Jones Organic Tea was founded by friends Anita and Annabel back in 2018. This women-owned tea company works with a team of master blenders to create true experiences that symbolize their joint love of tea. The very foundation of their tea company is based on Annabel’s father who had an unbrideled love for consuming tea with his family. They state that they bring create lush, fragrant blends that bring together the traditional English tea culture and the casual American lifestyle. The Ingredients they use are of higher quality, either organic or exceed equivalent for Japan and the EU. They do not use any artificial flavoring and are proud that their ingredients are ethically sourced from growers in Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. They reached out and sent me three of their teas: Grenville Green, Balance Blend, and Sleepy Jean. Here are my thoughts:
Grenville Green – Jasmine Green: I find that jasmine green blends rarely are differentiated from one another, but one difference is normally the intensity of the jasmine flavor and balance. Looking at the ingredients, I was imagining that the jasmine would be quite overwhelming because they are using whole flowers. I was very happy that I was mostly wrong. This tea perfectly balances the jasmine and green tea elements. While at first, the aroma seems more jasmine fronted and perfume-like, the longer I stick my nose around the tea brings more of the very delicate vegetal notes. The taste is more light and really balanced the notes in the tea. It was really lovely, probably one of the better jasmine greens that I have consumed. I could just drink the tea and be happy. I made a second steeping as well, and it was just as good, if not better, the second time around. I could taste the integrity of the green tea as the leaves further unfurled. It was very lovely to sip on.
Ingredients: Green tea and jasmine petals.
Sourcing: Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China
Balance Blend: The aroma of this tea triggered a specific memory in me, but I could not figure out what quite it was. It really plagued me on what I was remembering. Oh my goodness, a slightly toned-down version of Vick’s Vapo Rub. This is in no way a bad thing. The taste is completely different. More smooth, with a minty sweet after taste. The aroma almost clears my nose as I go in for a taste (don’t do it at the same time, you could inhale the tea – speaking from experience). The combination of peppermint and spearmint did subtly overtake the tea (yes, that is a thing), which made it more difficult to taste some of the other notes. It was quite relaxing to drink (especially as I was arguing with my professor over economic theory). There was a slight sweetness to the tea, but it was quite difficult to pick up on. The tea was quite smooth and easy to sip on. I really enjoyed it. I was surprised to see that ginger was an ingredient in the tea, as it really did not pick up at all. The feeling in my mouth after the tea was quite a refreshed feel, most likely because of the mint.
Ingredients: Peppermint and spearmint leaves, rosehip pieces, ginger, and petals of hibiscus, rose, sunflower, calendula, and osmanthus.
Sourcing: Custom blend sourced from USA, Germany, Thailand, South Africa
Sleepy Jean: I prepared this tea when sitting at my laptop, preparing to finish a group presentation and knowing that I needed to sleep, badly. Recently it feels like I am tied down to my desk at all times between work, school, and blogging (I am sitting at my desk as I write this). This tea brewed a beautiful orange that had some golden tinges in it. The aroma that came to my nose was that of chamomile, rooibos, and possibly some scant notes of the oat straw. It smelled incredibly relaxing. The overall taste of the tea was quite homogenous in flavor. None of the ingredients really stuck out too much besides the more dominating nature of the chamomile. However, I find chamomile to be more potent in flavor, so this was rather expected. Occasionally in each sip I could taste some aspect of the rooibos, but it seemed quite hidden. The overall blend of the tea came together quite nicely. The tea was very smooth, and created a bit of a juicy feeling in my mouth as I was sipping on it. It also was very soothing as a body effect that I noticed, as I drank it, I felt a little bit of tension in my shoulder release.
Ingredients: Rooibos, chamomile, linden, and passion flower petals, lemon balm and lemon verbena leaves, anise, cinnamon, orange, oat straw, hops.
Sourcing: Custom blend from Nile River Delta, Egypt; Cederberg, South Africa; Ludogorie, Bulgaria; Black Forest, Germany; and Mekong Delta, Vietnam
Price: The price for the two herbal teas are $14.95 for a 1.75 ounce large pouch of loose leaf tea. The green tea was priced at $15.95 for 1.75 ounces of loose leaf tea. I think this could be considered on the higher side of tea prices. They gave me a discount code for 10% off your first purchase with “TEAANDME21”.
Packaging: The teas that I received where in single-sample packaging for the loose leaf tea. I am not aware of how the tea packaging is in the normal tea pouches. The single-packets were great though, and had cute branding on it.
Sourcing: I loved the transparency of these teas. Even the herbal ingredients were able to be traced back to a location, which provides greater understanding of where the tea ingredients are coming from. Two thumbs up.
How much does transparency in sourcing matter to you? I feel like I have gotten more of a stickler over the years about wanting to know where the ingredients in my tea come from. Let me know in the comments! Happy Brewing!
-Danielle
