This is a question that occurred to me recently upon viewing the selection of pre-brewed, ready-to-go tea that the local stores offer. Some kinds are sold in milk-style jugs, and are generally kept on the refrigerated shelves; naturally enough, their labels read “Keep Refrigerated.” Yet other kinds are sold in glass or plastic pop bottles, and are displayed boldly at room temperature without apparent concern for thermal variation.
What is the difference between these teas, please?
This I can’t tell you. But I can offer some advice that I am, unfortunately, qualified to give from experience: even if the tea is sold at room temperature, it must needs be refrigerated once opened. Or else you’ll end up with a glass of green tea that tastes off – and why is it lumpy?
Perhaps some kinds are sterile before opening?
The stuff in bottles is pasteurized before being sealed under vacuum. The tea plastic jugs is not.
I thought that might have something to do with it; however, at the store I was at, the tea in milk-style jugs is labeled as pasteurized whereas the soda-bottled kind does not seem to be so labeled.
It’s the vacuum sealing that does it. Like that Parmalat milk packed in foil envelopes that you can store on the shelf.