The big annual expo of all kinds of Tea (but featuring Korea’s excellent green tea of course) is being held at the Indian Hall (1st Floor) of the COEX complex (Samseong Metro Station, Gangnam-gu of Seoul) starting tomorrow (June 27th) and running thru Sunday (July 1st). The “Tea World Festival” promotes Korea’s tea culture(s) both ancient and modern (some striking innovations displayed & offered, such as green tea cocktails!).
It offers all kinds of tea, including from China and Japan, and many popular brands of Korea’s gourmet-level green teas — at roughly 50% off usual retail prices! So if you didn’t attend the Jiri-san Hadong-gun Hwagye Valley Green Tea Festival in May, this is a great chance for you to stock up enough for the entire year at quite reasonable prices. Also on exhibit and for sale are products made from tea, tea ceramics (excellent pottery), wooden implements, tea appliances and tea-room furniture. If you are hip to the T, don’t miss this event. I do believe that our view of this 2006 event was my very first posting to the M-Hole, almost a year ago…
the English website for this Expo/Festival is here.
Someday, I will get my photos of the May 2007 “Hadong Wild Green Tea Festival” up on my site; it was a wonderful weekend under lovely blue skies, including some great hiking. Meanwhile, for those interested, my two-part article on the Buddhist-culture-oriented history of Korean Green Tea is being published in the Jogye Order’s quarterly journal Lotus Lantern — part one (Three Kingdoms thru mid-Joseon) came out in the Spring issue, and part two (1800s thru now) will soon be out in the Summer issue.
13 Comments
Oh my, I am going just as soon as I find the bus to get me there. I must skip drinking coffee that day since I will undoubtedly get buzzed on tea.
Sounds like a great place to go, especially in the dog days of summer (have the jangma rains come yet?). Probably a good time to sample some green tea ice cream, if they offer that.
I’ve only been in Seoul once in the humid summer, and that was on my very first trip to Asia—Seoul being my first port of call—exactly 10 years ago last Saturday!
R. Elgin, is Line 2 not convenient for you? It goes right there….
Also, starting Thursday, there’s also a jewelry expo at COEX.
Nice stuff, some good prices. I like to wear big chunky necklaces like turquoise or amethyst when I wear a simple dark suit. It’s the chick equivalent of wearing a nice tie.
Pick up something nice for your lady friends!
> sewing
> R. Elgin, is Line 2 not convenient for you?
> It goes right there….
R. Elgin has posted at least twice before that the reported presence of asbestos particles in Metro line #2 (presumably in its air) make it an unacceptable form of transportation for him. Apparently he does not trust as much as the rest of us do in the anti-cancer efficacy of Kimchi and Green Tea…. And for myself, the certainty that i’m going to get lung cancer from the Yellow Dust, so why worry about a little asbestos on the side?
Simone, thanks for the tip. I just might stock up for a future anniversary…
I know this is a bit off topic, but this always comes to mind when I hear or read about the Chogye Order:
http://www.iht.com/articles/1998/12/05/seoul.t.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....I&NR=1
Sewing — what “sanshinseon” said. I refer you to this thread which explains it all.
SomeguyinKorea — yes off-topic for this, and yes that is one somewhat bizarre and certainly unfortunate aspect of the Jogye Order, pretty common whenever a religious institution enjoys plenty of money and power; but it’s far from definitive, not at all representative of what the Jogye Order is all about. If that’s all that you think of when you see that name, you ought to expose yourself to more aspects of their history, teachings and activities…
No offense, but swearing off the subway at the mere mention of the word asbestos seems just a bit Chicken Little to me.
Granted, I might reconsider that career change to onboard cheap Chinese product hawker I was contemplating. But then, I never was too keen on running around in public with cucumber slices stuck to my face anyway.
Mind you, if you’ve actually made your decision based on a reasoned consideration of the exposure level one might conceivably encounter during an hour or two a day on the subway, and the attendant level of risk thereto, then I apologize for being presumptuous.
” If that’s all that you think of when you see that name, you ought to expose yourself to more aspects of their history, teachings and activities…
”
Well…
http://www.geocities.com/volod.....ghting.htm
PS. Did the ‘peaceful’ monks finally rid themselves of the gang affiliated ones?
I went today. It was a very nice convention and I bought up several Jiri-san teas. There were some really nice people there as well.
You guys should really make this if you want to get some super discounts on top grade green tea. A 90,000 won tea was 45,000, for example.