Ideal pu'er storage cabinet

You might want to check out some of the "pumidors" folks on teachat have made.

I think that cedar and any strong smelling wood is definitely out... it will definitely get into the flavor of the tea in a way that I think most people would call bad. Also, anything you make that's new is probably going to end up with smells from any glue and varnish used. So I think you'd like something that will look nice with very minimal finishing - maybe wengé (not sure if that needs to be oiled, or if the oil would cause problems with the tea cakes).

I know antiques are hard to find over there sometimes, but if you can find one of those Chinese kitchen cabinets, I think that would be perfect (one with the ventilated cabinets on top, and solid doors on the bottom). With something that's already made, you can usually get a good sense if it has a strong smell or not, and older cabinets (at least if they haven't been refinished recently) shouldn't have as strong a smell from varnish or glue, though they might have some weird smells of their own. I have heard (though I have no personal experience) that putting the cabinet outside in direct sunlight for a little while can help get the odors out, and leaving it closed up for a week or two with some bamboo charcoal and some cheap shu might be a good idea also.

What I do is store the pu'er in a big closet in the back of my appartment (along with some other stuff). It's mostly sheng, but I have a separate shelf for the one or two shu cakes I have. I stack similar years (+- 4-5 years) together; if I have enough of a particular region within that time period, I'll stack similar regions together. I keep the door closed most of the time; I crack the door every once in a while to let some air (and humidity) in, especially when it's nice and humid out, then I shut it and put a towel across the floor. The nice thing is that the closet tends to even out fluctuations in temperature and humidity somewhat. Because the closet is so big, putting a pan of water inside doesn't seem to help humidify it much; I'm guessing in your case, that's not too much of a concern.

I have a Japanese tea tansu made from Zelkova wood. Don't currently store any pu in there, but the bottom stores most of my sealed canisters of other teas, and the top holds my teapots. When I bought it, it didn't seem to have that strong of a smell, but the smell actually is pretty strong, and I am a little worried about the smell being absorbed by my teapots. I have bamboo charcoal stuck all around (btw, I've heard you need to refresh bamboo charcoal by putting it in direct sunlight every once in a while), but so far it hasn't made that much difference. The bottom part is starting to pick up a little tea smell, though, at least.

I had heard that baking soda absorbing odors was a myth, but apparently not:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/rea … ator-odors

You're probably right about bamboo charcoal... I usually just buy it at the Japanese 99 cent store here, so it's not particularly expensive.

BTW, Will (the other one) -- check out Chan Kam Pong's book or articles in Art of Tea if you can.

Also, I posted some other thoughts about this a while back on Teachat at:
http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?p=68183#68183

Last edited by william (2008-11-07 19:52:32)

I don't know that the tea would get much fresh air in a closed cardboard box, unless it's one of those boxes with ventilation holes cut in it (extra points if it's one of the boxes with the 'cha' character cut into the side). A cardboard box that's somewhere relatively far away from light, sun, and open windows would probably be pretty good, provided the cardboard is a good quality type that doesn't have a strong smell (I've always figured the ones intended for comic books should be good). I have seen cardboard boxes recommended for keeping different types of tea separate, or for providing an extra layer of safety to the tea, but I think the boxes should be in a dark room, cabinet, or closet.

But I think continuous fresh air is not what you want, at least not according to most of the stuff I've read. I think you want *occasional* fresh air, like airing out whatever the tea is living in once every day or two, or maybe once a week.

Since I'm in such a dry climate, I don't bother using a cardboard box around any of my teas currently, though in the past, I've kept some in brown paper bags.

Damn, I need a Japanese 99 cent store here <jealous> :)  (Actually there probably is one somewhere that I don't know about.)

just enjoy tea.  don't work up a sweat about it.

I've been wondering about 50% humidity. I know that Guang's area is around 60% on average, but I've been wondering what it is inside his house. I've been meaning to ask. Here in Oregon it's always raining so the outside humidity is quite high, but inside it's usually around 50%-60%, with dips to 40% only on occasional (and individual) days.

