Has Your Herbal Tea Expired? Here's Why It Matters

Tea tends to be one of those things we keep stocked in our kitchens to return to from time to time. The collection just seems to build and hang out there for the occasions we want a little chamomile to relax, or a dinner guest requests a peppermint tea post-meal. Surely, tea is good forever, right, something we can remember we have after a few years and reliably make a tasty, comforting beverage with?

Sadly, tea does indeed expire, and your herbal teas are the first to go. Technically, even older, past-their-prime teas are safe to drink, unless they're so old they have mold — those are definitely not safe and should be tossed immediately. But even the expired teas without mold aren't something you want to drink. Old tea that's gone bad loses all of its flavor, so you might as well just drink a cup of hot water. Herbal teas in particular can even taste extremely unpleasant. Across all the different varieties of herbal tea, what sets them apart from other teas is that they don't consist of leaves from the tea plant, but instead are mixtures of fruits, botanicals, herbs, spices, leaves, barks, and roots. These ingredients have natural oils responsible for herbal tea's beautiful aromas, but that can also turn rotten- and sour-tasting as tea ages and expires.

The same reason herbal tea tends to taste worse than tea-leaf teas when they expire is also behind the fact herbal teas reach this expiration point faster. Those natural oils can break herbal tea's ingredients down more quickly, with flavors turning from desirable to absent to undesirable. Some of those ingredients, including things like citrus peels and spices, can be especially volatile, and cause the entire tea to taste off. In general, tea lasts one to two years if stored properly, but herbal teas need to be more closely monitored for spoilage even earlier than that.

When it comes to the various types of tea, herbal stands out from teas consisting of leaves from the tea plant, which includes black, green, white, red, and oolong teas. There are some expiration differences between those teas, too: Oolong and black teas are more oxidized and last longer, while green and white teas are less oxidized and lose flavor more quickly. And in general, for any of your favorite types for making iced tea or hot tea, opt for loose-leaf. Bagged tea seems easier, but all the leaves are broken up to fit in the bag, exposing them to air and therefore faster spoilage. Loose-leaf teas just require using a strainer and stay fresh much longer. To help all of your teas, especially volatile herbal tea, last as long as possible, store them in a sealed airtight container in a cool, dark spot.