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Posted by: David.
Jasmine Pearls Base Green Tea
We’ve just received the base green tea for our Jasmine Pearls for approval. This is the finished green tea base that Edward saw being produced in China last month. It has not yet been scented with fresh jasmine flowers but it is still a lovely green tea with a great balance of body and sweetness. We choose the best green tea for our Jasmine teas in spring by visiting the producers rather than waiting until summer to secure the base tea.
In the above photo, the left hand tasting cup shows the leaves after infusion and the right hand cup shows the dry hand rolled pearls. It’s easy to see that the pearls are made of think, juicy buds for the best smoothness and sweetness.
Jasmine Pearls Base Infusion
When Edward returns to China in July we’ll have more blogs and photos on the production of this tea, including the scenting with fresh jasmine flowers.
Posted by: David
Smiling Chinese Masterchef Hopeful
Edward was lucky enough to be on the judging panel for this today and a few of us took it in turns to go and see what was happening at the event. I managed to find the only spare white coat so that I could get in amongst the heat of the kitchen and see the best Chinese chefs in London in action. I was only there for the Lobster starters but all three dishes looked lovely.
Chinese kitchens have a very particularly buzzy atmosphere, very热闹 (renao) atmospherse.热闹 (renao) is a Mandarin word meaning lively, bustling, noisy. I think it comes from all the woks full of bubbling oil and the cooking style of the food, flash frying and frying and the pungent, often hot and spicy aromas of the food.
Chinese Masterchef
Some of the Lobster dishes they prepared are shown below. For further photos from the event please see our Flickr page.
Lobster Starter Dish
Lobster Dish
Lobster Dish Red
I think the first or second dish looks the tastiest, what do you think?
Posted by: David.
For today’s #followfriday on Twitter we want to do something special for our American customers. We’ve had a look at where our American customers are based and can see that we have customers in fourteen U.S states:
Texas, California, New York, Delaware, Wisconsin, Washington, New Jersey, Virginia, Utah, Massachusetts, Illinois, Florida, Michigan and Conneticut.
So, as everything on #followfriday begins with f,we want to get customers in not just fourteen but all fifty states. So we’re looking for our current U.S twitter followers to recommend us to their friends in states that aren’t in the list above. In return, we’ll give the recommender and the recommendee a 15% discount voucher to use on the JING website. So it will work like this, recommend your friend and get them to follow us on @JINGTea and then get them to write the following message or similar:
@JINGTea, @texascustomer said I should check you out, I’m from (State), can you give us our discount please?
Of course we’ll follow all newcomers too. I hope this isn’t too complicated but it’s interesting to experiment like this and Twitter is the ideal tool for doing so. Hope you all enjoy the tea.
We’ll keep doing this every friday until we get to 50 states!
Posted by: Edward
Good Jasmine Pearls (AKA Jasmine Dragon Pearls or Mo Li Long Zhu in Mandarin) are hard to find. Their production involves many stages of hand-processing. Don’t be fooled into thinking that any tea labelled ‘Jasmine Pearls‘ are good – the name in itself doesn’t denote quality. It almost guarantees a hand-rolled tea but says nothing about the quality of the tea material, workmanship, quality of the scenting process or the flowers which are used.
Jasmine Pearl maker
First and foremost, great Jasmine Pearls depend on an expert team of people. Skilled and experienced growers, pickers, and rollers of the tea into small balls or ‘pearls.’ Tea production is so complex and difficult. The weather can be bad and damage the quality of the leaves, the picking can have faults as can the quality and time taken over withering, firing, rolling, and drying. Mistakes at any stage can be picked up in the taste of the tea. This is what makes great land and great people so precious. All our customers who buy our teas are actually supporting this tradition of expertise and quality and the livelihoods of the people we buy from.
Tea buds, leaves and pearls indiivdually wrapped in paper
So this is how the green tea pearls, to be later scented with jasmine, are made.
