--- title: 'Tea caddies: tin, ceramic and metal' url: 'https://howtotea.me/teaware/utensils/tea-caddies' markdown: 'https://howtotea.me/teaware/utensils/tea-caddies.md' lang: en date: '2026-10-25' description: 'Tea caddies for dry leaf: pewter with a double lid, tinplate, clay for pu-erh, Japanese chazutsu and chatsubo. Materials, and which tea suits which.' --- # Tea caddies: tin, ceramic and metal 茶叶罐 Editors · October 25, 2026 · 10 min read A caddy shields the leaf from moisture, air, light and odors. [Green tea](https://howtotea.me/teas/green) and light [oolong](https://howtotea.me/teas/oolong) do best in pewter or double tinplate with a tight lid; [pu-erh](https://howtotea.me/teas/dark/puer) wants unglazed clay that breathes. ![Two pewter tea caddies, one open, and a ceramic tea jar](https://howtotea.me/images/c/o/v/e/r/cover-dbbc4cdf.webp) Illustration 茶叶罐 Tea caddies chá yè guàn Job: moisture, oxygen, light, odors Green tea, sencha: pewter or double tinplate Pu-erh, hei cha: unglazed clay, not airtight Pewter for tea: since the 13th c., common from Ming Kaikado chazutsu: about 100 g of sencha GB/T 30375 limit: green ≤ 10 °C, ≤ 50 % Dry leaf spoils slowly but surely. Moisture leaves a damp taste, oxygen and light wear the aroma away, and the leaf soaks up stray smells on its own. So tea goes from its package into a caddy, a closed vessel that keeps the kitchen out. Temperature and humidity are a matter of [storage](https://howtotea.me/brewing/basics/storage) in general; choosing a caddy comes down to the material, and which one suits which tea. ## Pewter: the Chinese choice For a thousand years Chinese tea drinkers looked for a vessel that kept air out. In the 8th century Lu Yu stored tea in a paper sack and in a drying cabinet, the *yu*, with smoldering ash inside. In the 11th century Cai Xiang advised wrapping tea in ruo bamboo leaves and drying it by the fire every two or three days. Pewter enters the story in the mid-13th century: the antiquarian Zhao Xigu wrote that tea "gets along only with tin" and that a vessel must be tested repeatedly for air leaks. The quote is known only through the researchers Bronson and Ho; the original has not been checked. In the [Ming era](https://howtotea.me/traditions/china/history/ming-paocha) people argued over porcelain versus Yixing clay. In 1597 Xu Cishu kept tea in a large porcelain vat of 10 to 20 jin. He lined it with leaves, plugged the mouth and weighed it down with a brick, opening it only on a clear day to decant ten days' worth into a small jar. Tu Long took a new Yixing jar and sealed the mouth with six or seven layers of paper. Gao Yuanjun preferred a sandy-clay bottle to [Jingdezhen porcelain](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/chinese-ceramics/jingdezhen), which "easily turns damp". Feng Kebin summed it up around 1642: "recently people have started storing tea in tin with a clamped mouth, drier and tighter." The date is approximate; the sources give no exact year. What mattered was the lid. A porcelain pot without a seal "lets the wind through microscopic cracks", while a pewter lid ground to fit its body locks air out. Pewter is soft enough to cut and turn on a lathe, it does not rust, and it blocks light. Under the Qing, pewter caddies became common. According to Zhou Lianggong, people in Fujian kept tea in coarse porcelain until they adopted square and round pewter vessels from Huizhou craftsmen. Lids were double-walled. In an account of 1842, Zheng Fuguang checks the solder, pastes paper inside, and puts ash or lime at the bottom of a full vessel with dry straw on top. The best-known name in the craft is Shen Cunzhou. The Metropolitan Museum attributes a pair of caddies with texts on their inner faces to him, though cautiously, as "apparently a rare example" of his work. For export from Canton, makers built lacquer chests with pewter compartments. For metal as a material, see [metal teaware](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/metal). ## Tinplate and Japanese chazutsu Pewter reached Japan in the 7th to 9th centuries, but tea vessels made from it came later. A dictionary of 1690 names pewter workers who cast bottles, bowls and chatsubo "from tin and lead". For loose sencha, a cylindrical caddy took shape: the chazutsu (茶筒). Tinplate chazutsu arrived with imports of English tinplate in early Meiji, and in 1875 the Kaikado workshop opened in Kyoto. It still makes them by hand in about 130 operations, with tinplate inside and tin, copper or brass outside. Everything depends on the fit. Line up the seam of the lid with the seam of the body and the lid sinks by itself, pushing out the air; a light press at the end finishes the job. A double lid is enough even for sencha, with the inner one as a second barrier. Capacity is given in grams of sencha: the 100 g model should last one or two people about a month. The same logic works for any caddy: buy one sized to what you drink, and keep the reserve separately, in foil and in the cold. Chazutsu also come in mountain cherry bark. The craft, kabazaiku, came to Kakunodate in the Tenmei era (1781 to 1789); the bark is dried, planed and glued onto a wooden form. Others have washi paper over tin and must be kept away from water. Osaka pewter caddies are turned on a lathe with lids ground in by hand, and in senchado, the way of sencha, pewter counts as the best material. Closing a chazutsu Kaikado advises against washing the tinplate or putting the canister in a fridge or freezer: wipe it with a dry soft cloth. Lift an Osaka pewter lid straight up without turning it. The maker intends the patina that hands leave: copper darkens in 2 to 3 months, brass in 1 to 2 years, tin in 3 to 5 years. ## Clay for pu-erh and hei cha Tea meant to age needs the opposite: a little air and steady humidity. That is why pu-erh goes into unglazed ceramic. In a 2023 lab test in