What goes wrong

It tastes of something else

Updated October 2026

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Both products do this readily The usual sources Separate storage is the only real fix Check new packaging before you fill it At a refill counter the room is the container Smell the stock regularly Packaging stored badly carries it too References

A plain tea that tastes faintly of bergamot, or a coffee that tastes of the cleaning cupboard, has absorbed it from the air.

Both products do this readily

Tea is the more notorious absorber and coffee does it too, and in both cases it is not recoverable. The product has taken up volatile compounds from its surroundings and no amount of airing gets them back out.

The usual sources

Scented blends stored alongside plain stock.
Spices, which are the other strongly aromatic dry good.
Cleaning chemicals, which is the one that produces the worst results.
Packaging materials themselves, if they carry a solvent smell.

Separate storage is the only real fix

Scented products in their own space, sealed, with plain stock elsewhere. This feels excessive until the first time an entire batch of a plain tea has to be written off, after which it feels obvious.

Check new packaging before you fill it

Plastic containers and liners can carry a residual smell from manufacture, and a product sitting in one for weeks will take it up. Opening a new case and smelling it costs nothing and catches a problem that is otherwise blamed on the product.

At a refill counter the room is the container

Open bulk containers in a shop meet whatever is in the air each time they are opened, all day. That is an argument for keeping lids closed between customers and for thinking about what else that shop sells.

Smell the stock regularly

A quick check of open containers as a routine catches this early, while it is one container rather than the whole store room. It is the cheapest quality control available and it takes a minute.

Packaging stored badly carries it too

Empty bags and containers waiting to be filled are absorbing whatever is in the room just as the product will, and a liner that has sat near cleaning chemicals will pass that straight into the coffee. Store empty packaging the way you would store full packaging.

The same applies to scoops, funnels and anything else that touches more than one product. A scoop that lives in a scented blend and gets used in a plain one carries the problem across by hand.

References

21 CFR 101, Food Labeling, which carries the general requirements that apply here in the absence of a standard of identity: the statement of identity, net quantity, ingredient list and the name and place of business of the responsible party. law.cornell.edu

Written from federal regulation and from the published physics and chemistry of staling, not from a laboratory. There is no standard of identity for coffee or tea, so most of what governs a product here is the general requirement that labels be truthful and claims be substantiated. Anything here is a starting point for a conversation with your state department of agriculture, not a determination that you comply.