I know that a lot of people often wonder or worry about how to store matcha properly. If you don’t store your matcha properly, then it will go bad or deteriorate over time. But of course you will want to keep it as fresh for as long as possible.
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Long-term preservation of matcha
Now, the thing with matcha is that in Japan, it’s hardly ever stored in its powder form. It’s always stored as the tea leaf. When it’s needed as matcha, it is pulverized. When the matcha is pulverized, it will become much more prone to oxidation, starting to go brown, degrade, and become bad. So if you preserve it in the leaf form, you can keep it for much longer.
With that in mind, knowing that when you buy matcha powder, it isn’t predestined to be preserved for a long time, you need to understand that it is best to consume it as quickly as possible. That’s also the reason why you get smaller amountsof 30 or 40 grams.
How to store matcha?
Of course, you’re not going to drink everything in one day. What do you need to look out for when you store your matcha and how to store it properly? I usually use the following parameters to decide where and how I will store my tea.
First of all, if I will consume it every day and I’ll finish it within one or two months, I will simply leave it out. Usually the tea comes in a can in which I would store it and take it out whenever I need it.
Now, if I’m a less regular consumer, or if I have a tea that is special, which I might use only once a week for a tea ceremony occasion for example, then I would preserve it in the fridge.
Should you store matcha in the fridge?
It isn’t enough to just keep it in the fridge. I would preserve it in a canister and then put it in a Ziploc bag to put it in the fridge. And preferably, I would choose a fridge that doesn’t have any odors. Because tea is very absorbent, which means that a lot of odors that are around in the fridge will be absorbed by the tea.
if it’s got cheese or if it’s got fish, it will get a cheesy or a fishy flavor. And of course you want to avoid that. So that’s why I put it again in a double Ziploc or at least in something airtight where those odors cannot penetrate.
Can you store matcha in the freezer?
Now, if I’m not going to consume it immediately or I have it only once a month and I want to keep some for one or two months later, then the best approach is to store your tea in the freezer. Keeping the tea in the freezer will hardly change its composition at all. But of course you need to keep it very airtight and locked in.
Don’t open your matcha can!
Now, very important to know with the fridge and the freezer is that when you keep your tea in the fridge, you will want to let the tea acclimatize before you use it.
You don’t want to take the can out of the fridge and open it immediately because of the temperature difference. Condensation will get on the inside of your can and over time that humidity will also affect your tea for the worse. The same goes for taking your tea out of the freezer. Only the temperature with the freezer is much colder, so you’ll want to let it acclimatize for longer.
So what I usually take as a parameter is: when I take the tea out of the fridge, I will let it acclimatize for one hour. And if it’s a tea that I have taken out of the freezer, I will let it acclimatize for about one day. So I’ll take it out the day before I’m going to use it.
You can choose!
This gives you three options and makes it possible for you to choose which application is better for your type of consumption.
- Do you have it every day or at a very regular basis, and you’re going to consume your matcha in a month to maybe two months? Then don’t bother with storing it in any specific way. Keep it out. Because putting it in and out the fridge is also going to affect your tea because of the temperature differences and exposing it to air, et cetera again as well.
So if you just keep it out and only take out when you need it, what you need, then you won’t have any difficulties with preserving your tea for the duration that you need it to be fresh. - If you are a less regular consumer and you only have it say once a week, then I would say keep it in the fridge, but make sure that no odors can get to it, and that you let it acclimatize before you open it.
So before you’re gonna have your matcha, set the can out, and then use it after an hour. - If you’re going to store it for a longer period, then store it in a freezer.
Store matcha in a cool dark place.
If you keep matcha on a shelf, so that you can use it immediately, whenever you want to, still keep in mind that you want to keep it in a dry and dark place. That’s exactly what the fridge does.
And you also want to keep it away from heat. If it’s summer and it’s very hot and humid out, you might want to store it in a fridge instead. Because keeping it out in the open is not a good idea. It is very important to also keep these things in mind.
Think about when you store it, is it hot? Yes or no? Is it humid? Yes or no? Because these two things will affect the oxidation of the tea. And then, is it dark enough or is the tea exposed to light? Because light also causes the tea to oxidize. So you want to make sure that it’s stored in a dark, cool space.
How do you store your matcha?
I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other suggestions or let me know if any of these techniques helped you storing your matcha better. I’ll be happy to hear from you. Leave a comment below.
Enjoy your matcha.
