You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'trips' category.
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.
Our new stock of Big Red Robe Oolong tea recently arrived so we thought we would share a few of our photos of the terroir from our last trip there and the story behind one of China’s most famous Oolong teas.
Wuyi Mountains
The Wuyi Mountain terrior (placeness) in China, is historically speaking, the world’s first tea terrior for oolong and black teas and no tea from Wuyi is more celebrated than the Big Red Robe (Da Hong Pao in Chinese). The scenery is breath-taking with mountain gorges, red mountains rising steeply into the sky and incredibly varied and lush plant life.
The first Big Red Robe tea trees are now more than 400 years old. Big Red Robe is a unique cultivar of tea tree; its leaves are almost always used to produce a moderate to high fired oolong tea. Its rich, complex and deliciously warming, nourishing flavour is extremely well liked in China.
Acer tree in Da Hong Pao gorge
The original Big Red Robe trees found their name after a Ming dynasty mandarin attributed his survival of a serious illness to their curative powers. He was travelling to Beijing via the Wuyi Mountains and fell ill. He rested in a small hut and was tended to by a Buddhist monk living in another hut a few feet away. The monk picked leaves from three tea trees growing above them on a cliff. He made tea from the leaves and the mandarin drank the restorative liquor daily and made what was considered to be a miraculous recovery. The Mandarin then returned to Beijing and related his experience to the Emperor.
The original Da Hong Pao trees
The Emperor deeply loved and respected the Mandarin, and sent his imperial scarlet robe to be draped over the bushes. These same three trees still survive today. Leaves are picked from them every year and made into tea – perhaps only a few kilos depending on the weather conditions. Many consider these trees to be too old to produce good quality oolong tea but it is still amazing to visit these trees as a living part of history. The setting is stunning and countless Chinese tourists visit the trees and the local area every day.
Big Red Robe makes a great autumn or winter tea, with one of the most distinctive and accessible flavours of any Oolong tea. Our new stock is a great example of this famous tea, which if you haven’t yet tried, we would highly recommend.