First, we select the raw leaf which for us has to be composed mainly of buds (tips) and a smaller number of top leaves. I select tea at the optimum time of year, early spring, even though the scenting doesn’t take place until July or August. The type of tea tree which is used is Fuan Da Hao although Fuding Da Bai and others can also be used. The buds provide a thick body and sweetness, the top leaves provide flavour. First the tea is picked, withered and fired.
Then, the moist tea buds are hand rolled into individual pearls. each pearl is twisted into paper making up a ’string of pearls’. The paper maintains the shape of the pearl.
making green tea pearls
We will be posting a video of this process soon. When you see experienced masters making these pearls you are shocked at how simple they make it look. They pick up a few buds, roll them together between their fingers then twist them into the paper.
a pile of wrapped green tea pearls
After wrapping the pearls in paper, they are left for a day to ’set’ into their shape. Afterwhich the paper is removed through a quick untwist and they are put into a drier at 80 degrees.
So, all this and they have not even been scented yet. I will take some photos and video of the scenting process when I am back in China in July. Unfortunately I won’t be able to capture the unbeleiveable jasmine aromas on film but it is captured in the taste of the Jasmine Pearls
Posted by: David
Thai Food and Tea
I’ve been lucky enough to have some Thai friends stay with me recently so I’ve been enjoying lots of delicious home-cooked Thai food. We’ve been trying out various teas with different dishes and have found that some of the flavours really complement each other.
The photo above shows steamed sea bass in a fragrant stock/soup of ginger, garlic, chilli, lime juice, sugar and fish sauce topped with coriander and prawns cooked with asparagus and long beans, oyster sauce, chilli and garlic. They’re both very fragrant dishes, as is often the case with Thai food and we’ve found that both jasmine pearls and Anji Bai Cha green tea accompany the dishes particularly well.
The fragrant but clean flavour of the jasmine pearls matches the strong fragrant flavours of the food and the sweet green flavours of the Anji Bai Cha complemented the fresh sweetness of the green vegetables in the prawn dish.
The teas also provided a nice respite for when the chilli, (used in liberal amounts) became a little overpowering. All in all a highly recommended combination.
New Long Jing Dragon Well green tea
The highly anticipated new spring teas will be arriving at the end of this week. When Edward arrived back in London last week we all sat down and had a long tasting of all the green teas we’ll be stocking this year. The Dragon Well has a great even shape and the taste is fresh, thick and full.
In addition, we’ll have a Jiande Bao Cha in the green tea range. This is a very special green tea and in our opinion one of the finest green teas produced this year. Personally, I was particularly looking forward to trying the new season’s Anji Bai Cha – as readers of this blog will know, it’s a personal favourite. This year’s crop did not disappoint, the leaves have the same fantastically deep and bright green colour, the taste as sweet, fresh and sappy as the previous crops I have fallen for.
Anji Bai Cha on Gaiwan Lid
Rest assured that as soon as the new season teas have arrived at our warehouse, they’ll be available on our site.
Posted by: David
Posted by: Ed
A few weeks ago, while I was in the famous oolong tea producing area of Wuyi in China, I dropped into the Buddhist temple near the shrine to the 400 year old big red robe (da hong pao) tea trees. I was lucky enough to have tea with the Abbot of the monastery and to drink some of the delicious Big Red Robe tea made by the monks.
Da Hong Pao temple
I asked the Abbot of the monastery about what, for him, is the relationship between Buddhism and tea.
Chatting to the Abbot of the monastery
He said that firstly, preparing and drinking tea is a way to help make the mind quiet and focused. Tea is good for health and makes you feel calm and relaxed. In today’s busy world of constant distractions, taking time to sit down and enjoy tea is a good way to make a space for calmness and relaxation.
Secondly, he said that tea is a product of man and nature. The tea trees and their growth, picking, and processing depend on both man and nature. The knowledge and methods behind the way the tea is made has been developed over centuries and represent local history and culture. The environment expresses itself in the tea leaves. Through drinking the tea, you are actually in touch with nature, history, culture, past, present and future (as the effects of changes in the environment and culture will show in the leaves). The form and taste of tea tea that you drink communicates all this information, especially if you are aware of it.
