How to store your teas, oils and powders

A little care in how you store your herbs goes a long way. Herbs, teas, oils and powders are natural products, and they keep their aroma and character best when they are stored simply and sensibly. It mostly comes down to keeping four things away from your jars: heat, light, air and moisture.

Cool, dark and dry

Heat, light and moisture are what dull a herb over time. Keep your teas, powders and salts in a cool, dry cupboard away from direct sunlight and the stove, and they will stay fresher for longer.

In most kitchens the worst spots are the convenient ones: the shelf above the hob, the windowsill, the cupboard beside the kettle where steam gathers every morning. An interior cupboard, away from the oven and the sink, is usually the best place you already own. Bathrooms are out altogether.

Seal after every use

Air is the enemy of aroma. Reseal pouches and jars tightly after each use to lock in the scent and flavour, especially for teas and ground powders. A few habits help more than any container:

• Press the air out of a pouch before you fold the top over and seal it.
• Decant into a jar with a proper screw lid once a pouch has been opened and closed many times.
• Use a dry spoon, every time. A damp teaspoon is how moisture gets into a powder.
• Write the date you opened it on the label. Guessing later is how good tea goes quietly stale.

Tea keeps its own company

Tea leaves are porous, and they take on the smell of whatever sits beside them. Coffee, cumin, an onion in the same cupboard: give it a week and you will taste all three. Keep each tea in its own sealed tin, and keep a scented tea such as our jasmine green tea apart from plainer leaves, which will happily borrow its perfume. The same goes for the blossoms in our Chinese herbal tea collection.

Ceremonial matcha asks for the most care. It is stone-ground finer than flour, so far more of it meets the air, and its bright jade drifts towards olive once the tin is open. Keep it sealed, cool and dark, and use it within a couple of months. If you keep matcha in the fridge, seal it in an airtight container and let it come back to room temperature before opening, or condensation settles straight onto the powder.

Compressed pu-erh is the one exception. It is traditionally kept with a little air around it rather than shut in an airtight tin, so leave it in its wrapper, away from strong smells and damp.

Powders and salt

Fine powders pull moisture out of the air. That is why a jar of lion's mane extract powder or moringa powder opened in a steamy kitchen turns from loose dust into a solid cake. Seal it, keep it dry, and never rest a wet spoon on the rim.

Salt does the same, only faster. Himalayan fine salt left open beside the hob will clump within weeks, while coarse crystals cope with humidity far better. Keep the fine grind sealed and refill a small dish as you go. Salt lamps do it visibly: in humid weather they sweat, and a damp ring appears under the base. Wipe it dry and leave the lamp switched on, which keeps the surface warm.

Mind your oils

Essential and carrier oils prefer a cool, dark spot with the cap closed. Stored well, they hold their character far longer than oils left open on a sunny shelf. Keep them in their dark glass, standing upright so the oil is not sitting against the cap, and out of the bathroom. Citrus oils change fastest: a bottle of lemon essential oil is at its brightest within about a year of opening, while woods and resins are content for two or three.

Our carrier and infused oils are pressed from nuts, seeds and fruit, and the delicate ones keep much like food. Flaxseed and hemp seed oil are happiest in the fridge once opened. Unrefined coconut oil sets solid below roughly 24 degrees and melts clear again in the warmth of your hands, which is normal, not a fault. If a carrier oil ever smells sharp or waxy rather than like the nut or seed it came from, it has had its day.

Because we pack by hand and to order, your Herbaty order arrives fresh, so store it with a little care and enjoy it at its best. If you are unsure how something already in your cupboard should be kept, write to us. And if you are stocking a shelf from scratch, everything we stock is listed in one place.