I've never had a problem with a commercial tea past expiry. The expiry
dates on tea packaging essentially has no meaning if the packaging is
still intact and shelved in modern store. Teas in tins and nitrogen
vacuum pack are the best with foil a close second. Teas in paper
cartons with just cellophane wrapping might be suspect regardless of
expiry even though I've never had a problem perse. I buy tins this way
expecting them to be less than retail in price. The problem with tea
storage begins after the package is opened. There is no guarantee a
three month old flush stored in a container and repeatedly exposed to
the elements is any fresher than a commercial tea past expiry. I just
bought a Japanese vacuum tin with a 99 date which means either packed
for expired. The tea taste fine to me. Does it taste the same as the
tea it was packed? Who knows. But it is easy to A/B other teas past
expiry with their retail version and I've never seen a difference in
taste.

Jim

Bluesea wrote:
> One thing that I look for is the expiration date on the boxed teas.
In one
> store, *every* box I checked was expired several months to over a
year. I
> walked out never even looking at their loose tea figuring that if
they
> weren't serious enough about tea on the whole to keep their boxed
items
> reasonably current, there wasn't any sense in my expecting their
loose teas
> to be fresh.