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A lot of people have commented on our photography so we thought we would give you all a wallpaper to download so you can enjoy the sight of fresh spring tea leaves all day everyday.
The tea trees in the photo are Iron Arhat used to make oolong tea. To download please choose the correct size for your display, right click and then select “Save as”.
Posted by: David
London’s weather is getting better and better at the moment and hot drinks are sometimes a little too much to handle so I thought I would show you how easy it is to make refreshing iced tea using whole leaf tea and herbal infusions.
Iced Teas and Herbals
Yesterday afternoon I chose a number of teas from our range which I thought would be good iced. From left to right above we have Blackcurrant and Hibiscus, Jasmine Silver Needle white tea, Organic Jade Sword green tea and Phoenix Honey Orchid oolong tea. I added a generous amount of leaf of each (1 and a half times the amount you would use for a hot infusion) and then added cold, filtered water over the top.
Each glass was then refrigerated overnight. I was in the office first this morning so I had time to take some photos of the results before I gave them to the others when they arrived a little later. It’s a good start to the day, especially if you have had a hot cycle/tube ride/bus ride to work.
Iced Teas Lineup
The blackcurrant and hibiscus was lovely, full of rich blackcurrant flavour but without the cloying sweetness of bottled varieties. The Jasmine Silver Needle was probably the best result, very refreshing, delicate and fragrant. The Jade Sword, as when hot, was bright and fresh and the Phoenix Honey Orchid was full of the peach flavour and aroma that this tea is famous for.
They went down so well that they’ve gone back in the fridge for a second infusion for the end of the day! Of course, if you don’t like having the leaves floating at the top you can pour the infusion through a strainer or scoop the leaves out but we find that if you do get the leaves in your mouth, it’s nice to suck the flavour out of the leaves. You can always make them in a bottle as well to take out with you.
As a general rule, if you like the tea hot, it’s likely that you’ll like the tea cold but from our experience, it’s the fragrant teas such as those above that work best. Try out your own and let us know how you get on.
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!
50 Best Logo - from Big Hospitality
On Monday night, the who’s who of the foodie world got together to decide on the top 50 restaurants in the World. The full list is available here.
Special congratulations to both the Fat Duck and Hibiscus who we’re proud to supply with their tea. The Fat Duck was rated the second best restaurant in the world and the best restaurant in the UK. Hibiscus was deemed the 6th best restaurant in the UK and the 56th best in the world.
Posted by: David.
Posted by: David.
A quick update on the JING Tea/White Stuff Queen’s Birthday promotion. You can find our teas in any of their 55 stores today and over the next few days while stocks last. They’re using some very traditional looking teaware to serve the tea in. It should look like this in your local store, as it does in the London Spitalfields store.
White Stuff Tea Table
You’ll see a table stocked with lovely cups and our tea. Help yourself to a cup as below.
White Stuff Cup
At the till you’ll get a free teabag – either Assam Breakfast or Jasmine Silver Needle and a voucher giving you 15% off any order with us.
White Stuff Till
If only all shopping trips were like this then I might find myself trawling the shops a bit more!
Apparently the Queen has learnt of the promotion through a friend of hers who visited one of the shops so we’ll be expecting a call from her any moment now!
The Queen in Teabags - Andy Brown
It’s the Queen’s birthday tomorrow and we’ve teamed up with clothing company White Stuff to help you celebrate. In 55 stores around the country you’ll be able to try both our Assam Breakfast black tea and our Jasmine Silver Needle white tea. You’ll also be able to get vouchers to give you a 15% discount on any orders you make on our website.
Here’s a link to the locations of all the White Stuff stores. If you’re nearby, pop in for a cup and have a look at their great clothes too. On a side note, the above picture is made entirely from teabags…and it’s of the Queen, so it fits this post pretty much perfectly, great, it’s good when coincidences like that happen.
Posted by: David
A few weeks ago we started a Youtube channel to show our infusion guides for the various teaware we stock. They’re also embedded on our website. This weekend however, someone has posted a response to one of our videos which is certainly tongue in cheek and has a bit of a pop at the presentation of our videos. Have a look below to see for yourself.
It’s definitely one way to make to tea but obviously it’s not one we would suggest! Thanks to leggytwerp for posting the video. It’s always good to have a little laugh at yourself and this video has certainly made us do that in the JING Tea office.