Kunming, Chengdu and Shanghai, coarse-grained [Yixing zisha](https://howtotea.me/teaware/brewing-vessels/yixing) (about 21 µm) exchanged the most moisture, and the humidity inside swung from 45 to 74 %. [Jianshui ceramic](https://howtotea.me/teaware/materials/chinese-ceramics/jianshui), with a grain of 7 to 8 µm and finer pores, kept humidity within 60 to 66 %, almost like a glass jar. That is better for long storage, though zisha is fine for a short "awakening" of a cake. The test also disproved a popular myth. No jar held its temperature, which simply followed the room. A zisha jar that suits dry Kunming can fail in humid Guangdong, so the region matters more than the material. In practice, a Jianshui jar holds one to three bundles of cakes. Some people line the walls with cotton paper so the tea does not touch the ceramic. The lid is opened once a year. A new jar may smell faintly of earth, which is normal. The tea itself is covered under [pu-erh](https://howtotea.me/teas/dark/puer). ## Chatsubo and kuchikiri Japan has a separate tradition built around the chatsubo, a ceramic jar for tencha, the leaf later ground into matcha. In spring the jar is filled with plainer tea (tsumecha) around paper bags of the best leaf for koicha, then the mouth is sealed with paper and the jar goes somewhere cool. In early November, when the hearth is opened for the season, the host removes the cloth cap in front of the guests, cuts the seal and takes out the tea along with a list of the contents. This is kuchikiri, the "tea New Year". The leaf is ground on a stone mill, and the guests are served [koicha and usucha](https://howtotea.me/brewing/methods/matcha). Today it is simpler: the tea sits in a fridge through the spring and goes into the chatsubo only in October. The ground powder is kept not in the jar but in a chaire or natsume, two of the [chanoyu utensils](https://howtotea.me/teaware/by-region/japan-and-korea/chanoyu-dogu). From 1633 until 1866 or 1867 the shogunate sent sealed chatsubo of tencha from Uji to Edo every year, in a procession known as the "O-chatsubo dochu". According to one Uji researcher, though, the famous jars never made the trip. The caravan carried trial tea in ordinary Shigaraki jars, while the precious ones passed to their owner by name. ## Which tea goes where The fresher and greener the tea, the stricter the vessel. The Chinese standard GB/T 30375-2013 sets storage for green and [yellow tea](https://howtotea.me/teas/yellow) at no more than 10 °C and 50 % humidity; for black, white and oolong, up to 25 °C at the same 50 %; for hei cha and compressed tea, up to 25 °C and 70 %.[1](#fn:1) A caddy does not keep tea cold. It only shuts out air, and the temperature depends on where you put it. - **Green tea, sencha.** Pewter or double tinplate with a tight lid, a month's supply. In a 2013 Japanese trial, sencha kept its market appearance for a year in a nitrogen-flushed foil barrier bag at 5 °C. - **Black, white, oolong.** Tinplate, pewter or ceramic with a tight lid, room temperature, dry. Lightly roasted oolong is closer to green tea. - **Tencha.** A fridge, or traditionally a chatsubo. - **Pu-erh, hei cha.** Unglazed clay, paper, a cardboard box. Moisture does not pass through porcelain or glazed ceramic walls, but an unsealed lid fits loosely, so in the Ming they were ranked below pewter. Chazutsu also come in aluminum and stainless steel, but there is no solid research on these. One rule has no exceptions: one vessel, one tea, since the leaf picks up other smells. ## How to choose, and how to judge pewter Look at the lid: airtightness depends on its fit, not on the wall material. A Kaikado chazutsu closes by itself with no pressing, a sign of precise fitting. Qing makers tested the solder and made the lid double-walled. Makers in Gejiu, Yunnan, claim that pure tin (99.9 %) springs back under pressure and needs only one lid, while a 97 % alloy needs two. Their fingernail test: the alloy rings, while pure tin sounds dull and "cries" when bent. No independent measurements back this up, so weight and fit are the only signs of quality worth trusting. Antiques call for more care. Historically, the Chinese word xi covered both pure tin and tin-lead alloy: two 19th-century objects at the Field Museum proved to be nearly pure tin, while a Han burial deed was 80 % lead. A maker's signature on pewter proves nothing either. Keep an old caddy as a [collector's](https://howtotea.me/teaware/care-and-collecting/collecting) piece, and see [teaware safety](https://howtotea.me/teaware/care-and-collecting/teaware-safety) on lead in tableware. Wash pewter in warm water with a soft, non-abrasive sponge and dry it at once. Keep it away from acidic fumes from fresh wood, cheap paper and some sealants. ## Common questions What is the best caddy for green tea? Pewter with a double lid, or double-walled tinplate. Green tea spoils faster than oolong or black, and it needs cold (up to 10 °C), dryness and as little air as possible. Ideally, keep the reserve in a foil bag in the fridge and only a month's supply in the caddy. Can pu-erh be stored in an airtight jar? Pu-erh that is meant to age needs some air. Tin, porcelain and glass preserve the aroma for now but halt the aging. Use unglazed clay, paper or a cardboard box, and open the vessel once a year. Is an antique pewter caddy dangerous? Old alloys can contain lead: the Chinese word xi meant both pure tin and a tin-lead mix. Keep an antique caddy as a collector's piece and do not put tea in it. Notes 1. For hei cha and compressed tea, summaries of the standard and the Shenzhen DB4403 give humidity up to 70 %, and a 2014 news item up to 60 %. The full text of the standard could not be accessed. [Standards register](https://openstd.samr.gov.cn/bzgk/std/newGbInfo?hcno=4F91CFE70972635C672A4C8CADB853FE). 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