Since the topic was brought up and we have quite an authority on the
subject, it is an area I am fairly ignorant of and would love to learn
a bit more or at least enough as a jumping off point for further
exploration. I'm not sure if the topic has come up in the past but I'd
love to hear from anyone with any experience or tasting notes.

I have a number of Korean friends and my father had been stationed on
the DMZ for some time before I was born, but my father's recollection
mainly involves just jasmine green tea and even of that he wasn't
really into tea while there. My other Korean acquaintances are also
not really into tea and their "tea" generally consists of Ginger root
boiled to make a strong ginger tea, instant ginseng powder tea,
instant chrysanthemum powdered tea, JuJuBe teabags, and maybe some
sencha. So as you can see my experience and knowledge is fairly
limited and not really centered around real tea per-se.

Is this common? Are the flavored/fruit/herbal teas more prevalent in
every day drinking?

I do know most Korean teas tend to be greens (Nok-Cha) with a touch of
oolong. But of these greens there are a number of choices, what is the
most common Korean tea? What three teas (or more) would be a good
starting point that would cover a range of the Korean tea spectrum?

Finally, what vendors are reputable and well stocked in these teas? I
have seen a few sites with Korean tea sections but they almost seem to
be an after thought.

Thanks to any and all who can be of assistance!
- Dominic

On 2008-03-04, Dominic T. > wrote:

> Finally, what vendors are reputable and well stocked in these teas? I
> have seen a few sites with Korean tea sections but they almost seem to
> be an after thought.

Franchia! In NYC - tea shop and cafe branch of Hangawi restaurant (vegan
Korean place). Expensive, but great wild green Korean green tea, Korean
teaware, and a lot of (free) information on their site about brewing tea
Korean style.

http://franchia.com/

Their first and second picked teas are very delicate... a lot of people
probably would actually prefer the third picked. The prices on their
site are for 3 oz, not the weight listed, which I believe is the
shipping weight. In the US, there aren't a lot of other vendors selling
this stuff, so it's hard to get a frame of reference for how overpriced
their tea is. I suspect it is a little overpriced, just because the
place itself is pretty frou-frou, but the tea is (IMHO) excellent, and
I'm generally not a big green tea person. I guess closest comparison to
something else I've had would be a really delicate long jing, but
earthier and sweeter.

I imagine if you give them a call and manage to reach them when they're
not busy, they might be able to give you some more background on Korean
tea ceremony.

Surprisingly, I haven't seen that much interesting Korean tea stuff in
LA (surprising because LA has such a huge Korean population). There is
one tea & coffee shop, which I haven't checked out yet. Most of the
Korean markets here (not that they'd have the greatest tea) stock
typical Japanese teas like Genmaicha etc.

w

On Mar 4, 3:00 am, Will Yardley >
wrote:
> On 2008-03-04, Dominic T. > wrote:
>
> > Finally, what vendors are reputable and well stocked in these teas? I
> > have seen a few sites with Korean tea sections but they almost seem to
> > be an after thought.
>
> Franchia! In NYC - tea shop and cafe branch of Hangawi restaurant (vegan
> Korean place). Expensive, but great wild green Korean green tea, Korean
> teaware, and a lot of (free) information on their site about brewing tea
> Korean style.
>
> http://franchia.com/
>
> Their first and second picked teas are very delicate... a lot of people
> probably would actually prefer the third picked. The prices on their
> site are for 3 oz, not the weight listed, which I believe is the
> shipping weight. In the US, there aren't a lot of other vendors selling
> this stuff, so it's hard to get a frame of reference for how overpriced
> their tea is. I suspect it is a little overpriced, just because the
> place itself is pretty frou-frou, but the tea is (IMHO) excellent, and
> I'm generally not a big green tea person. I guess closest comparison to
> something else I've had would be a really delicate long jing, but
> earthier and sweeter.
>
> I imagine if you give them a call and manage to reach them when they're
> not busy, they might be able to give you some more background on Korean
> tea ceremony.
>
> Surprisingly, I haven't seen that much interesting Korean tea stuff in
> LA (surprising because LA has such a huge Korean population). There is
> one tea & coffee shop, which I haven't checked out yet. Most of the
> Korean markets here (not that they'd have the greatest tea) stock
> typical Japanese teas like Genmaicha etc.
>
> w

Hey thanks for the reply I hadn't been aware of Franchia before at
all. I actually wasn't the one who was interested in the tea ceremony
stuff, that had been a student looking for info. I'm more interested
in Korean tea itself. Shan Shui offers some Korean teas: http://www.shanshuiteas.com
and the prices seem consistent or even higher there than Franchia. I
know there has been a vendor site I came across a month or so back
that was totally dedicated to Korean tea but I didn't bookmark it and
can't find it again.

