You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March 2009.
Cherry Blossom from Nature Wallpapers
Posted by: David
We’re going to have some exciting new Japanese teas on the website over the next few days, all from the reknowned Uji region of Japan. There’ll be Senchas from Kyoto and from Wazuka and a Gyokuro from Kyoto. Once we have a few things finished at this end, they will be up on the site and ready to buy.
Spring’s an exciting time to work in a tea company, there’s a great sense of anticipation about the new teas that we’ll be buying. The website is also undergoing some spring cleaning so hopefully you’ll notice it looking a bit tidier over the next few weeks. Of course, if anyone has any suggestions of how things could be improved, just let us know.
Posted by: David
A lot of people I meet and friends ask me how I came to work at JING Tea so I thought it was worthy of a quick blog post.
Growing up I was told great stories of China by my Grandfather who lived there in the 1930s while working as a surgeon aboard a British Navy boat on the River Yangtze. He gave me various nick-nacks that he had picked up there, including even something which I was told at the time was a “Passport to Heaven”, but it looked a little like this:
Chinese Scroll
So I grew up with a great interest in China from an early age. At university I studied Mandarin for a year. I found it a fascinating language to study, from the pronunciation to the stories behind how characters are written and originally formed to the structure of the language itself. I enjoyed it more than my actual degree. After university, I wasn’t sure what to do with myself so I booked myself on an intensive Mandarin course in Beijing and went to live out there for a while. I also nipped across the East China Sea and spent as long as I could afford to in Japan (a month and a bit). I’m still keeping up the Mandarin and we try to speak a little in the office as all the staff speak the language too (from native to semi fluent).
Japan Zen Garden
While I’d enjoyed drinking “posh teas” at school, it was on this trip that I really tucked in to some great tea and saw the way that people in these countries turn drinking tea into a ceremony so far removed from the everyday tea drinking experience in England. Everyone from taxi drivers to businessman and government officials enjoy good whole leaf tea in the same way we plough through bags of tea here. In teahouses in Beijing I was initially struck by the way the tea is served and then on tasting it by the great flavours, of rich, dark oolongs to fresh spring green teas. I found it the perfect way to wind down in between sightseeing and tramping around Chinese cities which can get pretty tiring!
Confucius Teahouse Beijing
I’ve been back to China many times since that first trip and each time I seek out great places to drink tea and relax. My last trip took to me Sichuan where I went to many teahouses, particularly in Chengdu. There the teahouse is a social hub, much like the local pub in England. Going there on weekends, you’ll find families with three generations chatting, playing cards, eating snacks, oddly enough getting their ears cleaned (!) and of course drinking tea.
Chengdu Teahouse
So how did I end up at JING? Well each time I got back from a trip to China, I looked for quality tea in the UK, and I found JING from a Google search. I started trying the tea and was pleasantly surprised, it was the real mccoy, the website looked great and they had a good range (even better now!). By this time I was working in a media agency doing online advertising. Over time, it became apparent that JING might need someone to help out with their website and to cut a long story short…here I am writing this from JING’s London office.
I get a great deal of variety working at JING, I get to talk to web customers, take photos of new products, look at packaging and website design, taste a lot of great teas, think of new marketing ideas and to work with a team of passionate and switched on people who share a love of great tea.
Cue the cheesy photo of me sipping a cup of tea (not taken yet but when it is I’ll add it here)
It’s turned cold in China just as some of the first buds are sprouting. Not so cold that the plants are being damaged, just cold enough to affect the flavour. Cold snaps like this can make the tea taste bitter and halt growth. Luckily, tea growth in the higher mountains has only just started, or in some cases is yet to start and so the tea is not affected. However, some tea has been produced in the areas around the West Lake in Hangzhou as well as part of Fujian. More on this next week.
In Darjeeling, due to the drought, the first flush has been slow to turn out. Gardens like Singbulli and Puttabong have produced some teas, one or two of note. However, it rained in Darjeeling today and this will spur growth.
Japanese Iron Kettle
Posted by Edward
We’ve started making tea with water boiled in this iron kettle. Its unglazed so that some of the minerals from the kettle are absorbed into the water. We actually sent off a sample of boiled water to the lab to see what the composition was. Although the analysis showed that the water was a little high in iron, it was totally safe.
What’s the point of boiling water in a kettle like this, other than the kettle looking great. Its supposed to have an effect on the taste of the tea and it does. Our first few sips of silver needle white tea have shown us that water is more zingy and the flavour of the tea has more life. We’ll keep on experimenting at the tea bar…
Posted by Edward
Just a P.S. to yesterday’s post about my favourite traditionally made Tieguanyin oolong tea.
If you’ve visited jingtea.com, you will notice I call this tea ‘monkey picked’ even though it’s NOT picked by monkeys.
