What To Do With Old Tea? Does Tea Expire?
You may or may not have a tea problem. Is there an accumulation of various old teas in your cabinet? You may be wondering if tea goes bad. Can you drink old tea? And what should you do with all that old tea?
Does Tea Go Bad?
Tea typically does not go bad per se. Rather, tea loses its freshness and flavor over time. But unless it looks or smells off, feel free to consume it! (If it does seem moldy or bad or weird, please do not drink it, toss it out or compost it!)
How Long Does Tea Last?
We recommend a shelf life of 2 years for all our teas. But your tea may last even longer. Tea is highly dependent on how it is stored--you want to avoid exposure to heat, moisture, light, and air. So keep it in its packaging, closed or sealed, in a cool dry place, such as a pantry or cabinet.
What Do I Do With Old Tea?
Love this question. We have several suggestions!
1. Make it into pitchers of iced tea
The great thing about iced tea is you can make a big batch of it at once, and when it's made, your household, friends & family will drink it up so fast, you might not even get any for yourself.
Here's a handy-dandy post about making iced tea at home. If you're using old tea, you might want to double the amount of tea in the recipe to make sure the flavor is strong enough.
2. Use tea to flavor your baking!
Try brew up an extra strength tea to use in baking recipes, from scones, to cake to cookies and more. We recommend at least 4x the amount of tea, e.g. 4 tea bags in 1 cup hot water. Then you have yourself a nice tea extract you can substitute in any recipe that calls for water or coffee. You can also dilute it with milk and use it to replace milk in a recipe.
3. Don't feel bad, compost it!
If you're really just sick of looking at that old tea, it's not even good, and you know you'll never use it up... just bin it! In the compost bin that is :) It's like throwing it in the garbage, but you get extra eco points. Plus, the worms will thank you.
