Jilsiru, the most popular traditional tea shop in the Korean capital is owned by Yoon Sook-ja, who is also a professor of traditional Korean food at Baewha Women's College. Hereby She spoke about tea, her shop, and Korea's tea traditions.
Jilsiru's Korean tea menu changes with the seasons. "We don't just eat and appreciate seasonal fruits and flowers," says Yoon, "but by ingesting the season's bounty as tea, our bodies assimilate the season's vital energy or chi." Traditional teas embrace centuries-old wisdom used to link human life to nature. Just as we naturally desire water after eating salty foods, explains Yoon, teas made with seasonal ingredients provide elements our bodies crave at particular times of the year.
 | Teas, front to back: Chestnut skin and honey; ginger and persimmon; magnolia vine and aloe; fermented green tea flowers; ginseng, jujube, and rice; quince and honey; dried mugwort; jujube and shelf fungus |
Jujube and ginger
Indeed, Jilsiru's tea menu reveals a list of ingredients few Japanese have ever consumed in the form of tea: shelf fungus, jujube, ginger, aloe vera, Chinese magnolia vine, rice, and chestnut skins. Deep red jujube and shelf fungus tea is served in a cup slightly larger than that used for Japanese green tea, with slivers of jujube and pine nuts floating on top. One sip and the subtly sweet flavor of jujube tinged with the slightly sour flavor of apple fills the palate. This tea gradually warms the body from the core, reinvigorating the weary traveler. We tasted it soon after coming in from outdoors where the temperature was -7 degrees Celsius, and this traditional winter brew provided most welcome comfort.
Another winter favorite is mogwa-cha (Chinese quince tea), which is high in vitamin C and helps prevent colds and suppress coughs. But the brew believed to be the best curative for colds is nokdae-botang (deer antler tea): a cube of clear jelly made by boiling deer antler for two days and then refrigerating the liquid. Added to a hot tea, it is said to alleviate colds by instantly warming the body.
A tea for all seasons
Koreans ingest the chi of spring by drinking jindallae-hwachae (azalea blossom tea), believed to be good for diabetes and lowering blood pressure. In summer they drink fragrant yellow song-
hwa-misu (pine pollen and honey) tea, which helps the heart and lungs, as well as relieving heat fatigue. And in autumn? The drink of choice is omija-hwachae ("five-taste" tea, from the fruit of the Chinese magnolia vine), which is rich in organic acids and helps suppress coughs and soothe dry throats.
Year-round in their homes, Koreans brew grain teas made from roasted corn or barley and a "tea" they flavor by boiling water in rice-cooking pots with the scorched rice still stuck to the bottom. In the last 10 years, even younger Koreans (who once consumed coffee, Coke, and other Western beverages), have been rediscovering the benefits of traditional teas steeped in more than 700 years of heritage.
The Confucian factor
Why haven't green and black teas steeped with leaves of Camellia sinensis taken hold in Korea as they have in neighboring China and Japan? Their absence stems from Confucianism's infiltration in the 14th century. According to Korea's oldest history book, Samguk Sagi (Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms), the custom of drinking tea spread to Korea from China together with Buddhism.
During the Choson Dynasty (1392-1910), however, Confucianism became Korea's national religion and tea production, which had been intimately linked to Buddhist temples, disappeared as Buddhism fell into decline. From then on, Koreans applied their health knowledge to developing teas using medicinal ingredients. Along with Confucianist principles such as respecting one's elders, the concept "food is medicine" became firmly ensconced in the minds of the Korean people, and medicinal teas became a staple.
Traditional Korean tea also differs from Japanese and Chinese tea in that certain varieties are only served cold. Mountains, rivers, and natural springs are abundant on the Korean peninsula, so pure water is plentiful. Moreover, the waters from these rivers and springs vary subtly in taste from one region to the next and are suitable for drinking as they are. Thus, cold traditional teas embrace the Korean wisdom of assimilating nature's chi, unfiltered, for health.
So where can one sip traditional Korean teas? In Seoul, tea "cafÈs" are springing up one after another. The traditional teas they sell, replete with ancient wisdom, show no sign of losing their popularity. (Make a visit to Kyoungdong—Seoul's wholesale Oriental medicine market where more than 1,000 shops bustle with customers—and the tea trend will be confirmed.)
Professor Yoon is equally optimistic: "After all, kimchi is already eaten worldwide. Why shouldn't traditional tea be the next thing to represent Korean culinary culture? It contains 700 years of Korean wisdom—and it's healthy." She also points out, "Improved health is not the only benefit. Most teas are a colorful feast for the eyes, and time spent sipping liberates the spirit." Indeed, tea's spiritual aspect is something she wants to convey to the next generation.
The tea ceremony, or chanoyu, is an aesthetic pastime unique to Japan that features the serving and drinking of macha, a powdered green tea. Though tea had been introduced into Japan from China around the eighth century, matcha did not reach the country until the end of the twelfth century. The practice of holding social gatherings to drink matcha spread among the upper class from about the fourteenth century.
Gradually one of the main purposes of these gatherings, which took place in a shoin (study), became the appreciation of paintings and crafts from China in a serene atmosphere. Under the influence of the formalities and manners that regulated the daily life of the samurai, who were then the dominant class in Japanese society, there developed certain rules and procedures that the participants in these tea parties were required to follow. This was the origin of the tea ceremony. The form of chanoyu that is practiced today was established in the second half of the sixteenth century, during the Momoyama period, by the tea master Sen no Rikyu.
Chanoyu involves more than merely enjoying a cup of tea in a stylized manner. The ceremony developed under the influence of Zen Buddhism, the aim of which is, in simple terms, to purify the soul by becoming one with nature. The true spirit of the tea ceremony has been described by such terms as calmness, rusticity, gracefulness, and the "aestheticism of austere simplicity and refined poverty." The strict canons of chanoyu etiquette, which at first glance may appear to be burdensome and meticulous, are in fact carefully calculated to achieve the highest possible economy of movement. When performed by an experienced master, they are a delight to watch. Chanoyu has played an important role in the artistic life ofthe Japanese people. As an aesthetic pursuit, the tea ceremony involves the apprecia- tion of the room in which it is held, the garden attached to the room, the utensils used in serving the tea, and the decor of the setting, such as a hanging scroll or a flower arrangement. Japanese architecture, land- scape gardening, ceramics, and flower arranging all owe a great deal to the tea ceremony. It was the spirit of chanoyu, representing the beauty of studied simplicity and harmony with nature, that molded the basis of these traditional forms of Japanese culture. Moreover, the kind of formalities observed in the tea ceremony have influenced the develop- ment of the manners of the Japanese in a fundamental way.
After the death of Sen no Rikyu in 1591, his teachings were handed down from generation to generation by his descendants and disciples. Different schools were established and have continued to be active to the present day. Among them, the Urasenke School is the most active and has the largest following. These schools differ from one another in the details of their rules, but they maintain the essence of the ceremony that the great master developed. This essence has continued to the present day unchallenged, and respect for the founder is one element that all schools possess in common.