I don’t believe that good quality tea has ever been picked by monkeys – please don’t think I am insulting their ability! It’s just that I have never seen it done even though I have spent a lot of time in China and specifically Fujian province where such tea is supposed to be produced and if you ask any serious farmer about whether monkeys pick tea, they will laugh the idea into the ground. I know some foreigners have been shown monkeys in action but it’s just a show. It takes years of practice and dexterity to be really good at tea picking – I know from personal experience, being very slow, and embarrassingly not very good at it.
The legend may have started in around 1794 when some of the customers of Thomas Coutts (of Coutts bank) went on a expedition to China. One of the people on the trip was called Aeneas Anderson. They sailed up the Pearl River in Canton (Guangzhou) with a huge banner unfurled from the mast of their ship reading “Foreign devils bearing tribute.” A Chinese official was sufficiently humoured to present Aeneas with some tea which he jokingly said was ‘picked by monkeys.’ The Englishman swallowed the story and the Chinese have laughed about it ever since.
The legend also started in Wuyi where tea trees can grow on ledges on steep cliffs. It is said that monkeys were trained to pick the tea from the most inaccessible ledges. I think this was just a story told to make the tea sound all the more special and exotic.
Among South China traders, the term ‘monkey picked’ has come to mean a high fired and oxidised tea, these days usually a Tieguanyin, which is considered to be the best. I use the term because traditionally-made Tieguanyin is perhaps my favourite of all oolong teas (if not tea). Ours is picked, withered, tossed, withered, bruised, fired, rolled and fired (about 25 times), and then finally baked. So much hard work goes into making it that I want people to know how I feel about it and in the tradition of the traders in Hong Kong, with ‘monkey-picked’, I want to put my own stamp of approval on it.
Posted by: David
A deep breath and I’ll launch into a roundup of our recent reviews, it’s pretty extensive!
Our teas have been reviewed on a number of sites in the last month or so. It’s been really interesting to see the results and to see what reviewers have made of them.
Puerh Teatunes
One of the most entertaining tea related blogs we’ve come across is Teatunes. The combine music reviews with tea reviews. They’re posts make for entertaining reads as they’re written by two people, Dan and Ben who often have contrasting opinions on the teas they’re reviewing. I like the competitive element of the posts too – they’ve received a parcel from another tea company recently and Ben writes that “there were three or four samples I pounced on before Dan could get his grubby giant’s hands all over them”.
Jing Tea Explorer (Teatunes)
They took delivery of one of our JING Tea Explorer Set and so far they’ve reviewed a number of the teas contained in that selection. Silver Needle White Tea was one of the first reviews. Dan commented on the smell of the dry leaves as akin to the smell of “wet cut grass in Spring”. He thought that the smell dissipated a bit on brewing but found that the taste was smooth, sweet and refined. I don’t think they’re completely sold on white tea though as Ben thought that along with another white tea he had tried that it just didn’t do much for him. I guess it’s a matter of tast really and white tea can get a bit of getting used to.
Next up they tried our Ceylon Black Tea. This one seems to have gone down a lot better with Ben and Dan. Ben writes of a “a very strong caramel-toffee fragrance” on infusion and then writes:
“And the taste! Oh, the taste! It’s gorgeous! It’s got an immediate sweetness, a warm, creamy top followed by a tremendous smoky blast. It’s not an especially complex drink like a white tea but those three notes it hits are just the three you want tea to hit”
For Dan, it was his first Ceylon tea, and while not as enthusiastic as Ben, he wrote:
“The taste is quite rich, and also a little smoky. There’s a deep smoothness to it, and it’s a lot lighter than other black teas”
Most of all he was impressed with the colour of the infusion, which was so nicely written that I’ll include it here:
“The colour these leaves create is nothing short of beautiful. It instantly turns the water a shiny bronze, which darkens over the three minute brewing time. Then when you pour it, you can see the usual golden hue of tea deepen in to a blood red, closer in appearance to a wine. At last, it settles into a deep brownish orange.”
They also reviewed one of our Puerh teas and the resulting dialogue/MSN conversation is too detailed for me to go into here but you can take my word for it that it’s an entertaining read!
They’ve also reviewed a number of our other teas and I’d also recommend reading their post on “loose leaf tea” bought from a supermarket. It’s a great read and goes to show the difference in quality between what is often billed as loose leaf tea and the real deal.
We’ve also been featured on Teaviews and they’ve reviewed a number of our teas. They also managed to get hold of one of our 2007 oolongs, not currently on sale on our site (replaced by new 2008 crop).
