Yin and Yang - Behind the scenes: crafting Jasmine Tea (Part2)
How is jasmine tea scented? How to grade a jasmine tea? Why do we remove the flowers at the end?...
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Join us on the journey to rediscover the art of tea. From the tea fields of Asia to the bustling streets of Mayfair. Jade Tea is at the forefront of tea culture and tea processing.
Our family roots in Asia connect directly to the home of tea. Join us on a journey to discover artisan teas and be a part of shaping the future of craft teas.
Imari porcelain & ware from Arita, Japan
Imari porcelain is one of the best known porcelain from Japan. We followed its trail and the craft to the town of Arita.
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Behind the scenes - crafting Jasmine Tea (Part 1)
Do you know the variety of jasmine flowers that make up jasmine tea ?
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What is cupping?
What does a professional tea evaluation entail? How do we judge and grade teas?
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Water, essence of life and tea.
Don't overlook the often invisible element - water - in your tea tastings.
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Why do we grade tea?
Grading tea has a long established history and benefits to the craft of tea making.
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What differentiates a good tea from an outstanding tea is the balance that has been forged between nature and craftsmanship.
Complex changes happen inside the tealeaves during each processing step. Just as the tea harvest changes every season; a tea master fine-tunes each step of the multiple-step process for every batch, applying generations’ worth of skill to perfectly craft each basket of tea.
Though the flavour profile may change with the seasons, the quality of the final product will always remain the same.
As you experience the Jade Tea collection you are experiencing the generations of craftsmanship that have gone into creating each and every tea.
Read more about Founder's experience below...
...and why we started Jade Tea in London.
Sometimes you have to start at the origins to truly know something. Living in the UK it’s easy to see that tea is all around us…
...and like you I tasted so many teas without really noticing it.
I viewed tea as pure commodity...
As a teenager living in Japan my only real tea experience was of drinking bottled sencha (green tea) and bottled mugi cha (roasted barley tea) with my friends after school. I viewed tea as pure commodity beverage. It was only when my dad took me to see one of the tea producers after a visit to my grandparents’ in China, that I understood how treasured tea is and that the art of tea is still very much alive.
“The tea leaves are living things”
Meeting, face to face with the tea farmer opened my eyes to how much passion and dedication each craftsman puts into creating what I had grown up experiencing as a commodity. One sentence in particular stuck with me… he said, “The tea leaves are living things”. Not only are they living when harvested but also still living when you mix water to make a cup of tea.
like artists… they work to express their own skill through the living medium of tea.
It wasn’t just taste that got me into tea, it was the people and their passion that really moved me and drew me into the world of tea. After that I spent more time connecting with other craftsmen. The more I talked with them, the more my understanding of their craft and my passion grew. They are like artists… they work to express their own skill through the living medium of tea. Their hope is that we as consumers will taste and appreciate it.
Each encounter happens once in lifetime. Ichi-go Ichi-e.
There is a saying in Japanese tea culture - Each encounter happens once in a lifetime. Ichi-go ichi-e, 一期一會. In Kyoto, I met with tea masters who practice cha-do, “the way of tea”. A key element of a cha-do tea ceremony is to appreciate what the craftsperson who produced the tea has created for this unique occasion.
By doing so we appreciate and cherish the moment for what it is and value what is in front of us today.
