Comments on: Korea’s Green Tea Exhibition

By: sanshinseon

sanshinseon — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 10:15:07 +0000

good — Jiri-san is way-worthwhile. The more time i spend
there, the more amazing stuff i find (struggling to get even
a fraction of it up on my site!), the deeper i get into it…

By: kpmsprtd

kpmsprtd — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 03:09:48 +0000

Thanks, Mountain Wolf (Sanshinseon), for the travel tip. I never made it to Jiri-san, but the more I read this blog, the more my itinerary for my next trip to Korea shapes up.

By: lirelou

lirelou — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 00:21:28 +0000

An entertaining and useful article. Just mailed off a tea set to a colleague in France. I may have to get some Korean tea to follow up with.

By: sanshinseon

sanshinseon — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 05:09:35 +0000

And Haksaeng, yup, it’s a problem trying to afford the really good tea when they’re charging over 100,000 won for a canister — so i’m trying to inform people of where and how they can get it for the wholesale prices…

It’s cool to get into the snobbery factor with tea, if you want to, just like it can be fun to indulge in the snobbery of wine and single-malt whiskey and excellent coffees and Art and whatever; and Lawd Nose the Korean Deep-Tea-Scene is not a bit less snobbish than any of those; i could tell ya some stories…

But i’m here to testify that for most of us, not able to discern the extreme subtleties of flavorings, and not caring, for everyday use, a Sejak-cha is a perfectly good drink — and you can get it from the sources mentioned in my post for just w30,000 per canister, maybe 35. Hell really, there’s nothing at all wrong with Korean Jungjak / Jungjong leaves, they make a fine robust tea if prepared properly, and are cheap enough to enjoy with abandon. I mostly just use Sejak every day in my office… good enough.

By: sanshinseon

sanshinseon — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 04:55:18 +0000

You know, i repeatedly tried to set up that post so that there was a blank line-space between each paragraph, AND set all the links to “open in a new window” but both of those failed as it was published… Does anybody know why, and what i can do about it?

Thanks Elgin, and you go right ahead and post about the best Korean coffee roasters — i’m longtime coffee-junkie too. Back when you couldn’t get really good beans in Korea, and the only beans available were super-expensive, i used to smuggle in several pounds of Peets’ best beans every time i returned from my annual trips to the SF bay area… Ground them up by hand every morning… Would bring a thurmous of that strong thick brew along when climbing the mountains with my fellow slackers, for when the whiskey was finished…

But for some of us at least, repeated high doses of caffeine seem to bring long-term health problems from the over-stimulation, it slowly loses its good effect as you build up tolerance and your kidneys/adrenals become exhausted, ends up adding to stress, which is bad enough in the city-life anyway. So for years now i’ve been trying to stay on green tea as much as possible, days or weeks at a time, as a gentler and healthier alternative. But i still return to the Starbucks Expresso-Roast beans when i’m hung over after an excessive evening or have to give a big speech…

By: Zonath

Zonath — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 00:18:47 +0000

I lived in Gwangyang for about six months, and went hiking up in Jirisan a few times. It definitely lives up to its reputation. I’ve been to a couple of the tea plantations (many have tea houses either nearby or else on-property), and can highly recommend going — if you’re a green tea-lover, getting it newly-cured, right off the plantation is a special treat.

The Jirisan area also has some very excellent makkoli huts, if you’re into brewed drinks of another variety.

By: Haksaeng

Haksaeng — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 23:26:26 +0000

I, too, love Korean green tea. There was a wonder tea shop near my old house in Anguk-dong, where I would occasionally go if I wanted to buy high-quality teas. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford to go very often. I used to buy a mid-high priced tea that would set me back over 100,000 won for a tube. It was great stuff, though. I’ve never had as smooth a tea as that one.

By: R. Elgin

R. Elgin — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 14:38:25 +0000

This is a very nice little article on Jiri-san green tea Dave.

I must post on one of the best (if not the best) Korean coffee roasters around who has the best fresh roast in Korea, speaking as the degenerate coffee junkie that I am.