Without specific info I'd approach Korean teas like any other and
figure that the second and third picks are probably the best while the
expensive first pick is more valued for rarity and subtlety than
taste. I do understand it is fairly rare stuff so I fully expect to
pay for it, but just as with a number of FF DJs it simply isn't worth
it sometimes. I'll give them all a shot, but I'd be surprised if my
assumption is wrong.

All of my Korean markets and friends tend to go for the Japanese
greens as well, but as I had made reference to they are very big on
little packets of instant granule "tea" which is either Ginger,
Ginseng, or Chrysanthemum based with sweetener in little pellets. I
can tolerate it but it is not pleasurable to me at all. The other big
option I see is the jujube (date) tea which they seem to love as well.

- Dominic

Hello,
In the lower part of the index page for my tea pages at
http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/kortea.htm I do mention one Korean
tea store and tea-room in LA, Chasaengwon, run by the daughter of a
well-known Korean tea-producer. Other major online American tea stores
do sometimes offer Korean teas but of course, since I am on the spot
here in Korea, it is not a question that I spend much time with. I
believe that certain Korean food stores across the US sometimes stock
tea, if they have enough customers asking for it. Usually Sullok tea,
I expect.

As Dominic says, most ordinary Koreans are not into green tea at all.
The tea revival of the 1970s and 80s has had some impact but on the
whole Koreans drink coffee, or those other kinds of fruit or herbal
'tea' that owe nothing to camellia sinensis. The closest they come is
tea bags of 'green tea' but often they prefer those where the tea is
blended with roasted rice husks, giving a sweeter taste. The tea-
drinking situation in Korea is totally unlike that of Japan, where you
get served green tea everywhere for free before you order your cup of
green tea.

When tea-drying emerged from the temples and first became a commercial
activity in the 1970s in the Hwagye Valley region of Hadong county, in
Jiri Mountain, the target market was either rich Koreans or Japanese
tourists, so the prices were fixed sky-high. In recent years, the
women who do the tea-picking in April-May have a far more realistic
awareness of the payment they ought to receive for such arduous work
(the best tea fields are often on precipitous slopes and the bushes
are planted in haphazard arrangements, not in the tidy Japanese-style
hedges visible at Boseong or in Jeju Island). That means that the cost
of a kilogram of freshly picked leaves from a good spot is bound to be
very high (few can pick more than about 2 kilograms in a day). Since
one kilogram of green leaves produces 100 grams of tea . . . but there
are some ridiculous prices being demanded (and paid!) at the start of
the season in April, with 50 grams of some 'famous' makers' tea
selling for more than a thousand dollars. Some people have far too
much money!

Finally (already too long) there is all the difference in the world
between a commercially harvested and marketed tea which will have been
dried by hot air in a revolving cylinder as in Japan and Taiwan, and
the tea that I describe in my pages and book, that is dried in the way
taught by the Buddhist monks, being turned, rubbed and rolled entirely
by hand while being dried in a cauldron over a wood fire. It takes
hours of meticulous work to produce a couple of hundred grams, and the
old women who know exactly when to do what are gradually disappearing
from the face of the earth.

Finally, I would add that, yes, the Korean green tea produced by this
process is in fact very slightly oxidized (fermented) so that it does
not have the 'grassy' taste we find in much Japanese tea, and produces
a lightly yellow brew which can be intensely perfumed, especially if
the water is not too hot.

