Korean black tea review, plus tea haul in Korea and Japan

This post is really about reviewing a Korean black tea but I'll start with pictures of all the teas I brought back from my recent trip to Korea and Japan to start (to Seoul and Yokohama, to be more specific, although we did visit the Tokyo Disneyland).

Maybe it's no wonder my wife is always bored to death with me buying teas, and repeatedly says "enough tea already" on trips, when it's really not.  So this post is dedicated to her; hang in there.

Korean teas!  Middle is black tea (reviewed), plus a green (left) and yellow (right)

Korean teas!  In the the middle is the tea I'm reviewing, and a yellow tea I bought in the same Insadong shop, and a green tea I bought in the Seoul Gyeongdong Market (traditional medicine market).  Since the green tea seems a more typical preparation of Korean teas and it was by far the least expensive ($5 for 150 grams) I'll be interested to see how it compares to the others.

Japanese teas!  left to right, black tea, then roasted green (?), and two others

Japanese teas!  A black tea (wakoucha (Japanese black tea) 和紅茶 ), a roasted green tea (more on what that means to follow), and two relatively "generic" teas I'll also get into later.

Chinese teas!  (we visited Chinatown in Yokohama)

Chinese teas!  Odd, right.  We visited a Chinatown in Yokohama to find tea (in part; my family wasn't interested in the tea) and it turns out they only sold Chinese teas.  These are two wuyi yanchas (one identified as dahongpao, the other left generally referenced), a lapsang souchong, and a pu'er (must be shou / "cooked" ).  It was interesting to see teas from different countries on sale all over in Japan; nice they can appreciate their own diverse green teas and still branch out.

Snacks!  Three of them even tea related, green tea Kit-Kat, Oreos, and Pocky (all from Japan; where else), and a nice graham-cracker type biscuit they sell in Korea (which would be nice with tea).

Korean black tea review

First impression is of a higher grade black tea, the smooth and subtle balanced character.  Mineral elements give it a touch of dryness, in the range of flint.   there is some sweetness, not much of a fruit element compared to mineral, malt (a lot of malt), and light wood (so decent complexity),  maybe a hint of underlying grape, leaning towards a darjeeling flavor spectrum related to some of those elements, but definitely not in general.


The feel of the tea is a bit unique.  It's not really astringent in the normal sense, which comes across as bitterness,  but the dryness is related to a different presentation of astringency.  This ties with the mineral components and also to a long finish (aftertaste).  The effect is very pronounced; the taste of the tea doesn't diminish much for the first 30 seconds after swallowing it.


So that's the tea described; very interesting.  It's not really like any other tea I've tried, although some components remind me of a higher grade lapsang souchong I reviewed,  which was malty, complex and subtle, and very light on smoke (but different). But do I like it?

nice red black tea color

To clarify,  I mean how do these unique and generally positive taste and body elements relate to my subjective preference.  That goes without saying, really, (what "like" means) but I've been drifting towards deconstructing impressions one wouldn't normally express, so I may as well be clear.



I like it but don't love it.   It's quite good tea (based on my judgment,  which is still a work in progress), but I might like it better for swapping out some subtlety and mint and mineral components for a light fruit element and more typical body / feel.


Then again,  since I seek out and try different teas to experience new things it would've been disappointing if it tasted a lot more like any number of black teas I've already tried.  Another reviewer referred to a tea I loved as "juicy" (Indonesian black tea reviewed here) and I loved that impression in that tea, a bit opposite in this one, not that I dislike it.

brewed leaves; a bit chopped, some fine stem

Something about the feel of the tea reminds me of different Taiwanese red jade / ruby teas I've tried (one review here) Taiwanese teas I've tried, and just thinking about that shifts the mineral component impression towards mint. And it seems to really resemble mint, which I'd missed.


This tea's taste elements seem more complex and balance together better than the version of that tea I'd tried, with malt reminiscent of lots of black teas,  and mineral tones that remind me of distinctive Vietnamese tea flavor elements.




All in all a nice tea, and an interesting one.  Not a great value given the tea pricing in the range of a US dollar a gram but worth a try.

Searching for tea in Seoul

I'll write more about what I actually found--review of two different teas, one black tea and one yellow--but this is more a travel guide part about where the search for tea in Seoul led.

I don't mean to even imply Korean tea has anything over Japanese teas for emphasizing that search in the last post, or starting with it here (I just got back from both countries).  Even accounting for varying preferences that would seem silly.  Tea from Japan is justifiably famous, and it doesn't all taste like you've brewed seaweed.