Last year, I talked to the farmer at our Dragon Well (Long Jing) farm near Hangzhou over a glass of spring tea, about what an amazing job he has done. Typically, with his diligent and modest attitude (he’s one of the last people I know who needs to be modest), he asked me what more he could do to make the tea better.
Absolutely hand-made
We went through everything, noting how he had over the years developed outstanding tea bushes from nurturing the soil through more than a decade of organic farming on previously wild land. This shows itself in the fat, juicy buds on the tea bushes which produce so much flavour and body in each cup. He has carefully nurtured saplings from wild seeded trees. He has also made sure the tea keeps its freshness through having vacuum packing and cold storage on site.
So what more could be done? The shaping could be improved. The firing could bring out the aroma more in order to make the very most of the great raw tea leaves.
I said, to make the tea as good as any Dragon Well in China, I suggested he brought in a top master to make the shape of the leaves during firing perfect. This meant taking on one of the top firing masters in the province. I suggested this hoping (but not expecting it) it would happen.
Mr Chen, expertly firing our Dragon Well green tea
When I arrived at the farm for the beginning of the spring picking this year, I saw someone I had not met before – Mr Chen. He was expertly pressing and turning leaves in his wok, effortlessly, with a look of relaxed focus and care. I chatted to him and got to know about his history. He had been brought into fire tea in the mei jia wu and shi feng – two of the traditional, oldest Dragon Well areas. He agreed with what I think, that the tea leaves here are better in quality than in West Lake with a much fuller thicker flavour by virtue of rich soil which has not been over farmed and fertilized. Sadly, this over production has really damaged the quality of the tea from West Lake, something which I can’t see changing due to increasing demand.
The next day I tasted the tea Mr Chen had fired with expectation. The look of the leaf was exactly what I had wanted. Beautifully consistent, incredible classic Dragon Well aroma and the taste, thick and full. We compared it to some top mei jia wu dragon well and it won the test. This was a really great feeling of achievement. More than 10 years of work on the land, investment in a new factory with state of the art equipment for packing and storage. Finally the investment in the skills of Mr Chen, an expert in the age old skill of hand firing the tea in a hot wok.
Add water and the tea leaves looks almost as fresh as when they were picked
Our new dragon well will be available at the end of the month. We’ll let you know as soon as its in!!! If you want us to tell you when it arrives, just email us though the JING tea website via contact us.
Anxi Tea Market
If you like the look of what you see on our blog and website you can also follow us on Twitter. While Twitter has been one of the most talked about internet phenomena since Facebook, it’s attracted a fair amount of criticism too. But from our point of view we have found it genuinely useful. As a quick way to respond to customer questions and ideas, it’s unrivalled. We can also keep our followers up to date on new tea releases, additions to the Flickr galllery and any other news from the company.
Our founder Ed is currently out in China finding all of our new season green, white and oolong teas so he’ll be sending updates from there while I keep things going from this end in London. If you’re interested in this then please follow us here
Confucius Teahouse Beijing
Just came across a great article on Wired which quotes Kevin Rose and mentions Tim Ferriss (author of the Four Hour Work Week) as being lovers of fine tea. It’s well worth a read and it rings true for what we have been seeing on Twitter recently, more and more people are getting interested in where tea really comes from, the different varieties and the great skill that goes into producing the best teas.
I particularly like Rose’s quote “there’s a reason tea has been popular for thousands of years” and it’s encouraging to see that he thinks a new age for tea is only five years away. Hopefully with all the companies currently doing great work to educate people about great tea and with supporters like Rose and Ferriss that prediction will come true.
Both Rose and Ferriss seem to be on the same wavelength as us at JING and if either of them ever feel like hotdesking in London or Hong Kong there’s definitely room at the tea bars in the JING offices!
Although she doesn’t have the look of a wizened old sage, she really is a flowering tea master. With her beautiful, delicate and skilled hands, she makes some of the finest flowering teas in China and also teaches all the flowering tea artists in the production house.
flowering tea master
First, tea buds are picked from fields around Fuan from Da Bai tea trees.