An Sonjae / Brother Anthony

On Mar 5, 3:46 am, An Sonjae > wrote:
> Hello,
> In the lower part of the index page for my tea pages athttp://hompi.sogang..ac.kr/anthony/kortea.htmI do mention one Korean
> tea store and tea-room in LA, Chasaengwon, run by the daughter of a
> well-known Korean tea-producer. Other major online American tea stores
> do sometimes offer Korean teas but of course, since I am on the spot
> here in Korea, it is not a question that I spend much time with. I
> believe that certain Korean food stores across the US sometimes stock
> tea, if they have enough customers asking for it. Usually Sullok tea,
> I expect.
>
> As Dominic says, most ordinary Koreans are not into green tea at all.
> The tea revival of the 1970s and 80s has had some impact but on the
> whole Koreans drink coffee, or those other kinds of fruit or herbal
> 'tea' that owe nothing to camellia sinensis. The closest they come is
> tea bags of 'green tea' but often they prefer those where the tea is
> blended with roasted rice husks, giving a sweeter taste. The tea-
> drinking situation in Korea is totally unlike that of Japan, where you
> get served green tea everywhere for free before you order your cup of
> green tea.
>
> When tea-drying emerged from the temples and first became a commercial
> activity in the 1970s in the Hwagye Valley region of Hadong county, in
> Jiri Mountain, the target market was either rich Koreans or Japanese
> tourists, so the prices were fixed sky-high. In recent years, the
> women who do the tea-picking in April-May have a far more realistic
> awareness of the payment they ought to receive for such arduous work
> (the best tea fields are often on precipitous slopes and the bushes
> are planted in haphazard arrangements, not in the tidy Japanese-style
> hedges visible at Boseong or in Jeju Island). That means that the cost
> of a kilogram of freshly picked leaves from a good spot is bound to be
> very high (few can pick more than about 2 kilograms in a day). Since
> one kilogram of green leaves produces 100 grams of tea . . . but there
> are some ridiculous prices being demanded (and paid!) at the start of
> the season in April, with 50 grams of some 'famous' makers' tea
> selling for more than a thousand dollars. Some people have far too
> much money!
>
> Finally (already too long) there is all the difference in the world
> between a commercially harvested and marketed tea which will have been
> dried by hot air in a revolving cylinder as in Japan and Taiwan, and
> the tea that I describe in my pages and book, that is dried in the way
> taught by the Buddhist monks, being turned, rubbed and rolled entirely
> by hand while being dried in a cauldron over a wood fire. It takes
> hours of meticulous work to produce a couple of hundred grams, and the
> old women who know exactly when to do what are gradually disappearing
> from the face of the earth.
>
> Finally, I would add that, yes, the Korean green tea produced by this
> process is in fact very slightly oxidized (fermented) so that it does
> not have the 'grassy' taste we find in much Japanese tea, and produces
> a lightly yellow brew which can be intensely perfumed, especially if
> the water is not too hot.
>
> An Sonjae / Brother Anthony

°¨»çÇÕ´Ï´Ù

Your book and your website have been about my only sources for good
info, and I thank you for the time and effort. I guess my experience
is the norm then and maybe I was hoping it wasn't the case but at
least it validates my limited findings. If it isn't too much trouble
could you let me know which grade is the most balanced as far as
flavor/cost? I planned on smaller samples of the first and second
pickings and a larger quantity of the third picking... but if the
second pick is the best choice I was going to just go with a smaller
quantity of first pick and larger amount of second.

Thanks!
- Dominic

The traditional seasonal names used in Korea (brought from China) are
Ujon, Sejak, Jungjak (spellings vary, alas!) and I assume that these
correspond more or less to '1st, 2nd, 3rd flush.' The main problem in
answering your question, of course, is whose tea you are buying! The
Kwanhyang tea I am privileged to have access to is splendid right
through, even the broken leaves etc they pack and sell separately are
better than the top grades of a lot of other teas! On the whole, I
would say that Ujon is very often grossly overpriced (mentioned
yesterday) and since it tends to be volatile, the very delicate flavor
sometimes evaporates quickly once the pack is opened, or seems to
weaken within a few months even when sealed (Koreans do not use vacuum
packaging). So Sejak is usually the best for quality / price but a
good maker's Jungjak can be fine. There is no way other than actual
tasting, really. And sometimes nothing is specified, the tea is simply
sold as 'Chaksolcha' (sparrow's tongues tea) which is the traditional
name for what we now term Korean green tea (you only need to specify
'green' when the default is 'red / black tea'). Again, tasting will
tell. The Panyaro Tea I celebrate in my pages, made by Chae Won-Hwa
for use by herself and members of her institute, has no distinguishing
seasonal labels but on certain boxes the label is printed in gold, on
most it is in black. There might or might not be a difference in what
is inside . . .