Gong fu tea at the Da Hong Pao temple
As we drove down the hill and back to a near by-tea garden, we were all silent as we though about what he had said. Tea represents so many things. Depending on what you want and what your attitude is, it can be just a way to take a few moments to relax, it can be a connoisseur experience, or it is a mirror reflecting the past, present and future. It also made me think how much we owe the people who have perfected tea making methods (and continue to do so) over the centuries and how much we need to care for the environment and ourselves.
View as we drove down the hill from the temple
Having drunk tea in such a beautiful place, I thought again of how the atmosphere created by the care you take when making tea, the tea wares used and the overall environment, makes so much difference. It doesn’t have to be for spiritual benefit. Simply taking the trouble to create a simple and beautiful space certainly helps you appreciate the tea fully!
Creating an atmosphere of appreciation
JING Teas at Bray Cottages
Around six months ago we were invited to be a part of Coutts Bank’s annual summer party which was themed as a village fete. The most luxurious village fete that I had ever heard of! They invited their suppliers of fine tea, champagne, chocolate, parma ham, cheese and wine to create stands and allow their customers to taste some of the best food available in the UK. It was an amazing event which led us to meet the owners of a very unique business.
Bray Cottages sit in the heart of Bray, the village renowned as a culinary capital in Europe; home to the Fat Duck, Waterside Inn, Caldesi in Campagna and the Hinds Head. It seems impossible to walk around the picturesque streets of this Hertfordshire village without tripping over Michelin stars and Bray Cottages offer guests of these world class resaurants a place to rest their weary heads.
A bedroom at Bray Cottage
The owner of the cottages visited us for a tea tasting at our tea bar in order to choose a range of teas for guests to enjoy. The care that was invested into the choice of teas was very impressive and made me want to find out more about the cottages themselves. They range from 180 to 450 years old and are rented to guests on a nightly basis, specifically designed for diners at the local restaurants to stagger back to after devouring a 13 course extravaganza. They have fantastic names such as Tiggers, Clematis and Christmas and the food and drink that are provided have to match the gastronomic experience that is found in Bray itself. We are proud to be served at the cottages.
I will certainly be trying to think of an excuse to get to Bray one day to eat, drink and sleep in foodie heaven – Its only 40 weeks, 2 days, 17hours 38 minutes and 32 seconds until Valentines day, so I have plenty of time to make suggestive hints!
To find out more about the cottages, you can visit their website: http://www.braycottages.com/tiggers-cottage.htm
Posted by Bethan.
The hand of our gyokuro tea master
It’s been a busy week in relation to ethical sourcing, with our 2009 IMO certification for China green teas being completed and preparations for an Ethical Tea Partnership meeting taking place. This has made me thoughtful on the relevance of fair trade certification in the tea trade at the moment, and what it means to people looking for tea in a shop or online.
JING Tea is a member of the Ethical Tea Partnership
We had long discussions about the importance of fair trade certification a few years ago, as JING had long been a member of the Ethical Tea Partnership but had not looked into certifiying any farms, given that our regular visits means we were happy with the conditions and our farmers were happy with the price that we paid for our teas.
JING Green Teas are certified by IMO as Fair For Life
Certification itself is not an easy feat, particularly in China and India where resistance to inspections by local government can often been found and the cost in certification can be extremely high. However, I think it’s extremely important to pursue this and everyone at JING agreed. This is why we helped one of our key farmers to achieve certification last year, and you will hopefully see our list of fair trade certified teas growing over time.
Perhaps my focus on the importance of certification links to my experiences in Shanghai and Seoul, where I used to work as a merchandiser for a clothing buying agency, and was often shocked by the conditions in potential factories that we could have used (but didn’t!). I hope that most people would be happy to spend a few more pence on a packet of tea, to ensure that the farmers who made it were paid fairly and worked in safe conditions.
