Do Tea Bags Ever Go Bad?

My elderly friend Earl enjoys drinking several cups of hot tea daily. When I visited him recently, he brought out some boxes of tea bags from his cupboard. Earl wasn't sure how old some of them were. Some of the boxes had dates on them, while others didn't. Even so, he didn't know if he could still drink the tea that had passed its date. Read this informative article and find out if tea bags ever go bad, and if you can safely use tea bags after their expiration dates!

How Old Are the Tea Bags?
Since I'm not a big user of tea bags, and I'm rather a stickler about expiration dates, I headed off to the Internet to find answers for Earl.

Earl had an open box of Salada tea bags. There was no date on it whatsoever, just a code. So my first stop was the company website. I couldn't find the answers to my questions in their FAQ's so I contacted them.

"Mary" at Salada informed me that the code on the tea bag box- "B4063" meant the "tea was manufactured in 2004, the 4th day of March." She added that "Two years is the best shelf life. Tea lasts a long time, but after two years is begins to dwindle in overall quality. However, it can safely be used indefinitely." So, the expiration date on those tea bags was March 4, 2006. Tea bags aren't expensive to buy. And the tea was more than a year past it's prime, so we tossed the Salada tea bags. Earl's not into drinking stale tea.

Newer Salada Tea Bags Have "Best By" Dates
I was delighted to find a new box of Salada tea in another stash Earl had. This box has "Best By Aug 04 2011" clearly printed on the front of the box. The tea bags were obviously manufactured in August of 2009.

Lipton Teas Are Either Date Stamped or Have Manufacturing Codes
Earl had an open box of Lipton tea bags so I visited the company website. In their "Questions" section, they address how long you can keep Lipton tea. Just to let you know, Lipton Original Tea in the 16-ounce bottle has a "drink by" date. Look on the cap of Lipton Iced Tea to find the expiration date.

As for other teas, according to Lipton, the shelf life depends on the type of tea it is. The majority of their teas, "Black, Iced Tea Brew, Cold Brew Tea, Herbal, Black Flavored Teas, ChaiLatta, Earl Grey and English Breakfast can be enjoyed up to 18 months from the production date." Iced tea mix powder (which I'm a huge fan of) has a "maximum shelf life of 12 months from the production date."

How to Read Lipton's Manufacturing Codes
Lipton places either date codes or manufacturing codes on their tea bags and powdered mixes. To understand the code, the first number is the year, the next letter is the month, and the two numbers that follow denote the day. The letters and the months they represent are: A- January; B- February; C- March; D- April; E- May; F- June; G- July; H- August; X- September; J- October; K- November, and L- December.

The date codes on some Lipton tea bags and powdered tea mixes are "Best if Use By" dates. According to the web site, the products "will generally maintain good quality for several months after that date. Your best guide to freshness is simply to smell and taste the product."

Earl's box of Lipton tea bags were well past their "Best if Use By" date. I smelled a few of the bags and could barely detect a tea smell.

The "Perfect Brew"
The United Kingdom Tea Council doesn't seem to address the issue of expired tea bags on their website. However, they do recommend that you use "good quality" loose leaves or tea bags to make a "perfect brew." The council also recommends that the tea "be stored in an air-tight container at room temperature."

Resources
http://www.greentea.com/faq.aspx
http://www.liptont.com/faq/answer.aspx?faqid=166&Counter=1&When=10/4/2009
http://www.tea.co.uk/make-a-perfect-brew