Hadong green tea (하동 녹차)

Hadong, in the south of the peninsula, is the district most closely tied to the memory of tea in Korea. The tradition holds that tea seed was brought from the Tang court in the reign of Heungdeok of Silla and planted on the slopes of Jirisan, and the Samguk Sagi is the usual authority cited for the account. Monasteries of the mountain kept tea through the centuries of Goryeo and Joseon, and the cultivation of the valley around Hwagae is carried today by farming families and temple tea-makers. The tea belongs to the broader tradition of Korean leaf tea, drunk as an act of hospitality and of quiet at the table, beside the grain teas and the fruit infusions of Chapter VI.

Hadong green tea is made from the leaf of Camellia sinensis, grown on steep, terraced and often wild-set bushes in the mist of the Seomjin valley. The leaf is picked in spring, the first flush by the Gogu-u season of late April being the finest, then fixed by heat in the pan, rolled and dried; Korean makers favour pan-firing in an iron cauldron, which gives a gentler, rounder leaf than the steamed Japanese method. The grades are named by the picking: ujeon, the earliest and smallest bud, then sejak, jungjak and daejak as the leaf grows larger and later. The dry leaf is dark green and twisted; the infusion is pale gold to light green, clear, and sweet at the finish. A Geographical Indication exists for Hadong green tea.

Hadong green tea is drunk after a meal and between courses of rice-cake and yugwa confections, and with the sweets of hangwa, where its light astringency clears the honey and glutinous rice from the palate. It is taken with temple food, which is lightly seasoned and leaves the delicate flavours of the tea intact. It is not served with chilli-heavy or strongly fermented dishes, whose force would overwhelm the cup. The structural reason is balance: the tea offers a faint bitterness and a clean sweetness that answer sugar and oil, but have no power against the heat of gochugaru.