Tuesday, November 24, 2009

In Korea, waiting to hop over to Guang Zhou

Greeting to all from Korea. Happy Thanks Giving Turkey Day!

8 comments:

Herb Master said...

I hope you have taken your camera

Maitre_Tea said...

what are you doing in Korea, there's no tea there!
(from my understanding, the tea culture there is surprisingly nascent for an Asian country)

LACheesemonger said...

@MT: She probably got a 1-stop flight, as they are *much* less expensive than non-stop/direct flights, more options 4 arrival/departure times.

Don't be silly, they drink plenty of tea in Corea :p, maybe not as much of a connoisseur tea society, but then most Asians in that part of the world, just drink simple tea, most days.

U can get a less expensive fugu tasting meal in Seoul, than in Japan...do u feel lucky?

Anyway, Imen was probably stuck in an airport cafe 4 a few hrs & bored, guess she got her laptop connected via Wi-fi @Starbucks? lol

Hey Imen, ur not going to tweet 4 these blurbs?

Alain said...

@"Maitre" tea
Some Korean teas are really great ones...Green and red teas from Jiry mountain and Hwagae valley....and they drink tea since over 1500years.
If you want to learn about Korean teas...
http://mattchasblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/disambiguation-of-jiri-mountain-chiri.html

tieguanyin said...

Yes M_T, troll around Matt's blog. There is definitely a tea culture in Korea. Unlike Japan and China, they are not big on exporting their teas. Beware, given all the pretty pictures, you just might get hooked on Korean teaware ;)!

Maitre_Tea said...

Sorry if I implied that there's no good tea in Korea...I've been pretty happy with the few that I've tried...I've just heard from my Korean friends that tea culture there is fairly small compared to the number of "serious" tea drinkers you find in places like China, Taiwan, Japan, HK, etc.

Than there's MarshalN's "gripe about the lack of tea there...
http://marshaln.xanga.com/687331924/finding-tea-in-korea/

Matt said...

Marshal'N is right.

It is hard to find tea in Korea, never mind good tea. This is mainly true to the fast-pace, go-go, capitalist Korea of Today.

The tea culture in Korea is more of a subculture as the average Korean is wrapped up in the hurries of everyday life. Gulping down, disgusting, sugared down instant coffee from individual packets or from that all too familiar instant coffee vending machine before heading back to work.

What is most interesting is that the current growth of tea culture in Korea is a direct response, or reaction to, this never-enough-time-in-a-day attitude. What is perhaps even more interesting is that without that strong capitalist push years ago, Korea's tea culture might have went into complete extinction.

When overwhelmed by the bustle of the big Korean cities, blink and you will surely miss Korea's tea culture. Seeking out that small shop in some alley in the traditional part of town, and you are sure to experience it.

Peace

Imen said...

Herb master,

I took over 4k pictures, a bit too much to organize. I'll try my best to get some up in the next few days.

cheesemonger,

It wasn't that much of a difference in price. I almost regret spending $60 less for 6 hours of waiting at an airport. Turns out it was a nice airline and flying time (including transfer wait time) some how is the same as other direct airline. Plus free computer with wifi, I am happy with this Korean airline. Pretty flight attendants in case you want to know. :p

Everyone else:

I know very little about korean tea culture except a few videos here and there regarding tea performance.

While I was at the tea culture meeting, Japan and Korean representatives are regular attendants of such annual meeting. Korea also import tea from China base on China's tea trend. I had a few Korean customers asking for Pu-erh in the past couple of years.

It may not seem as popular as in China or Japan, cultivation of tea is also not on top of the Korean government list.

This is a topic of economy and marketing a foreign country which I have no knowledge of. So I'll leave it at that.

Nice to see you all so passionate about tea culture (any tea culture). I'd love to learn more from all of you. :)