However, in an economic crisis, perhaps cost will be more important than ever when shoppers are choosing what to buy. Fair trade may be a luxury for which the great majority are unwilling to pay. I have noticed that products in shops often state that they are ‘fairly traded’ on packaging, but are not certified. Perhaps a logo on a packet of tea doesn’t have a big effect on people’s choice of tea, bananas or t-shirt, but I hope that ethical trade will continue to be important to many people in the future.
Posted by Bethan
Jing Afternoon Tea at the Langham Hotel
The Langham Hotel in London has recently re-opened their Palm Court for afternoon tea, and I was lucky enough to visit over the bank holiday weekend. The entrance to the hotel is extraordinary, with huge flags and extremely friendly doorman guiding you across a solid marble entrance, which certainly set the scene for a fantastic afternoon.
As an obsessive tea drinker, I was particularly pleased by the range of JING teas on offer! There are twenty seven teas to choose from, ranging from classics like Assam and Ceylon to Imperial Mountain Silver Needle Yellow Tea and White Darjeeling. I couldn’t resist the Yunnan Gold as it’s a personal favourite, and my partner chose a vintage puerh which the staff made perfectly, removing the tea leaves from the tea pot once it was infused in order to prevent the tea from becoming tannic. They were particularly welcome after a couple of glasses of champagne had gone straight to my head.
Tea Pot Displays
The Palm Court itself has been refurbished to an extremely high standard and is stunning. It was a great place to spend a few hours indulging in a wonderful English tradition.
The food deserves a special mention too as each time a plate reached our table, a small gasp came out of my mouth. The sandwiches were so ornate that it felt a shame to eat them, but I was certainly glad too. Traditional favourites like smoked salmon and roast beef were notched up a level to include fois gras and caviar, making them the most sumptous mid-day snacks I’ve ever had. The cakes are designed to look like famous designer jewellry, although it’s a shame that I don’t know more about the fashion world to truly appreciate this.
All in all, I cannot recommend the experience highly enough!
Posted by Bethan.
Posted by: Edward
Last Friday, I went to visit the temple that Ikkyu, founder of the tea ceremony, restored in 1456 and spent the last 25 years of his life. I felt very fortunate to get the chance to go, for many reasons, perhaps most of all because it’s the home of the Japanese tea ceremony, the union of Zen and tea.
Ikkyu is credited with the invention of the tea ceremony in Japan. He was regarded as a great Zen master with a rich and highly unconventional life story full of tales of how he got the better of Shoguns, and others, through guile.
Life size wooden statue of Ikkyu made with hair taken from his body
The peacefulness of the place was balanced by the intense detail of the gardens, grounds, buildings and interiors.
Japanese water well, Ikkyuji temple grounds
Before sitting in front of the Zen garden, I was whacked on the back with a long wooden stick. I think this was to help wake up, and also probably to purify some negative karma. It was certainly shocked me into feeling more alert. I had seen it on TV a few times but did not expect it to sting so much!
It was a lot more painful than I expected!
The Zen garden was full of details but it felt like it was possible to experience all the details in one glance.
Shuon'An Ikkyuji Zen garden
looking out over the Zen garden
After sitting for a while, we went inside for some matcha and fermented bean biscuits which were made from beans grown in the temple.
the intense green foam off-set against the bowl and tatami mats
I think you are supposed to have the matcha before sitting, to help you wake up. I believe that Ikkyu made the tea ceremony for a disciple who found it hard to stay awake during the hours and hours of sitting meditation (zazen). Matcha does wake you up but in a soothing, sustained way which is also relaxing.
open fireside where water is warmed over charcoal in an iron pot
A stone in the grounds was inscribed with the words of the Buddha, ‘Do not commit any harmful actions.’
"Do no harm" inscription in the grounds of the temple
I visited the temple with one of its sponsors. As we left, he said, “this place is the heart of Japan.’