It also kind of brings up a bigger question about what the humidity should really be. I know that places like HK have very high humidity levels, but are the cakes themselves actually being kept in humidity levels equal to the outdoor RH? Even with all the doors and windows open here the inside RH doesn't get that high. But then I don't really know much about how these things are really stored in those areas.

I wonder how the clay jars do for humidity? Those would definitely seem like the answer for places like HK and Taipei where the humidity is very high. I'm not really doubting you, just wondering what effect it would have on humidity.

Last edited by ABx (2008-11-07 17:35:14)

charcoal is a good absorber.

But then some of us enjoy such things ;)

I actually haven't gone as far as building anything for storing puerh yet, but mainly because I really don't know what I want to do yet. I'm also not sure that I actually need to do anything in my climate. But just the process of designing and building things for my hobbies is actually very enjoyable and relaxing for me.

I can tell you that what I'd love to do is get one of those hutches that has a counter with cabinets above and below. I'd keep my puerh in one cabinet, my other teas in the other, and have my zoji, tray, and accessories on the counter. Either that or I'd keep the teaware in one of the cabinets :)

Another thing I would like to do is make large clay jars with a space that fits some carbon padding around the rim, so that any air that goes into the jar gets any odors filtered out. I've got the clay, so I might try to make one at some point.

My only problem is that it's actually an adsorber, so it needs current to catch the undesirable stuff. I haven't had much luck with it when it's just sitting in a closed environment, but I guess I haven't used it that much.

Do you mean 50-60% on average over the year? It's higher (significantly higher than 50-60%) in the summer and lower than that at times in the winter - he has some pictures of the actual RH readings in the AoT articles and in his book, and maybe even a graph. I think it gets to 90-95%, and I don't think he dehumidifies until it gets pretty high up there.

And in Mr. Chan's book, he theorizes that there should be seasonal fluctuations... just not dramatic fluctuations within a short period of time. HK / Taiwan are hot and humid in the summer, and cooler and drier in the winter. The drier periods give the tea time to dry out from the more humid periods. I think it'll be a while before we know for sure how storage in other types of environments will affect tea.

That's the question, though... just because it's 90% outside doesn't mean that it's 90% inside. Right now, where I am, it's 82% outside and 60% inside.

You can see it here: http://www.dyingsun.net/Tea/forumpics/puerhrh.png - I could and probably should have corrected the pic, but my scanner is in such an inconvenient location at the moment that it's a pain to scan anything that hangs off the side (like a magazine). I love that they covered up some of the text with the pics ;D

The last one with the text cut off says: "This photo was taken in April. The outdoor relative humidity reached 90% and the temperature was 24 (cents sign) J." (emphasis mine)

I'd say he even goes beyond that in this same article: "...In the past people have argued that one could use air-conditioning and other machinery to create fine vintage tea, but this idea has lost validity in recent years. Once these collectors began to experience how slow the aging process was, and how inefficient, the theory was tossed out. Furthermore, it is doubtful that such teas, even given adequate time, would be nearly as good as those stored naturally."

He also does go on to talk about the importance of slow and natural fluctuations, rather than the abrupt ones in artificial environments. This is what the graph you were thinking of is about.

He goes on later to say
"...However, tea cakes being stored in a closet still faces the problem of inadequate ventilation as it will be hard to have the convection air current. If high humidity is trapped inside your closet, it will become a "disaster area."

So maybe the idea of a "pumidor" is really not a good one at all (not that he is the final authority on the mater). I'm beginning to think that if I do anything at all then it should really only be to have a nice, decorative cabinet that filters out bad odors and stops direct drafts. Maybe jars, if I can find some that are affordable (local shop has nice yixing jars, but they're well over $100/ea). The cupboard that it's in now does do a nice job of keeping the temperature pretty even. It will be really interesting to see how it turns out with the higher humidity in the cold months and drier in the warm months. It also only seems to fluctuate between 40% and 65% here, rather than going down to 35% and below at any time.

Last edited by ABx (2008-11-09 20:44:47)