In both countries I focused more on destinations like Disneyland so this also isn't meant as a guide to what someone else might find, if they put more ground work in.  And it goes without saying, Japan has an incredible look and feel, and the people there are great even if a bit reserved.

before starting on tea, Korea in spring is worth a look (Japan too, for that matter)

the kind of places I visited most--not so bad

Tea search in Seoul

A tea shop!

I had the best luck wandering around Insadong, a tourist / art / traditional area. It would take a full day to really do that type of search any justice at all but in an hour I found a few tea cafes and two shops selling loose tea (actually one was pu'er, compressed Chinese tea; close enough).


I bought a Korean black and yellow tea, so I did find interesting types. The downside: I paid through the nose, about as much as I've ever paid for tea, $30 for 40 grams of tea for one, if I'm remembering right (one third that price or less is more standard, for decent tea).  I didn't have a great feeling about grabbing the first teas I saw, of course, but that was how timing went (I did spend two full days at amusement parks though, based on someone else being a higher priority than my tea habit).

A later check on teas in a higher end grocery store, under the O'Sulloc brand I was supposed to check out in their cafe, turned up even more expensive teas, so maybe I wasn't missing so much.  Would've been nice, though.

Insadong!  Cool vibe, even when rainy and cold

I didn't go to any of the other places I'd mentioned in the reseach post because I didn't have time to spend on running down shops; just enough to go take a look (it was a family vacation).

I'm not completely sure what to make of it but there seemed to be a lot of tea cafes in Seoul compared to tea shops.  Walking into a few--looking for the other kind of shop, given the tight time-line--and browsing the menus turned up a second interesting point:  they were selling more tisanes (herb teas, if you're ok with that expression) than tea made from tea leaves.  Along the same line, Wikipedia lists lots of things in an article on "Korean tea," just not any made from the camellia sinensis plant.

Nothing wrong with tisanes, to me, it's just a phase I was on years ago, and now more into the other kind of tea.


Another online contact mentioned another tea store I didn't make it to (in addition to the others I didn't go to in the last post), Ancient Futures Tea Lounge (their Facebook page), but according to them they specialize in Chinese teas.


In summary, Koreans don't seem to drink tea as they do in Japan or China, which explains the emphasis on herbal teas / tisanes. In retrospect that makes sense; it's too far north to be ideal for tea production. Japan isn't much further South--the Southern parts; the north is at the same latitude--but obviously tea demand has to do with culture more than what can grow everywhere. Since the supply is limited and there is some demand the cost is high, and I saw teas selling for even more in a higher end grocery store. More than a dollar a gram for tea is a bit excessive, to me, but to put it in perspective it still costs less than a Starbucks habit.

Tisanes in Seoul--there's a market for that

Based on another recommendation I checked out an interesting traditional medicine market, but there was only a bit of loose tea being sold there, not the compressed disk teas I'd hoped to find (dok-cha). Here's a link about the Gyeongdong Market, which seemed a great place to buy all sorts of other things, like fresh ginseng:

Visit Korea guide reference on the Gyeongdong Market

The look of that market wasn't what I expected, a bit more of open stalls than medicine shops, but it's a familiar format here in Bangkok.  Usually in Bangkok those places have an unusual smell to them (as expected, for having fresh fish sitting out with a little ice to preserve it) but this market smelled like potpourri mixed with food spices, only a lot better.

Gyeongdong Market!  (probably)

Fascinating selection, to me at least.  But not really about tea.

I never did find the Korean compressed tea disks I was looking for, dok cha (pictures references here).

Other options:  tea expo in Seoul, grocery store tea

Another online contact mentioned a tea expo / convention as the best place to find and stock up on Korean teas.  Here is a link about one this June (too bad I won't be there).

As I recall from the conversation the point was that better Korean teas are available in places like higher end grocery stores or specialty tea shops but due to how supply and demand balances out these can be quite expensive (which was my experience), and the range of offerings making it to such markets could be limited.  I've been to this type of event in Thailand but Thai oolongs tend to be a bit consistent, so although it was a great place to buy a lighter oolong it didn't seem to get much further.

Of course on-line sales is another short-cut I'm skipping, but based on lots of Google search it might work a lot better if you can read and type in Korean.

Which leads to one other possible outlet, grocery stores (right--somehow that never works for decent tea, maybe better in China or Japan but even there better to go to a shop).

at a glance not expensive (1000=$1, appx.), but these are 10 and 25 gram packages

These teas and others I didn't photograph show part of the problem:  these are some expensive teas.  Both of these on the right come to close to $40 per 50 grams worth, and there's no guarantee it's even "good" as mid-range teas go.  

