To the casuals, pumidors are intimidating.. They’re not something anyone really wants to jump into quickly. For seasoned pu’erh folk, one feature of using a pumidor to store tea is that it tends to scale fairly well if you can get the right size container for your stash. The maintenance and monitoring can be appealing.. But for most normie tea people all the hoops they see people jumping through in pu’erh storage create a significant barrier to entry. But there’s no reason to go pumidor or bust. I’d argue having a low-maintenance pu’erh solution is pretty important for anyone that intends to hold onto a pu’erh cake for even a year or two.
Pu’erh Maintenance is Important (even for sporadic Pu’erh drinkers)
When I started out in tea I really had no idea how to store pu’erh. It was simply part of my tea exploration and I didn’t intend to age it so I just put it into my tea shelf. Thinking it needed ventilation and airflow I removed the ziplocs and stored it this way for a year.. Even though I had no intention of aging the tea this was not a good idea and the tea got worse.
I’ve talked recently about why I don’t think storing pu’erh on a shelf is a great idea. You may not be intent on aging pu’erh for decades but if you plan on holding onto it for even a few months before finishing it off thinking about maintaining pu’erh and not letting it decline (like I did) is important. Storing tea in just its wrapper on a shelf is a quick ticket towards drying it out. The speed at which this occurs will depend on the ambient conditions you live in. I lived for years in a couple different apartments where the humidity level rarely reached 50 and was regularly between 35-40. This is suboptimal for storing pu’erh in the ambient environment and even if you drink the cake in a year, in my opinion, month 12 will likely produce a significantly inferior experience to months 1 or 2.
A Larger Scale Solution is a Big Commitment and Only Necessary in Some Cases
A pumidor is not a good solution for the majority of people that have bought a tea cake. People who have bought pu’erh vary significantly. Most aren’t rocking tongs of cakes that they intend to give to their grandchildren. Many just have a few cakes they intend to try and casually drink over a few years…
Solution #1: Storing Pu’erh in Well-Sealed Ziplocs
Sealing the ziplocs tightly is important and will help to protect the tea. This is a much better idea than storing the tea unprotected on the shelf like I did. Light is not good for tea, so make sure your tea isn’t exposed to any regular light.
I still consider ziplocs to be a suboptimal solution. Most don’t seal as well as you’d like and the tea will still dry out slowly. They are also inferior to mylar and I frankly would only use these to store a few cakes and even then buying some mylar (solution #2!) is probably better.
Good for: Under 10 cakes.
Solution #2: Storing Pu’erh in Mylar
In just about every way I see this as a superior solution to ziploc. It is also a decent long-term storage method. While there are some good-quality ziplocs with good seals, the average mylar should do a better job of maintaining the level of the tea. While taking it in and out of the mylar bag to drink it will undoubtedly have some impact it should maintain the generated humidity significantly better than most ziplocs.
Mylars also scale pretty well into having a more moderate amount of tea. Importantly, you don’t need to do one mylar per cake and can store multiple cakes together. There are also some massive mylar bags that you can store a couple tongs in. Just like ziplocs make sure you are sealing the tea away tightly. Don’t half-ass it.
Good for: As many as you like cakes.
Storage #3: Crock Storage
Cwyn popularized crock storage and I recommend those interested check her posts out if this appeals to you. I think doing next level stuff like adding humidity is more important when using crocks as it’ll be a dry-out risk without it. This makes it a little less beginner friendly but it is an easy way to start experimenting with that and appealing to people who believe airflow is necessary and prefer the aesthetics.
Best for: 5-50 cakes.
Level 2 (NOT REQUIRED): Lightly Adding Humidity
This is not required for novices or those that don’t want to take the extra step. Doing step 1 will help on its own. Simply storing tea in a mylar will be a significant improvement over unpotected shelf storage.
Level 2 is basically getting something to add humidity. There are a wide range of options here. I’ve seen broken terracotta, humidity beads, Boveda packs (humidity packs used for cigar aging), homemade salt packs, small cups of water (not great for ziplocs), or even steaming the bags lightly.
In my opinion, the easiest way is to buy Boveda 72RH packs but I understand why people may balk at the cost. You’ll also want a hygrometer to monitor it. Adding these should work with mylar or crocks.
What humidity should you shoot for? Generally speaking, anything in the 60s is going to be considered a moderate amount of humidity.
What you need:
- Hygrometer. I’ve had good success with $10 amazon hygrometers.
- Way to add humidity.
While it is easy to end up in a head-scratching place reading about people’s pu’erh storage the conversation is often dominated by the hardcore with large stashes of tea.. Pu’erh storage doesn’t need to be complicated for those just starting out. I’d be curious to hear from anyone in the comments about how you are storing your pu’erh and how many cakes you own!
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