Well, you can replace the ambient air (and the oxygen it contains) by sparging containers with an inert gas, e.g., CO2, N, or Argon. I still use an argon tank from my winemaking days to top up my oils and vinegars.
1 Like
Right. Those are the two main approach for storing tea leaves too. Vacuum or inert air (often nitrogen) to displace.
1 Like
Here’s another: For any bottles sealable with crown caps, there are caps made with a lining material that will bind with any oxygen in the airspace/ullage.
Yeah, oxygen scavenger packages are popular among tea storage too.
1 Like
I bought a vacuum unit about ten years ago… and with it quite a number of Foodsaver vacuumable containers for flour, sugar, etc. Bottom line, the containers leak. I have been meticulous in cleaning the seals in the lids, and the edges they seat to, but they still leak to the point that there is no vacuum when I next go to remove the lid.
However, the bags/rolls used with the same sealer are solid, and never leak. Not sure whether there are better vacuum sealable containers than Foodsaver’s, but their’s are not reliable.
For tea, precious dried food etc, I used food savers vacuum sealed box or bags to get rid of air to preserve the maximum length of time. Sealed bags are better, as boxes eventually has leaked air problem, as @ScottinPollock mentoned. I used the following FS boxes to store my seeds. The box can be used as for quick marinade as well.
For food that need to preserve a few days more or cooked food in the fridge A few years ago, I started to use WMF glass boxes that are stackable in the fridge, they have big sizes and there are some plastic mesh to keep the food from spoiling if there sare liquid coming out after a few days, like herbs,’ but the disadvantage: glass is not heat resistant and couldn’t be tossed in the oven. Now I switch and use the ikea glass boxes, they are the cheapest. And they sell separately the lids from the container. Personally I dislike plastic boxes as they keep the smell of the food and is difficult to clean with oily food.
Thanks.
On the opposite, there are many people intentionally add moisture for tea storage for white tea and pu-erh. For example, Don from Mei Leaf uses Boveda package to control humidity
Interesting to hear about adding moisture to tea storage. So it’s only for white tea and pu-erh?
Yep.
I drink neither for the time being, only green, oolong and black tea, but will keep this in mind in the future, as I like certain white teas.
I sometimes use ziplock bags and I doubled them to make sure for dried mushrooms. They remain hard and dry for long time. But like you said, it’s a bit messy for organization, I keep them in trays in cupboard for easier search.
Thanks everyone. I bought a small 5-sets Rubbermaid Brilliance from Target. I plan on using a mix of glass and plastic containers for dried food storage. So I will scale up or down depending on my experience of the Rubbermaid Brilliance.
2 Likes
I have a large number of Rubbermaid Serve’n Savers that are probably 25 or more years old. They aren’t pretty but they are quality containers. These are airtight plastic, safe to freeze and microwave, although if you nuke with the lid on, it will never again fit. They came in a huge variety of shapes and sizes. I’d bet they are often available on eBay.
Have quite a few of the brilliance. Like the transparency and they stack well in the fridge or freezer. Plus when they fall out of the freezer onto the floor they don’t splinter or break.
Oh, I’d forgotten about that. Obviously, glass breaks when it hits the floor (ask me how I know - my floors are stone) but glad or ziplock plastic containers stored in the freezer will crack/break if the hit the floor while frozen.
1 Like
I also use leftover Talenti containers to store foods too. As I write this, I found out that u sing Talenti containers is a “thing”
5 Likes
True, but at least they do not scatter quite the way as glass. Not only glass can scattered in many pieces, but glass pieces are harder and sharper than plastic pieces.
I am not anti-glass in any way. My stocks (like chicken stock, wonton stock…) are often stored in Ball’s Mason glass jars in my freezer.
1 Like
Yup… have a drawer full of them.
Oh, I have lots of experience with broken glass! Which is why I’d rather not use it for storage containers that will constantly be moving around. The big bale jars with replaceable rubber kings are fine on the countertop. Storing leftovers in the fridge in glass containers would require a lot of extra vigilance. I don’t microwave in plastic, however.
