The cupboard, every time. A make-your-own kit should be stored at room temperature, somewhere dry and away from direct sunlight, and it needs neither the fridge nor the freezer. Kits are built from dried, shelf-stable ingredients, and the fridge is a damp place that does them no favours at all.
Get that one decision right and the rest follows. Our food kits keep for 18 months from packing, the cheese kits for 24 months, with the best before date printed on the outer box, and every kit leaves us with at least 12 months still to run on that date. A dry cupboard is all that is asked of you in return.
Why not the fridge?
Because a fridge is cold and humid, and dried ingredients dislike humidity far more than they dislike warmth. Take a sealed sachet out of a cold fridge into a warm kitchen and moisture condenses on and around it, and moisture is the one thing that genuinely spoils a dried botanical, a ground spice or a curing salt.
There is a second reason. Fridges carry smells. Loose leaf tea, dried botanicals and delicate spices all pick up the character of whatever is sitting next to them, which is a shame when you have gone to the trouble of infusing a gin.
The freezer is the same argument, more so. Freezing does nothing useful for a dry mix, and the condensation on the way out is worse. Nothing in any of our kits needs to be frozen at any stage.
Where is the best place in the house?
Anywhere indoors that stays dry and roughly room temperature: a kitchen cupboard, a shelf in the spare room, the bottom of a wardrobe, a box under the bed. If you are hiding a present, all of those work just as well as a hiding place.
The spots to avoid are worth listing, because they are the ones people instinctively choose.
- The shelf above the hob or the kettle. Heat and steam together are the fastest way to flatten a spice blend.
- A sunny windowsill. Direct sunlight fades dried chillies, citrus peel and flowers, and it is particularly unkind to blue pea flowers and gochugaru.
- The cupboard under the sink. Damp, and often warm from pipes.
- A shed, garage or unheated conservatory. Damp, cold, and swinging between the two across a year.
- The loft. Surprisingly hot in late summer, and awkward to check.
The Kintsugi Kit follows the same logic even though it is not a food product. Keep it cool, dry and out of direct sunlight, away from heat and flames and out of reach of children.
How should you store a kit once it is open?
Reseal and keep dry. Where a kit includes grip-seal bags, that is what they are for; where it includes a bag clip, use that; and where a sachet will not close properly again, tip the contents into a small airtight tub.
Label anything you decant, with what it is and when you opened it. Citric acid and cheese salt look identical in an unmarked bag, and so do two different chilli blends. Then put everything back in the box so the kit, the booklet and the equipment stay together, which matters most for the kits you will come back to over several months.
Cheese kit ingredients in particular last a long time once opened, so you can work through the recipes at your own pace. If you want extra peace of mind, decant them into grip-seal bags or small sealed boxes and label them.
Where does the fridge come in?
Once you start making something. Several kits need cold at a particular stage, and that is a completely different question from where the box lives.
- Bacon cures in the fridge. The meat is rubbed with the cure, refrigerated for the time given in the booklet, then air dried hanging in the fridge before slicing.
- Kimchi ferments in the fridge for 5 to 7 days, in the bag, with the air squeezed out and the pressure released as it builds.
- Cheese goes into the fridge once it is made, sealed, and is eaten within the time given in the recipe.
- Bubble tea lives in the fridge only as a finished drink, milk tea for up to a day and cooked pearls for about four hours covered in syrup.
Two kits want warmth instead. Hedgerow wine ferments happily between 22°C and 27°C, out of direct sunlight and away from cold spots like a garage. Gin, colour changing gin and spiced rum all infuse at room temperature with the lid on, out of direct sunlight, with no need for a pitch black cupboard.
Where do the finished things go?
Different rules again, and this is where most of the real spoilage risk sits.
- Gin, colour changing gin and spiced rum go in a cupboard, sealed and out of direct sunlight. Gin keeps 12 months once made, colour changing gin up to a year once strained and bottled, and spiced rum should be drunk within a year of bottling.
- Hedgerow wine goes somewhere cool and dark, and is best drunk within a year of bottling.
- Fresh cheese is sealed in the fridge and eaten within the time given in the recipe, typically a few days to a week.
- Bacon is refrigerated and used within the timeframe in the booklet, or frozen, sliced first. Always cook it through.
- Jerky and biltong go into an airtight container and keep a couple of weeks, with refrigeration extending that.
- Kimchi keeps around two to three weeks in the fridge once fermentation is done.
- Chilli sauce goes into clean bottles, follows the guidance in each recipe, and is refrigerated once opened.
Label and date everything you make. It takes ten seconds and saves the familiar moment of holding an unmarked bottle wondering whether it is last month's or last year's.
Kit storage FAQs
Should a make-your-own kit go in the fridge?
No. Store it at room temperature, somewhere dry and away from direct sunlight. The fridge is humid, and moisture is what spoils dried ingredients.
Can I freeze a kit to make it last longer?
No, and there is nothing to gain. The kits are dry goods with a long shelf life already, and condensation on the way out of the freezer would do more harm than good.
Where is the best place to store a kit?
A kitchen cupboard, a shelf in the spare room or the bottom of a wardrobe. Avoid the shelf above the hob, sunny windowsills, the cupboard under the sink, sheds, garages and the loft.
How do I store ingredients once the kit is open?
Reseal them in the grip-seal bags or bag clip provided, or decant them into a small airtight tub, keep them cool and dry, and label anything you decant.
Does the fridge ever come into it?
Yes, but only while you are making something: curing bacon, fermenting kimchi, storing fresh cheese and keeping a made-up bubble tea all need the fridge.
Cupboard looking empty? Have a browse of all our make your own kits.
