Throughout
Korea’s tea growing region there are hundred perhaps thousands of individual
artisan tea producers with very small farms, picking and processing their own
tea by hand in the same way that their ancestors did many years ago. Almost all use wild or semi-wild bushes
that are organically grown. Most
limit their production to ujeon, sejak and sometimes jungjak, far fewer Korean producers make
hwangcha or balhyocha, and very few make hongcha, even fewer make ttokcha or matcha
especially for commercial purposes.
For
the most part these small producers never get known outside of their personal
group of friends or home villages.
Many produce tea simply for their own consumption and to give to
friends. Occasionally a tea is so
good it is shared with a passing monk or nun who tells his or her friends
and the word slowly gets out. One
day a nun who knows Shin In-suk told her about a delicious hwangcha
she had in Jiri-san. Jiri-san, the 'holy mountain of Korean tea' has many villages each with their own fine artisan tea producers. The nun explained to Shin In-suk
that the producer, Jeong Jae Yeun, makes her hwangcha before Buddha’s birthday
and dedicates her entire tea production to hwangcha.
That
the tea is made before Buddha’s Birthday is extremely important to the production
of the best hwangcha. 1 Tea made
before Buddha’s Birthday is made of fresh ‘energetic’ young leaves that thus
contain the most qi. The
difference in taste is remarkable explained the teaware artist Park Jong Il, Shin In-suk’s husband.
But
who does that? Most other hwangcha
producers make their green tea first.
That puts their hwangcha production after Buddha’s Birthday and because
it is made from older leaves the tea has less qi.
We
have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Jeong Jae Yeun but hope to do that on Tea Tour Korea 2013.
This
is what we know about Jeong Jae Yeun. In her
mid-60’s Jeong Jae Yeun, who lives near Sancheon has dedicate most of her life
to tea and produces only hwangcha, from organically grown wild and semi-wild
bushes. We also know her tea
becomes highly recommended by the nun who told Shin In-suk and it also
comes highly recommended by both Shin In-suk and her husband Park Jong Il. If you have ever visited Park Jong Il
most likely you have tasted Jeong Jae Yeun’s hwangcha. On Park Jong Il’s recent trip to China
he took this tea and tells me it received great reviews.
