Rating
Price
About £5.60 for 50g
In a nutshell
A delicate tea, which has an ethical conscience and whispers about its coastal origins, rather than shouting in a guns-blazing kind of way. To appreciate a Jing tea you need to have a decent infuser in order to get the most our of it. If you’re looking for the strong, matcha flavour of Japan or a bitter green tea, as produced by some bags, then this is not the tea for you. Grown in tiered gardens of Jinshan, in the Zhejiang province of China, it’s crisp and clear.
Drinking real tea
We were asked to review Jing Tea, and since it’s Chinese New Year, it felt appropriate to get the review positioned during the week of celebrations. Although unlike New Year in Britain, which is a brash and colourful affair, this tea is clean and crisp, akin to the cinematography at the end of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
With accolades from such stockists as Heston Blumenthal and Polish chef Robert Bujak this tea had a lot to live up to, and we’re quite partial to an Oolong from Dong Ding, Taiwan. I swear I’m not putting that for the title, but it is pretty sweet drinking a tea with internal rhymes.
On ceremony
To get the most from Jing Teas, or any high quality green or white teas, there is a whole ceremony involved. Ideally we would have a glass tea infuser, so we could see the colour changes taking place. To get the most from each ‘batch’ of leaves, they should be infused three times, which alters the flavour of the tea slightly. A good tea is not dark and bitter; rather light and pale. Anyway, this metal one did the same job, and meant that the leaves are just kind of lightly dunked into hot water, as opposed to scalded in it, like a baby in bath water.
The leaves
Looking more than a little bit suss, thankfully Jing tea arrives in elaborate gold packaging, so the grade A leaves aren’t mistaken for the kind that get smoked. As for reading the leaves, we’re pretty sure we can depict a big jet plane, on which I hope to take my chances soon.
What’s it like?
Providing that it is made in a way that’s sensitive to its delicate nature, this is a really clean, fresh tea. With a faint edge of bitterness, which you don’t tend to get so much in Oolongs, the Jade Sword works well as an afternoon or after lunch kind of tea. It’s not pumped full of caffeine, but does give gentle lift, which is pretty good if you’re used to doing insane hours, which like, writers teachers and anyone who lives in London are!
Verdict
As teas go, this is an easily drinkable one, which works out pretty cost effective if you don’t make the mistake of using heaps of it in the pot. Whether its worth £1 a cup depends on whether you’re really into to tea or not, but if you are then maybe you’ll want to give this one a go. I’m sure it’s cleansing for the system and good for the mind!
More information
https://jingtea.com/tea/type/green/organic-jade-sword