I have too many teas open and most of them are going stale

In short

This is an arithmetic problem rather than a storage one, and it is worth separating from the bulk-buying fault it resembles. There the mistake is one packet that is too big; here every packet is a sensible size and there are simply more open at once than the drinking rate can clear. Better containers do not help, because nothing is wrong with the containers — what is wrong is the ratio between how fast tea is opened and how fast it is drunk.

Likely causes, in order

Most likely first. Answer the question under each one before moving on — several of these look alike in the cup and are told apart only by what was done to the leaf.

1. 1. More is opened per month than is drunk per month

   Storage

   Check: Count the open packets and estimate honestly how many cups a week you drink. At two to three grams a cup, how many months of drinking is currently open?

   Fix: Do that sum once. It is usually the whole diagnosis, and it is uncomfortable enough that most people have avoided it. A useful working rule is to open nothing new until something is finished, which converts an open-ended collection into a queue.

2. 2. The collection is weighted towards the categories that fade fastest

   Leaf quality

   Check: How many of the open packets are green tea or matcha, against black, roasted oolong and dark tea?

   Fix: Green tea and matcha lose aroma and sweetness fastest while their astringency stays, so they read as thin and harsh together. Black, roasted and dark teas tolerate months of neglect. If a large collection is wanted, weight the open portion of it towards the durable categories and buy the fragile ones in the smallest quantity that will actually be drunk that season.

3. 3. Samples accumulate faster than anything else and are the usual entry point

   Storage

   Check: How many of the open packets are 10 to 25 g samples that came free with an order or in a selection box?

   Fix: Samples are small enough to feel costless to open and numerous enough to dominate a shelf. Drink a sample within a week of opening it or do not open it, and keep unopened samples unopened — a sealed sample is stable and an opened one is on a fast clock.

4. 4. There is no rotation, so the same three teas are reached for every day

   Technique

   Check: Are the teas you actually drink the ones at the front, and have the ones at the back been at the back for months?

   Fix: Physically reorder the shelf rather than resolving to be more adventurous. Put the oldest open packets where your hand lands and the newest at the back. This is the same first-in-first-out discipline a kitchen uses and it works for the same reason.

5. 5. Some of it is being kept because it was expensive rather than because it is good

   Leaf quality

   Check: Is there tea on the shelf you have not drunk in six months and do not especially want to drink?

   Fix: It is not improving. A tea you do not enjoy at its best will not become one you enjoy at its worst, and holding it is what stops the shelf clearing. Give it away, use it in cooking or in iced tea where robustness matters more than nuance, or accept the loss — the money was spent when it was bought, not when it is finally binned.

Tea types this applies to

• Green tea

Related problems

Sharing a cause category, a tea type or a brewing method with this one.

• I bought a big bag to save money and it was stale before I finished it — A large quantity bought at a good unit price faded well before it was drunk, so the saving turned into waste.
• My matcha is harsh and I think it is a cooking grade — A matcha bought to drink is dull-coloured, gritty and aggressively bitter, and the tin says culinary, cooking or ingredient grade — or says nothing at all.
• My matcha latte is lumpy and the powder sinks — Whisked straight into milk, the matcha forms lumps that will not break up, and within a minute a green layer has settled at the bottom of the glass.
• My matcha powder has gone dull green or khaki — The powder that was vivid green when the tin was opened is now olive, khaki or faintly brown, and the bowl looks muddy rather than bright.
• My tea goes damp within weeks and I live somewhere humid — Leaf that arrived loose and crisp becomes soft, slightly clumped and quiet within a few weeks, and the aroma flattens long before any best-before date is close.

Sources