Friday, March 29, 2024
FOOD&DRINK

Who drinks tea in Korea?

Tea enthusiasts in Korea, I have discovered, belong to a small but devoted circle often with an arty, alternative appearance involving  clothes made from natural dyes and fabrics. And they tend to be older. At the Tea World Festival in Seoul I barely saw anyone under the age of 40 amongst the stall holders or visitors.

tea festival seoul

I have also never seen so many monks in one place outside a temple. Or men with long hair and facial hair -when I suggested to Mr Kim that he grow his hair longer and perhaps even try a goatee, he looked at me in horror and reminded me that ‘he has a job to go to’! And ‘HOW IS ANYONE GOING TO TAKE HIM SERIOUSLY WITH HAIR ON HIS FACE?!’

that's funny

Most of the popular teas in the supermarkets don’t come from the tea plant but are infusions made by roasting kernels or rice or they are made with fruit.

There’s corn tea (oksusu), barley tea (bori-cha), buckwheat tea (maemil-cha), green plum tea (maeshil-cha), yuzu tea (yuja-cha)  with preserved fruit taken as a cold remedy, dried jujube berries (daechu-cha) and of course ginseng tea (Insam-cha).

And people make tea at home too for medicinal purposes. My mother-in-law dries twaeji pig potatoes and burdock to make infusions. Apparently one is good for high blood pressure and the other for constipation!

But the Tea World Festival was about tea from the tea plant and that attracts a certain clientele.

tea korea

TEA DRINKING: for monks and aristocrats

In the past, tea drinking in Korea was an aristocratic pastime. In the Goryeo period (918-1392) when Buddhism was the state religion, sitting and discussing poetry or Buddhist philosophy over tea was the genteel thing to do. Tea drinking was an important part of the culture and there was even a government office in charge of tea. Artistic pursuits such as writing poetry, calligraphy and painting went hand in hand with tea drinking.

This image seems to continue today and the booths at the festival reflected this. Calligraphers displayed their work for sale and even painted portraits of visitors in black calligraphy ink.

The fact that tea drinking was so closely associated to Buddhism became a problem during  the Joseon period when Confucianism became the state ideology. Buddhism was repressed because the Joseon government blamed the fall of the Goryeo dynasty on the decadence and corruption of Buddhist monks who had become politically powerful during that time. Rice wine became the preferred drink of the nobleman as we can often see in sageuk dramas set in the Joseon era. Even today it seems that green tea is still associated with Buddhism and there were lots of monks at the tea festival.

tea

In modern Korean dramas when characters want to be portrayed as sophisticated or educated they may be seen drinking tea. The rich boys in the drama Boys Before Flowers (KBS 2009) never have to do part time jobs or worry about money. And as the rich chaebol families are like modern day yangban, they are depicted sitting around drinking tea. Or what about the character of the alien Min Jun in the drama My Love from the Star who has lived on earth for 400 years since the Joseon period? One of the things that make him different to the modern young men around him is that he makes tea!

FASHION

In anticipation of the type of visitor coming to the event there were many booths selling outfits to accommodate their taste. There’s a rustic feel to the style.  The geryang modernised hanbok and other fashion made with natural fibres and dyes is a popular outfit in the tea drinking circle.

korean tea

Black tea is not popular at all here which is unfortunate because I love back tea. With milk of course. 😉 Recently the Taiwanese-style tea shop Gongcha which specialises in bubble tea has been gaining popularity and I see more shops in the chain popping up around the city. Gongcha sells a fabulous milk tea with pearls which I buy almost every day through the summer. But black tea is not sold in my local supermarket and I usually have to fill my suitcase with packets of tea when I’m home in England.

There are several places to enjoy tea and infusions in Korea. There are tea shops around the back streets of Insadong such as  The Beautiful Tea museum. And for events relating to tea there’s the Boseong Green Tea Festival held every year in May as well as the Mungyeung Tea Cup Festival.

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