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Posted by: Bethan
Despite living in China for 2 years in the past, I had never visited Guangxi province before my recent visit to see JING’s jasmine tea production. Given the size of China, this might not seem that strange, but every single person visiting me whilst I worked in the Middle Kingdom went to the famous city of Guilin or the travellers mecca of Yangshuo to see the mountainous karste peaks and the Lijiang river that have made Guangxi famous.
Jasmine Flower Picker
I travelled to Nanning, the capital of Guangxi, rather than Guilin, to begin my journey to our tea farmers, and it was obvious that I was not taking the standard travellers route. Virtually all major cities in China have considerable numbers of foreigners now that China welcomes tourism to the country, but it appeared that Nanning was not going to be the same as I found myself to be the only westerner boarding the large flight.
It is always amusing to travel in China if you can speak Mandarin but are a ‘laowai’ (foreigner) as discussions immediately begin about you with the reasonable expectation that you can’t understand what is being said. As I boarded a bus at the airport to go to the plane, my fellow passengers began considerably long conversations about how I must be a student going to university in Nanning, wasn’t my skin really white and my eyes terribly blue? The chatter soon stopped when I recieved a phone call from a Chinese friend in Shanghai wanting to make sure I was ok and I answered in Mandarin!
I spent no time in Nanning itself but travelled straight to the jasmine producing region several hours drive away from the city. The country side was certainly not what I was expecting, as it has none of the impressive peaks of Guilin, but a more gentile, rolling countryside passed by my window. There were few large towns in between Nanning and my destination which made a refreshing change from Shanghai and the lush green scenery captivated me for the entire journey.
Inspecting the Jasmine Flowers
The first thing that struck me as we travelled was that the traditional Chinese hats that many people wear in the countryside were made from metallic foil. I have never seen this before, and found out very quickly that it was specific to Guangxi. It certainly seems sensible too, as the sun was exceptionally strong (our car overheated twice on the long journey!).
Guangxi is a province that relies heavily on agriculture in its economy, producing huge amounts of jasmine, rice, sweet potatoes, sweet corn and 85% of the world’s star anise. As a result, the food in the province is fantastic and extremely varied. Warm sweet corn juice was given to us at every meal and it was delicious. We also ate large numbers of ‘zongzi’ a rice cake dish that is traditionally eaten only at the dragon boat festival, but is a local delicacy of Guangxi.
I had dinner with the head of the agriculture in the region one evening, and he explained to me that for many agricultural goods, Guangxi produces the majority of the world’s crops, but that the people in the area do not make a lot of money from this, as most trade is done through agents and many Western companies never go to Guangxi direct, preferring to buy from companies in Hong Kong or the southern coastal cities. This has meant that Guangxi’s economy has suffered greatly since the ‘opening up’ of China, and in comparison to her neighbouring industrial province Guangdong, she is extremely poor. I was certainly pleased that JING works direct with the farmers in the area and proud that I can now sit and write about the experience.
Having come from Shanghai and leaving for Shenzhen immediately afterwards, Guangxi was a fantastic break from the often overwhelming pace of life in these urban centres. The people were exceptionally friendly and the food was fantastic. I feel very priveleged to have been to Nanning rather than Guilin, although every time I see the spectacular peaks of that region, I think I should probably head back there next year!
Posted by Bethan.
I have never knowingly seen jasmine plants or blossoms, and going to see our jasmine pearls and jasmine silver needle be scented was an eye opening experience.
Much of the jasmine tea that I drank growing up was unbeknownst to me scented with flavourings and oils. However, JING’s jasmine teas are all scented with fresh flowers. Jasmine flowers are found in Guanxi province in the far south of China, where along with sugar cane and sweetcorn they make up the main export commodities of the region.
Jasmine Flower pickers in the fields of Guanxi province, China
The countryside in Guanxi is scattered with vividly green jasmine fields. Unlike tea bushes the plants don’t require a slope to grow on and are found at low altitude. Small buds of jasmine are scattered across the bushes, and men and women with metallic wide brimmed hats hand pick the buds from branches, placing them into bags attached to their belts.
Picking jasmine flowers in Guanxi province
An open jasmine flower can not be used to scent tea leaves, and a small yellow bud will not flavour the tea either. The workers carefully pick only the large white buds which once plucked will open a few hours later in the evening and release their scent. Over 3 kilograms of fresh flowers are needed to scent 1 kilogram of tea.
Jasmine buds ready to be picked to scent JING's jasmine teas
I had expected the fields to smell overpoweringly of jasmine, but the fragrance was subtle as the majority of buds had been picked before they blossomed. In stark contrast, the factory where the green and white tea is scented had a beautifully strong jasmine aroma once we arrived at dusk.
JING's jasmine pearl green tea being scented with fresh jasmine flowers
Our jasmine pearls and silver needle white tea leaves were laid out at 7 o’clock in the evening once the fresh flowers, picked earlier that morning, had reached the building. The evening is the best time for scenting as the temperature drops slightly and the flowers open. As flowers were placed on top of the tea leaves, they slowly disappeared under a snow like layer of buds and jasmine scent filled the room.
Jasmine Silver Needle being scented with fresh jasmine flowers
Each of our jasmine teas are scented with fresh flowers for 5 consecutive nights, but when the flowers are first placed on the leaf they are left for 3 days. The tea leaves are incredibly dry compared to the flowers and over the 3 days they absorb the moisture from the flowers and absorb the jasmine flavour more effectively on the following 4 nights.
I tentatively placed my hand into the middle of the tea and flower mix and was shocked by the heat contained within. Our farmer explained to me that the tea leaves will reach 40 degrees after 6 hours of scenting and must be turned by hand to cool them down and ensure that all the leaves are scented equally by the flowers.
Fresh jasmine flowers were tossed onto the tea leaves, and the mix was turned to ensure scenting was even.
As the temperature reached 30 degrees in the scenting room, strong men came to turn the leaves, straining with effort. The smell was incredible and putting the leaves to my nose it was amazing how effectively the flavour had already been absorbed.
My hands smelt of jasmine as I washed them that evening, such great aroma coming from the tiny buds, and it seemed a shame to wash it away!
The fresh jasmine flowers were removed from the tea leaf the morning after scenting, ready for a new batch of flowers to be placed onto them again
The next morning I returned to the factory to see the sorting of the tea leaves. You’ll notice that there are virtually no flower petals in our jasmine pearls or jasmine silver needle, and this is because each morning after a night of scenting, the flowers are separated from the tea leaves and the leaves and dried to help them to retain the jasmine aroma.
A beautiful whole silver needle bud after scenting with jasmine
The tea in front of me was only being scented for the first time, but a batch had been made before I arrived and I drank this with my hosts in the cool breeze of a fan next to the scenting room. The silver needle leaves created a beautifully clear infusion and the soft yet full jasmine aroma came through with each sip. It is certainly easy to see that the painstaking effort of picking, scenting and drying the leaves was worth it! It was incomparable to the jasmine teas of my childhood, which smelt faintly of jasmine but tasted of water with a hint of tannic green tea. It is truly a piece of artisan skill to produce such beautiful flavour.
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: 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
