It is great to know that there is one more person paying great care in maintaining the quality of your tea collection, coz there aren’t many.
The vacuum + quick freeze method had been practiced by the tieguanyin makers for quite many years, but the shelf life isn’t that much longer than that of those green teas that are just stored chilled. A packer once propose to me the use of nitrogen-filled pack and chill. The Japanese use silica gel and chill… there are different practices and all with something in there.
You are right in pointing out that moisture is an issue. I’ll certainly write more about that, but I am not sure if that is the only thing that makes a green tea fade. Most green tea are dried to a standard of 5~7%, but they still fade within a vacuum pack. I think it simply isn’t a great topic enough for scientists. At least not until some of them find out how good fresh green teas are.
