Contents
Dried Camellia sinensis leaf. Bags, loose and instant all keep two to three years dry — the leaf is already a preserved product, and what fades is aroma rather than safety.
How long it keeps
Unopened, this keeps 3 years — which is what puts it on the long shelf.
| As sold | Unopened, in the cupboard | Once opened |
|---|---|---|
| bags | 18–36 months | 6–12 months |
| instant | 2–3 years | 6–12 months |
| loose | 2 years | 6–12 months |
Counted from the day you bought it. Figures are the USDA FSIS FoodKeeper table's, for unopened storage at room temperature; FoodKeeper counts a month as 30 days.
The table was not pulled from USDA — fsis.usda.gov answers 403 to non-browser clients from this machine — so it came from a mirror of the data.gov dataset and its vintage is unverified. Treat a single figure as indicative, not as a use-by date.
Related
- Keeps 60 days or more — the whole cupboard list, by aisle.
- Ingredients — the wider shelf.
- Same aisle — Beverages: Hard liquors · Water · Nutrition supplement drinks · Red wine · White wine.