It was the same for the O'Sulloc brand in a different store; maybe decent pricing for a very open tea budget but I'd just been to Japan where the scale was sort of different (hard to factor in quality, of course, to some extent even when tasting the teas but much more so for looking at a package in a foreign language).  Glass jars are nice for getting a look, and probably a great storage solution, but nothing like drinking a sample.

I almost bought this but didn't, mostly to keep looking

back to a realistic price range at least.

Getting around Seoul

One more step towards just travel blogging, right.  The obvious way to get around Seoul is to use the subway, and get a tourist SIM (phone card) with data support and let Google Maps take you the last few blocks, after research has already "starred" where you want to go.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy, as my son says (right, some British school influence there).

looks complicated, but in Japan this would only be one of many networks

Looks pretty easy, right?  Zooming in a level in Google Maps even tells you which door to get off at the station, and more street names, so how could you go wrong?  Easy.


In fact I think I was there but may not have been.  I saw information signs in the different intersections (helpful, especially the part about including some English text) that actually conflicted each other about where that market was.


People on the street standing less than a block away seemed to have no clear idea where it was, and pointed in different directions (nice of them to try and help, though; people in pretty much all countries are great about that).  To top it all off there was no way a sign was going to say "Gyongdong market" in English / Roman lettering to make it clear you are there.

The subway map version:  again really clear (nice work adding some English words; you take that for granted until it's not there).

One interesting semantic point ends up being a stumbling block:  what is a "market"?

Here in Thailand it usually refers to a group of lots of stalls in one building area, usually with a bit of an industrial look to it, or maybe even vendors selling things outside in stalls without boundaries or maybe even tables.  A "night market" might just be sidewalks or blocked off streets.


I was thinking of the shops areas in Chinese markets, like a very old version of a mall, similar to Korean clothing stores in a different part of town.  Unless I'd missed it this was a little more open, in the earlier pictures, with distinct "stores" and a common roof, but still not really shops.

priorities conflict, but great seafood Udon

If the mission was wandering around Insadong then just finding the main street and wandering in would do the trick, provided spending one day and taking many steps wasn't an issue (both things I would love).


One co-worker who was in Seoul just now when I was said she thought the next neighborhood over might be a better place to look (based on living there for a year--but then she's not into tea).  And there's the problem:  it could always be just one more more block to find the holy grail, the perfect shop, with a selection you just can't believe, great pricing, friendly staff tasting the teas with you, etc.

more important to me than tea

More on how that goes in a different country in a later post on the same type of search in Yokohama, Japan.


The final conclusion:  do research, ask Google, network and get advice, and walk a lot, but most of all be lucky.  If you can't enjoy the sights and smells along the way for not finding what you're looking for then you should just be searching online anyway.

Online tea exploration: preparing for a trip to Tokyo and Seoul

One might read of well organized tea-theme group trips (if you haven't then read about this one, organized by Tealet, or there is a more obscure one in Korea this May), but you typically don't see so much about how to turn up tea leads on your own going places (in Asia, presumably, but of course tea is in lots of places).

I'm about to go to Japan and Korea (Tokyo and Seoul, to be specific), and while my wife plans for outings like Disneyland and Unesco World Heritage sights, or maybe to see sakura blooming (cherry blossoms), I'm looking into tea.  But how would one go about that?

I guess this will be worth a look too (this week, from FB friend)

I'm no travel expert but here are some thoughts, also related to this subject coming up before and in Vietnam and Cambodia last year (in Singapore it seems easier; go to Chinatown).

Tea contacts:

Having friends where you travel would make for a great lead, and a guide.  Even an online contact could help, a forum friend, or someone from a Facebook group (etc.).  I indirectly "know" a number of people in different places and this is still not so simple since you need the right person in the right place to help answer relatively specific questions.

But it could work.  If you come to Bangkok feel free to ask me.

Google:

Almost should be first in this list, right.  Google knows a good bit about lots of things, and combined with Google Maps it's possible to be very specific about locations, and even search by location.

One catch:  Google works much better searching in English in English speaking countries.  Even here in Thailand, where English use is much more common than in Japan or Korea (my take, but kind of an informed one) lots of blind spots turn up.  But the highest profile places Google will know about aren't always the best options.

