Tea Storage Ideas For Both Tea Bags & Loose Tea, Plus Tea Accessories
Here are tea storage ideas and organization tips for both tea bags and also loose tea, plus tips for organizing tea accessories such as strainers, honey spoons and more.
Anyone that enjoys sitting down to a nice cup of tea, or wishes to have tea available as a beverage when guests come to your home, needs to make sure they're properly storing their tea so that it lasts as long as possible, and the flavor does not deteriorate from improper storage techniques.
In addition, if you enjoy more than one flavor or variety of tea, including green, black, or herbal, you most likely also have quite a few packages of tea opened and stashed in your pantry, cupboard or kitchen drawer. It can all start to feel like a big jumble, but I've got ideas below to help you organize all these varieties so both you and guests can always find the exact flavor or type they want, from those available.
Simple Rules For Tea Storage
Tea needs to be kept in airtight containers, in a dark dry and cool place. This protects the tea leaves from things that can degrade them, such as light, moisture and heat.
This is especially true for loose teas, which are not protected by any type of packaging that indvidually wrapped tea bags often have surrounding them.
Further, tea is absorbent. That means when choosing a storage location in your pantry, cupboard or kitchen, do not place your teas near other strong odors, such as close to your spices.
How To Organize & Store Tea Bags
I'll start with ideas for organizing and storing tea bags, since this is a very common way to purchase and consume tea.
There are more options available for organizing and storing tea bags, than for loose tea, because the tea bags normally come individually packaged, which keeps them relatively free from exposure to air, and light.
The uniform size and shape of each package also make organizing the bags simple.
First, take your tea bags out of their cardboard boxes for each flavor, and instead add them to a tea bag storage container or organizer.
You can see from these photos from a reader, Jen, that it can really add order to your pantry or cupboard to get rid of those half empty boxes. She said, "One of the best ideas I had was to get rid of all my half empty tea boxes and store them in a bin."
There are many tea bag storage containers available, including both acrylic ones, in various shapes and sizes, as well as wooden boxes.
Some of these containers are designed to be stackable, others are designed to have pull out drawers, or to allow you to put the entire container on a shelf in the pantry or cupboard. There's also open containers used for inside drawers.
I'll show you several different varieties of tea bag containers below, so you can choose the best one for your pantry or kitchen storage space, and how much tea you like to keep on hand.
Here are photos from a couple of readers (the top is from Antonella, and the bottom is from Jackie), who added their tea bags into one of these acrylic organizers, with a lid, so they can place it in their pantry, or inside a kitchen cupboard, or bring it out for friends and family to let them choose their tea.
You can get a variety of tea bag storage containers similar to these here:
You can also get an organizer for your tea bags that allows you to showcase several different varieties at once. This can be really nice if you enjoy making tea for guests, so they can choose which flavor or variety they'd like to drink.
Here's an example of a tea bag stand, which holds the tea bags in their packages, while allowing everyone to see exactly what's available for use.
You can get such a tea stand here:
Finally, you can also put your tea bags inside a drawer, like a reader Jean did, as shown in the photo below. If you do this, then look for containers without a lid or top that are narrow, to allow you to arrange your tea bags like little files, to flip through to find the one you want.
Here's an example of such a narrow tea bag storage container.
How To Organize & Store Loose Teas
I started with showing how to organize and store tea bags, because I know that is a really popular option for many tea drinkers. However, I'm also aware that there are a lot of tea lovers who would never consider using tea bags, but instead only make their tea using loose leaves.
The tips for storing and organizing loose tea is different than for tea bags. For loose teas it is important to have small, airtight containers to hold your various tea blends in, and properly label each tea tin or canister so you can find the variety and flavor you'd like when you want to make a pot of that type of tea.
Either store your containers in a dark cool location, such as inside a cabinet, or make sure your containers are opaque so they don't let in light.
Here's an example from a reader, Courtney, who showed one of her organized tea cabinets in her kitchen, explaining that "a) tea bags make for less then good tea and b) this is just a small portion of my tea collection."
You can get loose leaf tea storage containers and organizers here:
You don't want to be guessing what type of tea you've got in each container, so make sure you also label the tins or canisters. You can use these chalkboard labels here.
Ideas For Storing Tea Accessories
Finally, part of the enjoyment of making and drinking tea includes using certain tea accessories for the process. This can include the cups or mugs themselves, that you put the tea in, but also items that you'll need to make your tea.
Obviously, making tea using loose leaves is more equipment intensive than using a tea bag, so the idea below focuses on that type of equipment.
Ideally you'll keep any tea accessories you regularly use to make your tea close to where you store the actual tea, so it's all close together and it's easy when you decide you'd like a nice cup to gather everything for use easily, and all within reach.
That's the idea, of course, behind creating a coffee or tea station, keeping everything together for yourself and guests to enjoy.
These photos below are from a reader, Tina, to show both how she stores her tea strainers as well as her honey spoons, and her coffee spoon.
Tina hangs these items inside the kitchen cabinet, on the door, using command hooks. It's a convenient place to store them because they're kept right with the tea making and coffee making supplies she's got inside the cabinet, and on the kitchen counter below those cabinets.
As always, when hanging things inside your cabinet doors, make sure that you place the hooks and items themselves in such a manner that even when hung up the cabinet door, itself, will close completely. Therefore, you often need to pay attention to how much space is between any shelves in the cabinet and the door, when closed, so you can avoid having to rehang items after placing your command hooks.
I hope these ideas for how to store and organize tea have helped you figure out the best way you can do it in your own kitchen or pantry.
You can get even more ideas for organizing your pantry and food storage areas here, in the Organize Pantry Challenge.
In addition, looking for even more home storage solutions and organizing ideas? If so, here is my round up of over 75 different A to Z home storage solutions for all around your home.
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