We sent a number of our office favourites to Tea Escapade. First up, she reviewed our Lishan Oolong and here’s what she had to say about it:
“Lishan Oolong is fabulous. From the first sip to the last, I was impressed by its distinct taste. This oolong begins with a mild green(vegetal) flavor, as the dry aroma suggests yet exhibits a strong nutty middle. Lishan Oolongis complex – extremely creamy with a buttery finish. In the aftertaste I detected a faint floral quality. I absolutely love the variety of flavors and full-bodied nature of this oolong. Naturally sweet, Lishan Oolong did not require a sweetener.”
We also liked her desription of guilt at leaving a pot of Lishan which she had only infused once, it struck a chord in the office, on the rare occasion that we’ve ever done this then we too get that nagging feeling that we have not used a great tea to its’ full potential.
Jun Shan Silver Needle Yellow Tea
She was also pleased with our Jun Shan Silver Needle Yellow Tea which she described as “delightful” and our Organic Anji Bai Cha Green Tea which she found to be “delicious…quite sweet and full-bodied with floral notes”. You can see the full reviews for these teas here and here
Within the last week, there’s also been some interesting debate on Teaescapade on Fair Trade and it’s good to see some clear and informed writing on this subject.
Another great looking tea review blog is Multiple Infusions. The author reviews one type of tea each week and looks at different samples from a number of companies. So far we’ve had three of our oolong teas reviewed here, Iron Arhat, Phoenix Honey Orchid and Big Red Robe Supreme. The reviews are snappy and to the point and nicely written. He seemed to like the Iron Arhat the best but had interesting notes on all of the teas reviewed so far.
Look out for more reviews on these sites soon, they still have some more of our teas!
Posted by Edward
Traditionally made Iron Buddha (Tieguanyin) Oolong tea has been one of the banes and loves of my life. When it’s made right, its perfect. I think about it most days, especially when I don’t have any.
tieguanyin oolong tea
Tieguanyin is a type (cultivar) of tea tree grown mainly in Anxi in China’s Fujian province. After picking it’s almost always made into oolong tea.
When I say ‘Traditional Iron Buddha’, I mean a tieguanyin oolong tea which is oxidised approximately 30% and medium fired. This is what I like. It’s got complexity, smoothness and a peachy quality complemented by notes of sweet roasted hazelnut dusted with chocolate. It sounds great, and it is. In Hong Kong you commonly find very heavily fired tieguanyin which is sweet and toasty. But my kind of Tieguanyin is a balance of fresh flavours and darker notes.
But it’s not that simple. These days, nearly all the Tieguanyin oolong tea made in China is very green, hardly oxidised and very lightly fired to make the tea as floral and light as possible. It can be great, but for me lacks the complexity and warmth that makes me want to drink it all day, everyday. I have to really work with producers to break with the current fasion and make this tea tea the way I want it. We go through so many samples where they may either over-fire, under-fire, fire too fast or over too high a heat or most commonly of all, under-oxidise.
Our current stock of this tea is good. It’s smooth, soft, complex and satisfying. If you get some, try smelling the dry leaves – breath on them to warm them up and bring out the aroma. For me personally, the current stock’s infusion is a little too green because its not oxidised enough. (I’m still drinking it most days though!).
I’m off to China for the whole of April. Tieguanyin will start to be produced from around the 15th of the month and hopefully with some good weather and expertise from the production masters, and some input from me, it’ll be just how I (and hopefully you) like it.
We’ll soon be taking a trip to China for the start of the green tea season. Please let us know if there are any teas which we do not currently stock which you would like to see on the site.
Please contact us to let us know what you want to see!
Due to great demand from a lot of our online customers we have now added our boxes of 100 teabags to the website. Usually available to wholesale and catering customers only, these boxes contain 100 biodegradeable teabags wrapped in individual envelopes to ensure maximum frehsness. They’re available in a range of 8 different types ranging from black teas to herbal infusions.
Peppermint Leaf Teabag
An article in the Telegraph caught our attention this morning regarding the health effects of various foods. The study found that a daily portion of mushrooms “could slash the risk of breast cancer by up to two thirds”.
When combining consumption of mushrooms with consumption of green tea, the effects were even more pronounced.
Mushrooms
“Experts at the University of Western Australia in Perth studied more than 2,000 Chinese women. They found women who combined a mushroom diet with regular consumption of green tea saw an even greater benefit, with the risk reduced by almost 90 per cent”
The researchers were careful to state that their studies were preliminary and required further studies to prove conclusive but the early results are at least encouraging. As and when we see any more news on this research we’ll be sure to cover it here on the blog.
Our Infusion Guides are now live across the Jing Tea website. If you’ve ever had any problems using any of our teaware, these videos will help you and show you exactly how to get the most out of your teaware. We’ve covered most of the types of teaware we stock, from the Infuser Mug, Gong Fu Teapot and Tea-iere to more traditional methods like the Gaiwan and Yixing Clay Teapot.
Please note, for the high quality version of this video, please click on the HQ button in the YouTube player.
Posted by: David.