Tea farms:

This gets into a different kind of trip than I typically take, more related to the Amazing Tea Race subject.  I go on family vacations where I try to stop by tea shops, or even tea districts if a city is set up for that (like Beijing).  I guess the same type of search could apply, just supported by a lot more effort and networking, and without relying on direct internet search quite so much.

A more indirect approach could still work, but there would have to be a way to find people that know people that are hard to contact, willing to act as leads and share contacts that are hard to come by.  That last part would probably be the catch.  Just finding your way to a tea growing region wouldn't be so difficult--no secret where the main ones are--and the subject would come up a lot there, along with lots of related shops and tour options.

Trip advising sites:

For example, the one called Trip Advisor, which posted this entry about the O'Sulloc Tea Shop in Seoul.  The Lonely Planet is another familiar reference, where you might find something like this entry for the Yetchajip Tea House in Insadong, Seoul, or this one for the Beautiful Tea Museum, not far from both others.

Sounds great, right, three places to buy tea.  Maybe, maybe not.  A cafe or museum theme might not be the best place to buy tea, even if both sell loose tea, and the main places tourists go might not match the selection and pricing available somewhere else.  Would be great to talk to a local that loves tea that's spent years working on all that instead, rather than other tourists using the same types of references.  How to do that; good question.

Blogs:

This should be obvious enough to a blogger, right; why couldn't there be someone else sitting at a keyboard in those cities typing out what they experience related to a tea obsession.  I did try that type of lead.

Here is a site dedicated to referencing expat authored blogs in different countries, which could help get around the issue of blogs being written in Japanese of Korean.  I focused more on Korean teas and blogs out of Seoul just because I'd been reading more about Korean teas lately.  I also think we'll have more free time in Seoul, and I'm hoping to have better luck due to everyone drinking tea in Japan.  Also references on Korean oxidized teas sound so interesting, like this one by the World of Tea.

You'd think I would be about to explain how this approach cracked it, but not really so.  Other than references to the three places Google mentioned others cited only tea cafes, which didn't seem promising as loose tea shops (like this one, about a tea cafe, with the cool blog name "cute in Korea.")  If anyone is going to Seoul in June you are absolutely set because there is a tea festival / expo then,  related to information in this blog post / reference site, but that doesn't help me.

Or there are Western oriented blogs that talk about Korean teas, like this one on tea types (Tea at Morning Crane Tea blog), or this blog that covers lots about such teas (Mattcha's blog).  The problem is that typical tea blog entries don't lead back to physical tea shops very often (certainly not if written by an online vendor), so these could more often help you order tea but usually not to find it walking around Seoul or Tokyo.  Of course there could be exceptions, but looking up and reading dozens of tea blog entries is problematic.

Forums, discussion sites:

I don't think Steepster or Teachat is going to help--although maybe, but I didn't try them--but there are countless other forums covering countless other topics.  Again as an expat I thought expats might be one way to get around language problems, so I looked in places like an online penpals site.

Get the impression I have too much free time yet?  Or maybe also that wasting it is sort of a hobby.  Of course that didn't work, but it is one of many ways to talk to strangers, if that sounds like a good thing.

Conclusion:

I went through all this not so long ago, actually, in Hanoi (not all of it; I've escalated the online research part, sort of my thing, trying new research directions out).  There I had the best luck in talking about it on a forum afterwards (the expat blog one I already mentioned), and someone told me about a great reference online, a shop in Ho Chi Minh City, Hatvala, which is not even where I was in Vietnam, or probably all that close to where most of the tea is grown.

I ran across some really nice teas in Hanoi by luck (see a few other blog posts in the last few months), and Google Maps pointed out some other shops (many I didn't get to; gotta go back to Hanoi at some point), so a relatively standard approach and some luck can work.  Time is a part of it; if I had a couple of days to dedicate only to the search for tea it would be easy, but different family members have different agendas, and I'm the only one inclined to focus on tea.


China was a similar story, but I was much less obsessed when we visited back then (a year and a half ago).  My first work trip there started me on tea and a later vacation helped push me over the edge.


I guess there is more to life than tea (really!) and places like World Heritage Sites and Disneyland deserve attention too.  It's nice the travel planning can extend so far into the online world as it does but in my experience the last steps are in real life, and not just related to actually drinking the teas, but often also to finding the best places to get them.  Or there are online shops; of course that works too.

I didn't get far in this particular search beyond identifying the shops I mentioned, which might work out.  A real-life friend will help me find tea shops in Seoul (good luck having one in that city).  The posts that follow about different teas, or lack of such posts, will tell the rest of the story.