For the past three months, Wales has been in total lockdown. Three months! Isn’t that crazy?

It’s been almost six months since the last time I ventured out of the country, and as such, I’ve been missing travel immensely. Especially the freedom of being able to drive more than five miles away from my house, which I haven’t been able to do since December.

But thankfully, that’s where the JING Virtual Tea Flight comes in.

The Tea Flight is a one-to-one (or one-to-six, depending on how many people you are taking with you) virtual masterclass, where you are able to taste a selection of absolutely delicious teas whilst your guide fills you in on all of the cultures and stories associated with them. You are sent a glass sand timer, a one-cup tea-iere, and a Classic Tea Explorer set with 10 bags of loose leaf tea to use during the session, which are ideal for brewing the perfect JING tea.

JING was founded by a lad called Ed Eisler, who started up the business after coming to realise that the connection between tea drinkers and origin had gotten completely lost. He saw that tea had such a strong connection within other cultures, and yet in the West it had been almost demoted to a kitchen cupboard commodity.

As such, he decided to start up JING, a new tea business that would bring fulfilling tea drinking experiences to people around the world. With a strong focus on high-quality, single-origin teas that are skilfully grown in unique environments by people who are incredibly passionate about what they do, it’s no wonder that their brews taste so dang good.

In this tea flight, I tried the Jade Sword organic green tea from Baotian Garden, Hunan, the Tie Guan Yin oolong (Iron Buddha) from Dazhai Garden, Fujian, and the Jasmine Silver Needle white tea from Yinpan Garden, Yunnan. The tea box came with one more bag of each of these teas, along with two bags each of a delicious loose leaf Earl Grey and Assam. They were all, of course, absolutely gorgeous.

I was taken through the flight by tea guide Will, who was super nice and taught me so much about tea. Along with telling me about the people who had lovingly handcrafted the teas we were drinking, he also showed photographs of the farmers, the terroir, and the leaves both before and after processing. He talked me through tasting, smelling, and inspecting the leaves, so that I could appreciate the flavours to their fullest and acknowledge how the leaves grew and changed during the process.

It was such a fun method of brewing the teas, with the glass sand timer ensuring that they were brewed to perfection, and the tea-iere giving me the opportunity to watch the leaves change as they unfurled – something I had never seen before! It was crazy to see just how much they all opened up in the tea-iere, the oolong especially, which filled nearly half of the glass.

Whilst we were sipping the tea, he told me about the importance of the water quality used to brew the tea, and that the hard water of cities such as London can have a detrimental effect on the flavour. Perhaps that explained why I never had a good brew at home in London – but then again, perhaps it was simply because I hadn’t yet tried JING.

I learnt how to better pronounce the name of the oolong Tieguanyin, the incredible work that goes into infusing the white tea with the jasmine, and the fact that silver needle is covered in trichomes (the tiny hairs) to protect it from bugs. Who knew!

It was such a cool experience to be able to ‘travel’ and still explore during this time. The tea flight took me to the beautiful tea gardens of Asia, sipping single-origin tea as I learnt more about the story of each one.

Cultivar – Qunti Zhong

Harvested – Spring

Oxidation level – 0%

Preparation method – 3tsp of leaves per cup, water brewed at 80°C, steeped for 3 minutes

Appearance – Medium-dark green leaves, looks almost like samphire. Becomes a golden yellow liquid when brewed.

Smell – The smell completely blew me away, it was so gorgeous! Grassy, fresh, fragrant, dewy.

Taste – Tasted exactly like early morning spring. Fresh, sweet, very nice and fragrant. Such a beautiful tea to begin with.

Aftertaste – Mellow, light, fresh.

Overall thought – During this tasting, Will showed me the exact garden that the leaves were picked from. In one of the photographs, the garden is covered in a pale white mist – which makes sense, considering the altitude of 800m. But I didn’t know that the mist actually helps to protect the tea from the harmful UV rays, rendering the sweet and succulent flavour that lacks bitterness and boldness.

He told me about the fact that the garden that this tea was grown on had actually been abandoned for many years, before being revived in 2007 by the tea master, Zhou Wei. He has been producing organic tea ever since, working with the local ethnic minority people and building a community. It’s an incredible tea, and Zhou Wei’s hard work and dedication is clear in the beautiful flavour profile.

Tea garden – Dazhai Garden, Fujian, China

Cultivar – Tie Guan Yin

Harvested – Spring/Autumn

Oxidation level – 20%

Preparation method – 2tsp of leaves per cup, water brewed at 100°C, steeped for 3 minutes

Appearance – Green-blue tightly rolled balls, open up to fill half the tea-iere after three minutes of brewing. Becomes a light green liquid.

Smell – Floral, light, fresh

Taste – Delicate and light, creamy, floral. Hands down the best oolong I have ever had.

Aftertaste – Creamy, almost nutty.

Overall thought – Hand-rolled and hand-fired, these little balls are filled with the most divine flavours.

During this tasting, Will told me about the story behind Tie Guan Yin, commonly translated as Iron Buddha. It is said that there was once a peasant farmer in China’s Anxi County who worked day in, day out, in order to produce for his family – but it was never enough. Then, one day, he stumbled upon a temple with a dishevelled iron statue of Guan Yin, the revered Bodhisattva of compassion. He cared for the shrine, cleaning it and returning it to its former glory, and eventually he was awarded with a small tea plant. He took care of it and it grew, big enough to care for him, his family, and his community.

Tea garden – Yinpan Garden, Yunnan, China

Cultivar – Yun Kang

Harvested – Spring

Oxidation level – 10%

Preparation method – 3tsp of leaves per cup, water brewed at 80°C, steeped for 3 minutes

Appearance – Long, white buds with teeny tiny hairs on them, the liquid becomes a pale yellow colour.

Smell – Divine! Fresh and light, with floral undertones.

Taste – Very delicate, the complete opposite of heavy full-bodied teas. Mellow and floral. And, of course, the sweetest jasmine!

Aftertaste – The aftertaste was actually stronger than the initial taste, with a sweetness that coats the tongue.

Overall thought – Will told me in detail about the processing methods involved in this tea, and oh man, there’s a lot that went on in these little buds! The youngest, sweetest buds are plucked whole and dried slowly during the spring season.

In summer, the tea is then carefully transported to the neighbouring Guangxi province. There, they are laid with a bed of fresh jasmine flowers for five consecutive nights, letting the scent of the sweet jasmine flowers infuse completely into the tea leaves. The flowers are then removed – all of them by hand! Considering that for every one kilo of tea, ten kilos of jasmine flowers are added, you can only imagine the incredible amount of work that has gone into every single cup!

I learnt so much about my favourite plant and the wonderful areas and stories it hails from during this tea tasting, and had a lot of fun. The JING Virtual Tea Flight was such an awesome experience, and a great way to explore – and taste – the wonders of the world whilst still at home.

Have you guys been on the JING Virtual Tea Flight yet? Or do you plan on doing so soon? Let me know in the comments below!

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