Many of us sometimes overload our pantry’s (or tea storage areas) with tea or simply forget about a tea that we have somewhere. Sometimes one of these “forgotten teas” can lay unbrewed for months and maybe a year or two. So, if you do rediscover one of you “forgotten teas”, you may be asking the question “can my old tea expire?”. Considering that almost all foods eventually expire, it is a possibility that you are thinking that your tea might be expired /spoiled etc. and unsafe to drink (and you might end up throwing away some good tea).
So, the answer to this question is, not really. Tea does not spoil or expire. It may however loose its original taste and begin to taste stale. Because every single tea has a different shelf life, it is impossible to really know whether the tea is still good.
If you find an old tea, and do not know whether you should drink it, I reccomend just brewing an “experimental cup” and just seeing how it tastes. You will definately be able to tell if it is stale. And some people don’t even mind drinking a cup of tea that is a tad bit stale. The important think to know is that the tea is still not really expired…(unless of course it was stored in an unsafe way, like in a humid environment, then perhaps mold or something could start growing, and you definately don’t want to drink moldy tea.)
To, avoid ever having to drink stale tea there are certain things you can do. Tea won’t stay good for ever, but it is pretty easy to extend it’s shelf life if you are not going to drink it in the near future. One thing I have heard to extend tea shelf life is storing your tea in the freezer. And another thing you can also do is store your tea in an airtight container. We all don’t want any good tea to go to waste, so I think those are some goods ways to help prevent. (Stale tea is not really a problem for me because I usually drink all my tea right after I buy it!)
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omg.. good work, brother
[...] got a lot of old teas I got as either gifts or bought on sale somewhere, and though I know they’re (kinda) expired I can’t bear to throw them out just yet. I decided to try one of them and see what changed [...]
im drinking a cup of tea over ten years old and it taste just fine. On another note, I got a set of tea bags if you want to try them out
I was joking with some friends that I was drinking 50 year old tea that I had found sealed up in a house my mom bought. I looked up the tin on eBay and found out from the tin design that the tea is from the 1960’s so I guess I really was!
It was in an airtight container and sealed new. It still tastes good and hasn’t hurt me any. ^_~
I have two teas in the cupboard both nearly ten years of age - a black tea and a jasmine. They both taste fine. (wonder if their nutritional content is up to much?)
“Tea won’t stay good for ever, but it is pretty easy to extend it’s shelf life if you are not going to drink it in the near future. One thing I have heard to extend tea shelf life is storing your tea in the freezer. And another thing you can also do is store your tea in an airtight container. We all don’t want any good tea to go to waste, so I think those are some goods ways to help prevent.”
You can more about this?
Now that I’ve read the above storage hints I could Kick myself.
My refrigerated tea was looking a little slimmy - had had it in the fridge for about two weeks. I take it medically for back pain - old hippies will find any excuse to haul out their tamborines - so after a botched back surgery I turned to cannabis rather than vicodin. Well onto the topic again. I threw away a quart of it and can’t afford more for now. SO DON’T THROW IT AWAY RIGHT?