Tea is a kind of more delicate consumer goods, temperature, humidity, light and many other factors will affect its quality. If not properly preserved, it will cause its color hair dark, aroma loss, poor taste, and even mildew. It may also make the tea expire in advance, affecting its economic value and drinking taste as a commodity, and even affecting the health of tea drinkers.
Here are four precautions when storing tea:
1. Low temperature
The temperature can accelerate the automatic oxidation of tea leaves, making the aroma, soup color and taste of tea leaves change greatly. Too high temperature will accelerate the oxidation or aging of tea leaves, making some original soluble substances in water become insoluble or insoluble in water, and aromatic substances will also be destroyed. And the higher the temperature, the faster the deterioration, the easier the appearance of the tea will become dark and dark. Especially in the south, in summer, the temperature will rise to more than 40℃, even if the tea has been stored in a cool and dry place, it will also quickly deteriorate, making green tea not green, black tea is not fresh, and scented tea is not fragrant. Therefore, in order to maintain or extend the shelf life of tea leaves, tea leaves need to be kept at a low temperature.
Cryopreservation can reduce the oxidation process of various ingredients in tea leaves, and effectively slow down the browning and aging of tea leaves. The appropriate temperature for storing tea leaves is below 5℃. Of course, cryogenic tea doesn't mean the lower the better. Generally speaking, the suitable cold storage temperature for tea leaves is between 0℃ and 5℃℃.
2. protect form light
Light exposure will also have a bad effect on tea, light will accelerate the various chemical reactions in tea. Tea contains chlorophyll and other things, which are easy to fade after light irradiation, and light contact will produce photosynthesis, causing oxidation and deterioration of tea, making the color of tea become dark and heavy. In addition, tea also contains a small amount of carotenoids, which is the auxiliary component of photosynthesis, with the properties of absorbing light energy, and it is easy to be oxidized under the action of strong light. The smell of oxidized carotenoids makes the tea taste bad. Therefore, tea must be preserved from light to prevent photosynthesis of chlorophyll and other ingredients, and daily packaging materials should also be shaded.
3. Dry
Tea can easily absorb the water in the air, has a very strong moisture absorption. In the month with high temperature and frequent microbial activity, once the water content of tea exceeds 10%, tea will become moldy, color and fragrance, no longer suitable for drinking, drinking at this time has certain harm to human body. If dry tea leaves are placed indoors and directly contact with air, their water content will increase a lot in a very short time. If be in rainy and wet weather, every dew is put for an hour, its water content can increase 1% if tea carelessly absorb moisture suffers damp, light person loses fragrance, heavy person produces mildew. At this time can not put the damp tea directly in the sun, but should put the damp tea in a clean iron pot or oven with a small fire low temperature baking, at the same time to keep turning the tea, until the tea dry emit fragrance.
Therefore, tea leaves must be kept in a dry environment from the very beginning and cannot be invaded by water. Drying has two meanings, one is the storage environment should be relatively dry, the other is the water content of tea before storage should be controlled to a certain extent. The water content of fine tea is generally not more than 3%~5%. If the water content of tea is high, it needs to be dried before storage. Similarly, the dried tea leaves should also be placed in a dry and ventilated place to slow down the aging and deterioration of the tea leaves. The small package of tea bought by families, whether it is a composite film bag tea or listening pot packaging tea, must be placed in a dry place. If it is bulk tea, it can be wrapped in clean white paper, placed in a jar with desiccant, and sealed with the mouth cover.
4. Cut off the air
Tea is not only easy to absorb water, oxygen in the air is also easy to oxidation reaction with tea, so that tea in a short time. In addition, tea has a strong adsorption. Therefore, the preservation of tea should also isolate the air.
Tea is easy to absorb the external peculiar smell, so that the fragrance of tea is contaminated. Therefore, it is best to preserve tea with a special cold storage. If it must be placed together with other items, we should also pay attention to be completely sealed. It is strictly prohibited to put cosmetics, drugs, mothballs and other similar items with strong smell around the tea, so as not to absorb the odor of tea and affect the quality of tea.
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