Another topic: I was puzzled by the Franchia site, that says they sell
tea in measures of '1 pound including packaging'. The boxes
illustrated look to me to be the standard Korean model, which can only
hold 100 grams of tea. Do they mean that the remaining 400 grams are
cardboard? Caveat emptor! At least the process they illustrate is
that which should produce good tea though no tea can be better than
the field it comes from. Their words about 'no pesticide no
fertilizer' would serve to launch another diatribe . . . so no more
now.

Br Anthony / An Sonjae

On 2008-03-06, An Sonjae > wrote:

> Another topic: I was puzzled by the Franchia site, that says they sell
> tea in measures of '1 pound including packaging'. The boxes
> illustrated look to me to be the standard Korean model, which can only
> hold 100 grams of tea. Do they mean that the remaining 400 grams are
> cardboard? Caveat emptor!

I'm pretty sure it's actually even less - as I warned in my post, I
think it's 3 oz of tea, so about 85g. The containers in their retail
store are labelled prominently, but I don't know why they aren't clearer
about it on their website. I think they just mean that the shipping
weight is a pound, because I'm sure their packaging with the tea in it
doesn't weigh a full pound.

The place you mention in LA (Chasaengwon) is the place that I was saying
I've been meaning to visit. I'll try and get around to checking it out
sometime soon and report back.

I'd be interested in hearing what the price range tends to be in Korea
for the different grades of tea you mention (realizing, of course, that
the price range is probably huge).

w

my Korean friends in LA and also going to couple korean restaurants,
mostly drank barley "tea"
at korean supermarkets they have lots of all kinds of root teabag
teas, some green, and lots of barley.

Right, more info!
Barley tea: made by pouring boiling water onto roasted grains of
barley. Common variations use roasted grains of maize, or the dried
roots of Solomon's seal. Other possibilities too. Drunk hot or cold
instead of plain water and traditionally poured into the rice bowls at
the end of a meal as a final drink / mouthwash and to ensure that no
grains of precious cereal are wasted. Perhaps inspired by 'nurungji'
which is a rather more substantial fluid traditionally made by pouring
boiling water onto the crust of burned rice at the bottom of a rice
pot that has been cooked over a fire (now that 120% of Koreans use
electric cookers, they can buy separate electric cookers to make this,
though few do) and served after or sometimes even instead of ordinary
rice at the end of a meal. At home we always have a kettle of cold
barley tea (sold everywhere in tea-bag form) ready because we do not
quite believe in tap water and resist bottled water.

The home page of the Hangook Tea Company (parent company of
Chasaengwon) gives no prices in its (very complete) English pages but
the Korean pages list 70 gr of Ujon (1st flush) for $80 (taking Won
1000 to be $1)or 100 gr of very slightly later tea for $43. while
their more accessible Kamro / Jaksolcha (ignore spelling) is $30 for
70gr. These are quite usual prices for good hand-made tea. They have
recently introduced a more strongly fermented (oxidized) 'Yellow tea'
at $25 for 80gr. These prices are about those charged by Kwanhyang for
100gr packs, simply because she is a very humble lady who does not
want her friends to pay more though she ought to be charging double,
given the quality of her tea.

Turning to Sullok Tea (the most widely marketed industrially produced
brand) we find their top quality 'Illohyang' (never mind the meaning)
being sold at $100 for 60gr, followed by another prestige label
'Okro' (jade dew if you must know) at $70 for 70gr. Then we have Ujon
at $50 for 80gr, Sejak at $39 for 80gr, and Oksujin at $23 for 80gr.
They also have cheaper teas marketed as everyday brands.

No more now, time for tea

Br Anthony / An Sonjae