Fuan tea fields and fresh tea buds
Then, after withering they are taken to the hand-tying house to be individually selected and tied together in neat little stacks
she selects tea buds and ties them together in a stack
Then flowers are tied onto the tea stack
tying flowers to the stack of tea buds
Various flowers can be used including lily, red amaranth and jasmine flowers. These are grown in Anhui, Tibet and Yunnan provinces
jasmine, amaranth and lily flowers used for flowering tea
Finally the stack of flowers and tea buds is carefully shaped into a ball and wrapped in muslin to keep the shape while it’s dried over gentle heat. (Sorry, I forgot to get a photo of this and all the old ones I have look rubbish – we will put a video up soon though.)
And this is what you are left with. Serving tip: watch your tea open and enjoy the light, sweet aromtic flavours, whilst thinking of the skilled tea master and imagining yourself in the mystic scene in the background to this photo.
enjoy the tea and imagine yourself here (if you like)
Posted by Ed
I spent most of the time on Twitter recently talking more about the Chinese food I’ve been eating than about tea. I thought I’d show some photos.
There’s one person who has a special place in my heart. She’s not on the World’s Best Restaurant list or on TV but she’s one of the best chefs. She makes simple food from wild ingredients for the tea masters in our Dragon Well farm.
miss nie my favourite chef
Here’s some of her specialities. Bamboo cooked and fresh and belly of pork. On the left, omelette with wild herbs and on the right some wild greens with chilli…
bamboo shoots
- fresh bamboo shoots
I can’t stop myself giving her a hug whenever i see her. She probably just thinks I’m a crazy foreigner.
Posted by: David.
The sun is streaming into the office this afternoon so I thought I would make some tea at our tea bar. Following on from yesterday and the news of Browns winning best afternoon tea in London, I thought I would show you a different but equally good kind of afternoon (or anytime) tea.
Duanni Clay Teapot - Pouring
Using one of our hand made Duanni Yixing Clay Teapots I made a lovely pot of Tieguanyin oolong tea. This teapot is a gem, in the traditional Chinese style, it’s small and made from a very special type of clay, of which there is little remaining in China. It’s a rich, red brown colour with an unusual but very natural looking shape. When pouring, the tea leaves the spout in a lovely smooth arc of liquid as I hope the photo shows.
Monkey Picked Tieguanyin
The clay that these pots are made of is extremely absorbent so if you use one for oolongs over a long period of time, they’re said to absorb the flavour of the tea resulting in an even tastier cup. Legend/urban myth has it that after years of use of this type of pot, you can just pour hot water in and out will come tea! The Zisha Clay Teapot is hand made from a similar clay and has a slightly more classic shape.
Duanni Pot and Cups
While they are a bit of a hefty investment, if you’re looking to enjoy tea for many years to come, these little pots are great. Here’s a video of the Duanni in action too.
Browns Afternoon Tea Award
Congratulations to Browns Hotel for winning the Tea Guild’s Best for Afternoon Tea award. The top ten places for afternoon tea in London were anounced today. JING is proud to supply not only the winner but three more of the top ten.
We work very closely with Browns and it’s great that this work has been recognised by the Tea Guild. The training sessions that Bethan has given at the Browns have obviously paid off as the head of the Tea Guild, Irene Gorman said:
“The food and teas are absolutely exquisite, both in their presentation and taste. The staff have been well trained, really know their teas and are very happy to advise customers on their choice”
We’ve been tasting a lot of samples of teas recently and thought we would show you a little illustration of the importance of freshness when it comes to great tea.
Freshness in Sencha
This photo shows as obviously as possible the visible difference between the very freshest samples and those that have been opened and kept in a warm environment.
Both the samples above are exactly the same tea, infused for the same length of time, using the same amount of tea. The sample on the left has been in our office for few months. As it’s a popular tea, it’s been opened a lot and unfortunately we are unable to control the temperature of the office so it’s usually very warm. The sample on the right has come straight from our warehouse, as it would to a web customer. It’s been stored at normal room temperature and it has been in contact with as little air as possible. The colour is clearly brighter and the taste will be the very freshest you can get.
So the lesson here, to keep your tea as fresh as possible after you’ve opened it, store it in a cool, dark place and make sure you squeeze all of the air out when you reseal the bag. Our gold resealable bags are designed to help you with this and to make it as easy as possible for you to enjoy fresh tea for longer.
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…
