Making the Most of Your Matcha: The Care and Keeping of Your Tea
Our farmers take great care in growing and harvesting your Matcha, so naturally you’ll want to take great care in properly storing it in order to enjoy the best of their craftsmanship.
While tea in general has a relatively long shelf life, it’s good to be aware that freshness and flavor does diminish within the first 1-2 months of first opening your package or tin.
Matcha tea is particularly sensitive – it’s not a fan of light, heat, air or humidity. Our tins are opaque, sealed with a pull-top lid, and airtight specifically to keep our Matcha happy. Once opened, you’ll notice Mizuba Matcha’s exceedingly vibrant, bright, practically-neon, brilliant green coloring – your first indicator of how farm-fresh your tea is.
You may have seen Matcha in the bulk section of a co-op or market stored in a glass jar – this is sad Matcha. If a Matcha is a dull olive, army-green, yellow – or in the worst-case scenario, brown – the tea is well past its “best-enjoyed-by” date. In other words, it’s stale. The tea will not yield complex flavors or its potential umami richness.
Another indicator of the quality of your tea lies in its froth. How well does the Matcha respond to whisking? A thick, creamy froth means you have a cup of high-quality, delicious Matcha. A thin froth with sparse bubbles after vigorous whisking means that your Matcha is probably a little old. It will be fine to drink and you’ll still receive Matcha’s abundant nutrients, but it won’t be the best cup of tea it could be.
Taking care of Matcha is very simple. Un-opened, Matcha will stay fresh for up to 1 year. However, we don’t recommend trying to start a collection of vintages. Because you’ll want to enjoy your Matcha right after purchase, just make sure you put your tin in your refrigerator immediately after appreciating the sights, smells, and process of preparing your tea. We personally put our collection of tins in a Ziplock bag to further prevent any chance of condensation, preserve flavor, and protect it from the elements. Plus, it’ll be easy to reach in the morning when you go looking for breakfast.
Enjoy Matcha often. Our tea’s fine flavors will be best discernible for up to 2 months, so it’s best consumed very quickly. No need to toss the tea after that – it will still taste good and be good for you. But because of how quality of our tea, the difference we’re looking at here is our Matcha tasting good, versus our Matcha tasting great.
So, please refrigerate. Thank you!
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