Jackson loses time offset from dates when deserializing to JodaTime

Yes, this is by design. JodaTime DateTimeSerializer use standard toString() method. According to JodaTime official guide toString() returns - the standard ISO8601 string for the DateTime. Also, standard DateTimeDeserializer always creates UTC datetimes.

To store TimeZone you need to store it separately with same json and use .withZone() method after deserialization or just create serializer and deserializer.

UPDATE

Version 2.2.3 have a bit extended behaviour - DateTimeDeserializer creates DateTime with timeZone taken from DeserializationContext. it may be changed with ObjectMapper.setTimeZone(). Default is TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT")

Jackson must be told to not adjust the time-zone to that of the local context by:

mapper.disable(DeserializationFeature.ADJUST_DATES_TO_CONTEXT_TIME_ZONE);

See this issue on GitHub