Packaging of tea is incredibly critical to the taste, longevity and visual appeal of tea - and this is true for jasmine green tea, flowering teas, flowers teas and any style of loose leaf teas or tea ball.
The biggest enemies of tea are light and air which would be why tea tins are so fashionable. To retain the best flavour and look of tea, it must be stored in an airtight container and in a dark place. Even though the old fashioned tea tin was not usually airtight, at least it protected tea from light and so went some way to preserving the integrity of tea.
The optimum container for tea has a top that seals, does not let in light and does not have previous flavors. Utilising that type of container gives tea the best opportunity of staying as fresh as possible. It is also wise to use a container that does not have a smell or flavor from previous use as this will negatively impact on tea stored in that container. Importantly keep away from plastic containers beause of this.
A recent buy of a number of flowers tea at The Tea Centre, Sydney, came with impressive foil/laminate packaging. This packaging was incredibly modern, easy to manage and served its purpose. And, regular use of the various tea packets has not seen them deteriorate or become harder to use. without a tea tin, excellent packaging from a store can be used for small quantities of tea.
There are some fantastic innovations around teabag packets including teabag sticks, Japanese origami teabags, teabags with arms, paper boats, stick shaped infusers and walking stick bags - all great for jasmine green tea or any kind of loose leaf tea. Because these are not commercially available, I’m unsure how brilliantly they would function, but they are great fun at the very least.
However, those plans are for teabags, not really for top quality loose leaf tea or flowering tea balls. There is no getting around the fact that loose leaf tea, as well as flowers tea products benefit from a traditional view to packaging. The best care remains this – keep the air out, dark packaging to keep light away and then, buy just a small amount of tea at any one time.