time and energy, very much enjoyed it. Now to clean all this tea ware... :o
What temperature and humidity in a chamber would you storage your regular tea? Does it exist a chamber model to storage the tea? Thanks a lot
I had thought old white tea would be stale. I decided to finish all my white teas after a move and found them lovely. I'm confused. But I guess it's settled, white teas don't go bad, they just change.
They get better with age actually.
@@laraz1409 any idea what's actually happening. Do they oxidize?
@@vegahimsa3057 combination of oxidation and fermentation, depending on the conditions
Is there one place where all tea storage info is collated? For example an article that gives us all the best practices for storing all different types of tea?
at 9:41 I thought Don started making up his own language
Thank you so much for this study. I still have some questions:
Do you think there is a difference in aging different white tea like shou mei?
What do you think of keeping a white tea cake with your sheng puerh?
And maybe an exotic experiment: could you ferment a white tea like a shu puerh and make a good tea (just curious for your opinion :))
I'm actually doing a little experiment about this very thing. I got some silver needle bings and some bai mu dan from the same relative region in Yunnan and am planning to age them over a period of around 5 years to see if it will make a big difference.
I suspect it will change but I think and this is just speculation that the older the tea gets the more similar the taste notes will become. With differences in things like silver needle being softer and bai mu dan being more aggressive.
@@TestMee dude, that's awesome. I'm so glad there are so many experiments and I'm still in my early 20s. There will be so much more knowlege when I grow older an so much great tea. Maybe in 5 years you think of this comment and give me an update :)
@@lars8523 I'll try and remember. I don't promise anything.... ;)
I would say that time is another factor. This test was only for 9 months. But what the result you got for the ~60% humidity could continue to change over more months, possibly getting more like the 70% with time.
Would this work? Use a cake tin, Boveda 65% Size 320 pack, and a Tong of “Simple Dreams” cakes.
Yeah perfect
@@MeiLeaf thank you, I’ve just ordered a tong. Lovely to drink now, looking forward to enjoying Simple Dreams over the years as it continues to age. Off to get the Boveda!
I just ordered a tong of "Simple Dreams" as well. Great info here guys, thank you so much! Ill be ordering storage container and humidity pkgs
Hey Don--this is SO helpful, thank you! My biggest question is...would you (also) recommend storing white teas the same if they are in cake form? I love the idea of the 65% humidity airtight to develop those honeys, fruits and nutty flavours more--just wasn't sure if it applied to white tea cakes as it does loose leaf white teas. Cheers!
Im interested in this as well! I have ordered 6 aged white tea cakes, but interested if you would store them the same as loose leaf.
@MeiLeaf I would like to know as well , has anyone found out about this ?
So what I do know is that the cakes are specifically made for the aging of puer and white teas. They supposedly age better when pressed as cakes.
I don’t know any of the reasons for it but I’m sure there are many.
I don’t know about how breaking up the cake affects it.
One thing I feel confident to speculate on is one aspect of cake aging, oxidation, the outside of the cake will be more readily oxidized than the interior resulting in a gradient from fresher inside to more oxidized outside, this variance should make for more complexity than if it was aged broken up with uniform oxidation
Malaysia nature climate condition give the average relative humidity year round 74-86% , temperature Ave 25-32°c.will make the tea cake speed up 3 time fermentation. In one years here, the tea become 3 years old. That why the old vintage liu pau tea store in malaysia is very sort after. The medicinal taste value liu pau help the miner in the quarry.
Hmmmm this was interesting, because typically I thought for tea aging you’d want to store it someplace with occasional low airflow as opposed to airtight. So I guess it’s okay for white teas to be basically held in a ziplock with some boveda packs? 🤔 open ziplock baggie every 3-6 months for boveda changing out
This vid makes me want to do a Bellini King session tonight hahaah
It's funny because I have the #teadrunk gaiwan with the lotus cup.
are ziplock bags OK??
I"m super curious about "airtight" being okay in a ziplock bag, too...the ziplock bag would seem to be more airtight than the original packaging a single cake (or loose leaf) that Mei Leaf packages it in...
Celine and her green stickers all the time.... lol
Also, this is something I have been toying with in my head for some time ever sins you guys had the BAD tea. What if you were to start with a high humidity for like a month of 3 - 4 and then went down. Not only with white tea but maybe black as well. This may be what happened to the BAD black tea.
I'm by no means an expert but I am a food scientist. I'd venture a guess that aging is a matter of balancing the relative rates of oxidation and fermentation.
70% RH is generally a limit for microbial growth. Below that there should be no growth and above 70% it goes faster until you risk spoilage.
For oxidation, I imagine there are different pathways that are favored based on oxygen concentration and RH. Increasing either will increase the overall rate but that increase is probably different for different reactions.
So below 70% you're playing with the balance of oxidation products and then above 70% you add in microbial action. 69% should be the fastest you can age without adding a funky flavor but may taste a bit different than lower RH + more time.
Something like 50% + an oxygen scavenger should slow aging as much as possible.
Would be nice if we could keep ordering extra empty bags from mei leaf :-)
Tea culture is an important part of Chinese culture. Among them, the white tea craft is the closest to natural production. White tea usually has medicinal value after three years.
Tell me more.
What about puerh?
It all comes from the same plant though...
So much tea
So little time
Science
SCIENCE!!!
Great video! But perfection in white tea already exists...it is called Moonlight White 😄
Agreed! 🤣🤣👊🏻❤️
I need to revisit that one.
But it's a puerh, or a black?
Or an oolong?
Anyone else taste a strong black pepper note in that one?
I once found aged green tea in a tea shop and just wondered why?
Well, green tea is going to be bad rather than the one that can age well.
I already had a green tea which I bottled in a small Tupper, because I thought I would drink it more often.
I did not come to drink as often as I thought and after about 3 weeks the tea did not taste good anymore and has developed a moisture damage.
After that I bought these dry balls and with them, it works quite well and I also closed my water glasses and did not let them stand open for days.