This blog explores what makes Single Garden tea exceptional, what it is, and why you should try it.
"When it comes to producing and consuming food and drink, we need to change our relationships with ourselves, each other and the environment."
JING founder Ed has been saying this for a long time. Seventeen years ago, he went to Asia and was introduced to something that showed him the way forward. "The tea culture there fulfilled everything I wanted to change about my relationships with food and drink," he says now.
The first time Ed went to China, he truly understood the value tea could hold in the culture and knew it could be much more than a commodity in a kitchen cupboard.
Asian tea culture is built around single garden tea. "Single garden tea grabbed me instantly. It tasted delicious, and everything around it was rich and connected. It was about enjoying what nature can offer. It was also healthy and good for me. And the more I drank, the more I got to know the amazing craftspeople and places that create it."
Single garden teas inspired Ed to start JING. If you haven't already discovered them, now is the best time of year to get to know them…
Ed tasting batches of Darjeeling first flush from Badamtam Garden in 2018.
What is single garden tea?
A Single Garden tea is a singular tea. You won't find another one like it.
Single Garden takes the concept of 'single origin' one step further. For a while now, single origin has been an excellent quality marker for coffee, chocolate and, to some extent, tea. Single origin products are traceable to a particular place and showcase the taste of that place. Single Garden dives deeper and seeks out the best individual people and places within a single origin.
Consider single garden tea as the equivalent of choosing wine from an individual estate in France, such as green tea from Asahina Valley in Shizuoka, Japan.
Think of single garden tea as the equivalent of choosing wine from an individual estate in France or a single malt whisky from your favourite Scottish distillery.
What is Single Garden tea?
A Single Garden tea is a singular tea. You won't find another one like it.
Single Garden takes the concept of 'single origin' one step further. For a while now, single origin has been an excellent quality marker for coffee, chocolate and, to some extent, tea. Single Origin products are traceable to a particular place and showcase the taste of that place. Single Garden dives deeper and seeks out the best individual people and places within a single origin.
Think of single garden tea as the equivalent of choosing wine from an individual estate in France or a single malt whisky from your favourite Scottish distillery.
Why should you care?
We've got three big reasons.
Single garden teas wow the senses
The taste of tea is determined by who grows it and where. Each grower and Garden are unique, so every tea is unique. Blending many different teas dilutes each character and covers up that uniqueness. That's why unblended, single-garden teas have the most original and distinctive flavour profiles. (Side note: blending is sometimes good. For example, our Assam Breakfast is a blend.)
Single garden teas celebrate individuality – of the people, cultures and natural resources that produce them.
Single garden teas have purity and clarity of taste – just leaf and water.
They also celebrate clarity and purity of taste. The flavours are simply the flavours of the Garden – carefully cultivated by its tea master. They're as close as you can get to tasting the Garden itself.
Single garden teas celebrate the skill of their maker and the culture and places where they are grown.
It's a whole new world to explore
Single Garden teas capture the authentic flavours of some of the planet's most spectacular places. From misty mountains in China to vast rivers that begin high in the Himalayas and feed the growing regions of India, tea gardens are supported by some epic natural resources.
In China's Fujian province, Wuyishan is a high mountainous once volcanic area. Along with the steep terrain, its ancient volcanoes gave it rocky, sandy soil high in minerals. Tea bushes grown here draw deeply on the soil's minerals and nutrients. They have to: because water drains quickly on these slopes, their roots must go further. Tea masters use their local knowledge to produce teas celebrating this unique minerality.
A single garden tea is a taste of nature and a connection. It is also a taste of the producer's craftsmanship.
The tea grown here really reflects the rocky and wild Wuyi Mountains, with flavours and depths drawn from the mineral-rich soil and craggy mountainsides.
To the north-east of Wuyishan, Hangzhou is home to one of China's most famous and revered green teas. The best Dragon Well teas have a distinct sweet taste of roasted chestnuts, a grassy spring-fresh character, and a thick, smooth, almost velvet-like feel in the mouth. Those chestnut flavours come from the unique style of pan-firing of the leaves after they've been picked. Shentang Wen is among the most skilled Dragon Well tea masters we've met. He learnt to pan-fire from his father and grandfather using a tea bush cultivar that's very traditional for the area, but he's also a ground-breaker. His Wenjia garden is one of the first in the region to go 100% organic. The result is the cleanest and best expression of an Organic Dragon Well we've tasted.
In a remote village in misty east China, more than a kilometre above sea level, Shentang Wen produces Organic Dragon Well in Yong'an Garden. He's one of the most skilled tea makers we've ever met.
The examples we've used are just from China. Single garden teas are also the best way to explore the craftsmanship and natural flavours of Japan, Taiwan, India…
Single Garden teas help producers and their communities to survive and thrive.
We meet and speak to many producers. The message they always want us to spread is about their origin and their garden. In Taiwan, the Chens want more people to know about Taiwanese tea and what makes their Garden in Ali Shan special. In Japan, the Miyazakis love to show tea drinkers how they still use rice straws to shade their tea and give it a flavour you won't find anywhere else. This is an environmentally sustainable tea craft they are helping to keep alive.
Mrs Miyazaki is one of only three people in Asahina Valley who is still weaving her shades for Gyokuro this way.
Around the world, tea farmers believe an appreciation of origin is the most sustainable way to add value to their industry. Imagine if tea drinkers knew to ask for their tea by the name of its origin or even its individual Garden. Not only would those consumers know they're getting a tea they love, but they'd also be much more likely to pay a better price. In this way, tea drinkers who appreciate individual origins, gardens, and teas can help the families and communities that produce these wonderful, unique teas to survive and thrive.
Where do you start?
Spring is one of the most exciting times for single garden teas because fresh new spring teas are first becoming ready for drinking.
In Hangzhou, for example, picking season is in full flow, and we're eagerly waiting for the 2024 samples Wen is sending from his beautiful, wild garden.
First flush picking is in full swing in Badamtam Garden in Darjeeling, India, and we're eagerly awaiting the new season's crop.
We hope you might be too now.
Try Some of our Bestselling Single Garden Teas
Organic Wuyi Oolong
Organic Dragon Well
Ali Shan
Red Dragon