The previous article covered warehousing; this one is about how we should store tea at home.
What is your purpose in storing tea?
You must know why you are storing tea. Never store blindly, without a plan, or on impulse - say, buying a batch because the tea seller happens to be pretty. (Of course, if you are rich, gift the batch away.) Storing tea must be planned.
Buying tea to drink
Buying tea to finish quickly
Beginners should buy only enough to finish soon - for example, if pu-erh interests you, one cake each of raw and ripe, enough for one to two months.
If even that feels like a lot, buy samples first; once you have tasted results and like it, buy the cake.
The worst beginner habit is buying a pile on a whim, only to find after your tasting improves that those first teas are junk - they end up given away, shelved, or thrown out.
Buying tea to store and drink slowly
A very popular saying in pu-erh is: buy new tea, drink old tea.
Is there anything wrong with it? No.
But it suits experienced drinkers with a solid tasting level.
During the learning stage your preferences may be "quickly" replaced - I have seen many people do this, and I did too.
I started making tea in 2008, at first loving ripe tea: fragrant, smooth, pleasant.
By 2010 I had begun loving raw tea: strong, full, endlessly evocative.
In 2013 I found it no longer worked - my body had big problems and I could not drink many teas; I often ended up shaking with a racing heart.
Because of that I studied under many teachers, traveled across the famous mountains of Yunnan, Fujian and Zhejiang, tried making samples, started crowdfunding, then built a factory - once you step into the tea mountains it is as deep as the sea, and Old Lu is no longer so "carefree". Of course, I also figured some things out - including this tea-learning website. Every effect has its cause.
If you are exposed to lots of tea, feel you have a certain tasting level and hold fairly stable preferences, then storing tea for yourself is fine.
Buying tea as an investment to appreciate
I have always opposed this; I do not advise storing large amounts of tea for appreciation. Three reasons:
- Ordinary people lack the professional knowledge and ability; you will overpay or buy the wrong tea.
Investing in Dayi? Those persuading you may just want to pass the hot potato to you.
Investing in famous-mountain tea? It may come from ten kilometers away - I have seen countless cases of tea worth tens of thousands sold for hundreds of thousands.
When it rises you chase in at the top; when it falls you average down - and before you know it you have become the "market maker".
A certain 99 Yiwu tea is said to have been privately produced in several batches by the factory; a certain "Yi" factory allegedly did the same. If insiders do it, what can you do?
The defining trait of "leeks" is that they are easy to harvest, crop after crop.
- You have no exit channel.
Can you watch the market all the time? When it rises, can you sell? To whom? Would no one take it because the carton is dusty?
- In fact many amateurs have run into trouble storing tea; you could be the last one holding the drum in the passing game.
Stories abound - someone even bought a house to store tea; the tea lost badly, unsold for over a decade, and even at a low price they would have lost more than half - meanwhile the house appreciated several million.
Mencius said: A gentleman does not stand under a crumbling wall. Do not touch what you do not understand. Successful investors only invest in fields they know and excel at - most financial investors avoid Bitcoin not because it does not make money, but because they do not understand it. If you do not understand it, do not invest.
Buying tea as a business, to sell
Business is the hardest thing to understand. I am still learning and do not know when I will graduate - but that does not stop me from saying a few words.
1. Follow the right brand.
Nothing much to say: grow with a brand and do well in your region. Picking a brand is a craft I am not good at; let me practice first and write a separate article.
2. Follow the right person.
A person who is investing - he may have a small brand himself. Study him, learn from him, sell his tea and grow with him. Likewise, since I am not good at this, wait for my article.
3. Select tea yourself.
If you are confident enough in your tasting, select tea to sell on your own.
Pick market teas, position by taste and price, buy out a batch, put it under your own wrapper, or control supply with others. Every tea you select carries your style - possibly across several brands, but with shared flavor traits - and this can easily make you the leader of a circle-tea scene in your region. It is a controllable path.
You can also go up the mountain yourself, buy from farmers, or make tea yourself, ending with your own wrapper and your own brand.
So: loose or compressed?
Tea to finish within three years may be stored loose.
Loose tea ages mainly by oxidation. Sealing slows oxidation but does not change the main mechanism.
Loose tea reddens fairly fast - the liquor and the leaves turn red, and the taste becomes "mild" (this mildness differs from the balance I describe in my high-end tea article; here it simply means not stimulating). Someone may argue that their loose tea has not reddened after years - that only means it is not obvious, not that it has not changed. Simple test: leave it ten years and look at the color. Meanwhile, a compressed tea aged twenty years in Kunming still pours mostly yellow.
My personal habit: I compress every tea, whatever it is. After a few months the compressed version usually already tastes better than the loose one. If it does not, wait a little longer - it is only a matter of time.
Tea meant for any longer term: compress it all.
As said above, compress everything.
Compression ages mainly by anaerobic transformation, which makes the tea richer and more fragrant.
Loose tea can be converted to compressed later.
If loose tea has sat a long time and you find you cannot finish or sell it, press it anytime - the effect is minor.
Origin maocha traders prefer storing loose first, so customers can blend and press as they like. If it really will not sell, they press it themselves.
How much tea have you stored?
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