Interview with Ed Eisler of Jing Tea: Part One, an Introduction

I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Ed Eisler, founder of Jing Tea, one of the UK’s premier tea companies. Jing combines its high standards for quality and freshness (One example: They vacuum seal their teas at the source!), with a passion for tea, its countries of origin, its many varieties, and the people who produce, and drink, it.

During the interview Ed was at his Hong Kong office, as he is on a tea-buying trip, (Check out stories and pictures from his trip on Jing’s blog.). We discussed how he became interested in tea, organic and fair trade issues, as well as his favorite teas and his thoughts on the tea blogosphere.

The interview too long for a single blog post! Please enjoy Part One of this interview: More to come soon!

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Lainie Petersen:
I was reading up on Jing and noticed that you had become a tea aficionado by the time you were eight years old. So you have always loved tea?

Ed Eisler:
Heh, I think not an aficionado by the time I was eight, but I liked tea.  I liked the names and the mystery of where the tea came from.

I liked trying new things and was interested in food.

Lainie:
You were in your late teens when you visited China. Is that what got you really interested in tea?

Ed:

It [tea] was for me the best thing about China. I first went there when I was 19. initially i was disappointed by China. I expected a much stronger cultural experience along the lines of wise old masters etc but a lot of the old culture was not intact.

[But] the food, [and] tea culture was very intact though, and that was the way I found you could really understand the culture and people

The huge variety in the tea, the people, the places, the flavours, shapes etc were the most amazing thing to me.

Lainie:
So it was through the food/tea that you were able to connect with the old culture?

Ed:
Yes, sure.  Well, it was old culture alive now and up to date.

Lainie:
So was it the trip to China that “sealed your fate” and made you want to go into the tea business?

Ed:
I think so. Well it was that plus being very frustrated by getting back to UK and finding I could not get any good tea there.

Lainie:
Did you work in the tea business prior to starting Jing?

Ed:
No I did a year of Chinese at university then a degree in Chinese medicine in my last year I decided to start the business. I had been drinking as much tea as i could since I was around 16 and had made some great contacts in China.

The main thing to me was buying tea which would even blow the Chinese away, and then doing a few things better than anyone else – paying real attention to freshness.

But, relationships are key. In the end I find good suppliers by the people I know; traveling and inspecting tea gardens and finding out who owns them and then meeting them, tasting the tea, looking at how they process and pack and discussing their ethos and thinking behind their tea making.

In high quality tea business, its all about finding people you understand and understand you and finding mutual respect.  There is so much demand for the tea that good suppliers can to some extent choose who they want to supply.

Lainie:

I take it that you spend a lot of time traveling.

Ed:

Well, I am out here for the whole of this month

Ed:
I was in Sri Lanka in January. Might be in Japan at beginning of May. India, June, China again in July and back again in October.

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Part Two of this interview will be up in a few days: Ed and I discuss the challenges and benefits of fair trade programs and organically grown teas.

Tagged as: ed eisler, jing, jing tea, tea, tea company, tea interview, tea merchant, travel, UK tea