Store puerh and liu bao somewhere dark, clean and free of smells, at a steady temperature and moderate humidity. Aim for roughly 60 to 70% relative humidity and 18 to 30°C, with some air around the tea and no direct contact with walls or floors. In a dry climate the job is keeping moisture in; in a humid one it is keeping mould out. A cheap hygrometer will tell you which problem you have, so buy one first.
What conditions do puerh and liu bao need?
Steady warmth, moderate humidity, darkness and clean air. Temperature sets the speed of ageing: the changes in the leaf run roughly twice as fast for every 10°C rise. Humidity decides whether they happen at all. Below about 50% for long periods, tea goes quiet and can taste thin. Above about 75 to 80% for weeks, mould becomes a real risk.
Keep all aged tea away from light, heat sources and strong smells. Tea absorbs odours easily. A shelf above the stove, a cupboard with spices, a laundry with detergent, or a room where people smoke will all end up in the cup. Keep tea off the floor and a hand's width away from outside walls, which can be colder and damper than the room.
The teas differ in how much they care:
- Sheng puerh is still changing and is the most sensitive to storage. This is the tea that rewards careful conditions over years.
- Shou puerh is already fermented. It mellows over the first few years and is forgiving.
- Aged liu bao has usually done most of its changing. At home you are mainly keeping it well, not ageing it further.
Store sheng apart from shou and liu bao if you can. The darker teas carry strong aromas and can shift the smell of a young sheng. For the difference between the two puerh types, see sheng vs shou puerh.
Should you seal tea or let it breathe?
Sources disagree, and the right answer depends on your climate. The traditional view is that puerh needs air: cakes stay in their paper, stacked in bamboo-wrapped tongs, on open shelves. That works well in the humid south of China and Southeast Asia, where the air itself carries the moisture tea needs. In a dry climate, open shelves let the moisture drain out of the leaf and the tea stalls.
Our recommendation: keep tea in its paper wrapper, then decide on the container by the humidity where you live. In humid places, use a cupboard or open shelf with some air movement. In dry places, use a closed container with a humidity pack. Very few homes need fully airtight bags for long-term storage, though they are fine for samples and small amounts you plan to drink soon.
Liu bao is simpler. Keep it in the tin, jar, paper or basket it came in, somewhere dark and odour-free. A lidded clay jar suits a tin's worth of loose tea. You will find tea jars among our Yixing accessories.
How do you store tea in a dry climate?
Build a closed box and control the humidity inside it. This applies to inland Australia, Perth and Adelaide summers, homes with heating running all winter in Canberra or Melbourne, and places like the American southwest or central Europe in winter. Indoor humidity in these places often sits below 40% and can drop far lower for months.
- Container: a food-safe, unscented plastic tub with a lid, a large ceramic crock, or a clean cardboard box inside a cupboard. Avoid new timber cabinets with a strong smell.
- Humidity: add a two-way humidity pack rated at 62 to 69%, the kind sold for cigars and instruments. Replace it when it hardens. A small open cup of water works in a cupboard, but it is harder to control.
- Monitor: put a cheap digital hygrometer inside. Check it every couple of weeks at first, then monthly.
- Place: the coolest interior room of the house, away from heaters, air conditioning vents and west-facing walls. In inland summers, a room that reaches 40°C will cook the tea faster than you want.
Never spray tea with water or put a wet sponge in with it. Moisture should come from the air, not onto the leaf. Do not use the fridge either: it is dry, full of smells, and causes condensation when the tea comes out.
How do you store tea in a humid climate?
Give the tea air and keep it away from damp surfaces. This applies to Brisbane, Cairns and Darwin, Singapore and Malaysia, Hong Kong, and the American south. Here the air brings plenty of moisture. The risk is stagnant air and cold surfaces where moisture collects.
- Use shelves or a cupboard with a little space around the tea. Do not pack it tight against the back.
- Keep it off outside walls and off the floor. Cakes stored against a cold outside wall can grow mould within weeks while the rest of the shelf stays fine.
- A cardboard box around the tea buffers it against sudden damp. Paper wrappers stay on.
- In the wet season, check monthly. If the hygrometer stays above 80% for weeks, run air conditioning or a dehumidifier in the room, or move the tea to a closed box with a 65% two-way pack, which absorbs moisture as well as releasing it.
Much of the world's aged tea was stored in humid climates, so do not over-correct. Tea stored in steady, warm humidity changes faster and often very well. Liu bao is the clearest example: see why Malaysian storage matters for liu bao.
How do you spot mould, and what should you do?
Look for fuzzy white, green, blue-grey or black patches, and smell for sourness or damp cardboard. A healthy aged tea smells woody, sweet and clean. Check any cake that has darkened wrappers or feels damp to the touch.
If you find a small patch on the surface of a cake, move it away from the rest of your tea at once. Brush the surface off outdoors with a dry, soft brush, let the cake dry in a well-aired room, and keep it separate for a few weeks while you watch it. If the mould goes deep into the cake, spreads, or the tea smells sour or rotten, throw it out. Then fix the cause, which is almost always a damp wall, a sealed container that was too wet, or no air movement.
Yellow specks through a Fu brick are a different thing. Those are golden flowers, grown on purpose. See what are golden flowers in Fu brick tea?
How long can you keep puerh and liu bao?
For decades, in good conditions. Tea like this was once put away by grandparents for their grandchildren. There is no expiry date. Older is not automatically better, though, and a tea stored badly for thirty years is worse than a young one stored well.
Taste each tea you are keeping about once a year and write a short note. A yearly taste tells you more about your storage than any chart. Tea that has just arrived after a long trip into a new climate can taste muted for a week or two. Open it, let it settle, then judge it.
Our sheng puerh and liu bao collections include teas worth keeping and teas ready to drink now. Check the humidity in your cupboard before you buy tea to keep.