FatManSeoul

It’s tea time!  Although not well known beyond these shores, Korea has a long and venerable history of tea cultivation and appreciation.  Records of tea ceremonies go all the way back to the Three Kingdoms Period, and tea plants were introduced sometime in the seventh century. Tea remained a very important ritual beverage, particularly in Buddhism, but declined significantly during the Joseon period. Fortunately, there’s been quite a revival in the 20th century.

Getting the tea from plant to drink is a long, arduous process, particularly for the finest teas. Fatman was lucky enough to get to see the whole process on a recent trip to Hwaeom Temple. Located in the prime tea-growing region of Jiri-san, this temple is one of several claimants to being the first site of tea cultivation in Korea. Whatever the case, the tea’s here are remarkable for being harvested from truly wild plants. Unlike the pretty fields of Boseong, where the plants have been cultivated since the colonial period, the one’s at Hwaeomsa are sparse and wild, and require hand-harvesting.

image from Chosun Ilbo ~ note the neat rows of tea bushes and compare to the wild ones below.

Only the tips (generally speaking, the three newest leaves at the end of the branch) can be harvested and made into tea, and only during a brief period in the spring from April to May. After the buds for making green tea are picked, either by hand as is done at Hwaeomsa or by machine like the larger plantations at Boseong often are, they have to be processed in less than a day, before the leaves start to oxidize (at which point you’ve begun down the path to the dark side . . . er, teas.) Then, the real fun begins.

In order to stop oxidation and dry the tea, the leaves get tossed into an insanely hot gas-fired cauldron, which is where things start getting really tricky. The leaves need to be dried, not burned, which means that somebody has to strap on layers and layers of gloves and arm protection and tie their hair back (assuming un-tonsured) so that they can reach in and gently toss the leaves and keep them moving so they don’t scortch. How would you like to slave over a 350 C stove?

The leaves are removed, and then rolled with reasonable vigor to start the process of separating and curling the leaves up on themselves. They’re then returned to a slightly cooler cauldron for another round of drying, in a process that repeats itself . . oh, only about nine times.  With each round in the cauldron, the leaves get dryer and dryer, and the work of separating the leaves and getting them to take proper form gets more and more delicate.

But isn’t it all worth it in the end?

Fatman would like to give special thanks to Hwaeom-sa (화엄사) and to Brother Anthony (안선재) for hosting and organizing a wonderful and unique opportunity to get first-hand experience in making tea. 고맙습니다! Hwaeomsa will continue to run these weekend tea-making templestays through the beginning of June.
For more information on Korean tea, please visit Brother Anthony’s tea site here (영어 링크) and purchase his marvelous book, The Korean Way of Tea. It’s hands-down the best English language resource about Korean tea culture and history available.