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Lewis Perin > wrote in message >...
> (Nigel at Teacraft) writes:
>
> > (Jansen The TeaLover) wrote in message . com>...
> >
> > > [...aged Livingstone tea is wonderful...]
> > >
> > The Mombasa company packing Livingstone Tea went bankrupt in 2001 so
> > there is no more of this blend available. The owner Adrian Archer
> > (who used to write to r.f.d.t) seems to have disappeared from tea
> > circles. The CTC tea was vacuum packed in foil which gives it a head
> > start for long storage but the key to holding quality in storage is to
> > start with a dry tea (well dried and packed at less than 4% moisture)
> > and to pack it so that it cannot pick up any moisture. This is much
> > more difficult than is generally imagined - to prevent the entry of
> > ambient air your pack or jar or tin must be hermetically sealed, and
> > even then every time you open it, more ambient air gets in. The
> > equilibrium relative humidity for home stored tea in contact with
> > ambient air is generally between 7 and 10% moisture in the leaf.
> > Three months shelf life is max at these levels.
>
> Nigel: I wonder what, if anything, you do to retard the hydration of a
> tea you really love once you've opened the package. Silica gel
> packets, maybe?
>
> /Lew
> ---

i used to refrigerate my expensive green teas/yellow teas by directive
of the tea shop i frequent. their tea's the freshest i've ever tasted,
esp the dragonwell, sold 2 weeks after harvesting cuz it got couriered
over here fast enough
> Lew Perin /
> http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html