Korean Black
£9.50–£40.00
A delicious and unusual hand-picked black tea grown in Hwagae Valley made using the tender spring leaves of old semi-wild tea tree stock from Chirisan Mountain. It is grown and processed by Dong Cheon for a co-operative of 88 farmers dedicated to natural farming with no pesticides or artificial fertilisers
Dong Cheon decided to call this tea ‘dancha’ (literally ‘cinnabar’ tea) rather than the usual hongcha in reference to the meditative term ‘dantian’. This is an elegant, well structured black tea with a honeyed sweetness and notes of walnut, raisin and milk chocolate. Although it has similarities to some Chinese black teas it is not so explosive aromatically, instead it has a gentle, calming nature and exceptional balance that lasts through many infusions despite the shifting flavour. We recommend brewing this tea with a high leaf/water ratio and enjoying over short, multiple infusions.
Note: When these leaves are processed as a green tea they make our Sparrow’s Tongue.
ORIGIN
88 Small Farmers, Dong Cheon, Hwagae Valley, Korea
SIZE OF FARMS
0.5 acres (average)
PLANTS AND PROCESSING
Camellia Sinensis Sinensis, semi-wild Hadong cultivars. Sejak grade – Harvested last week of April 2019.
BREWING
95°C, 4g per 150ml. 4 infusions.
We have known and worked with many of our tea farmers for over a decade. It was 13 or 14 years ago that we first met Mr Il-Nam Ha and visited his small farm in Bosong. Since then he has moved the heart of ancient Korea tea culture in Hwagae and Jirishan where he started a factory that processes tea from over 80 small farmers with on average just half an acre each. Like at his previous farm, all the farmers he works with farm without chemicals but unlike his old farm many of the trees are several hundred years old and descended from the first tea trees grown in Korea.
The tea fields are the uniform tea fields usually found in east Asia. They are much more rocky and natural, like some of the planting you find in the Wuyi mountains.
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