TeaBuy Korea 2020

Morning Crane Tea's

TeaBuyTM Korea 2020

For a simpler look chick HERE

Gogu Day, the pivotal tea plucking day between Woojeon and Sejak in Korea has come and gone so TeaBuy Korea 2020 is here.
The year 2020 is a very important year for Morning Crane Tea as it  marks the 10th Anniversary of my partner, Minhyeong Lee, joining Morning Crane Tea.  Minhyeong enabled us to access the broad range of excellent teas including temple and artisan teas we are able to offer.
For each of us in our own ways, the year 2020 is also a challenging year. The COVID-19 Virus is surrounding all of us and each of us in varying ways. We hope and trust that each of you is safe and virus free. 
Because of these unusual circumstances, Minhyeong and I discussed not having a 2020 TeaBuy because of these unusual challenges. But after a long discussion we decided to go forward and even offer some new teas.  
We are also very aware that a few, or perhaps many of you are experiencing a financial loss that may range from loss in our investments to being out of work and struggling to get by.  Therefore as a part of this year's TeaBuy we are reducing the prices of some of our teas.  We simply can't go lower on any of our teas, but we don't want anyone to be without Korean tea.
We are moving forward and expanding our offerings and reducing some of our prices for everyone as a way to celebrate the 10 years that Mr. Minhyeong Lee has been supporting my efforts.  In addition, Mr. Eric Glass, a knowledgeable tea connoisseur, is joining our team and teas can be ordered directly through him.  He will be taking orders receiving, packing and shipping those teas thus reducing some of my responsibilities in that area. However, unless you know him, I will remain the first contact for most of your tea orders. Contact me here.
I will be introducing Eric in a later post and will help him reach out to potential clients.
Let TeaBuy Korea 2020 Begin:
Morning Crane Tea is again proud to offer an amazing selection of exceptional teas by wonderful producers. In our selections you will find both Jeong-cha and Tteokeum-cha style green teas, a wonderful variety of balhyochas including hwangcha, hongcha Korean ddeokcha and Dancha balhyo. Our new offerings are Korean white tea, that ancient and mysterious Korean tea Dancha and a selection of very interesting Korean herbal teas. We are introducing two traditional Dancha producers Shin Mok who has become a Korean national favorite and whose videos we will be introducing and the tea cult favorite Lady Hadong a truly wonderful tea producer who Mr. Lee and I are getting to know personally - Mr. Lee in person I by texting on-line. It is some of her herbal teas we will be introducing. You may have seen our Facebook post on the creation of Korean Dancha featuring Shin Mok,  and our post on Lady Hadong. (These posts are not up yet - sorry.)
If you have been with us from the early years you may remember a really nice balhyocha made by Dong Cheon Tea also named Dancha. That tea may have been the first Korean balhyocha offered by any Western tea enterprise. It is a wonderful tea and Dong Cheon will be producing it again.
Throughout this post, I will try to link you to comments on our teas.  If the name of the tea is not black it will link you to more about that tea But Don't confuse it with Goryeo Dancha.  
As always, we will be happy to try to answer any questions you may have about our teas and their producers. Each of these teas are from deep-rooted organically grown leaves and can take the heat. 
After considerable prodding, I did post some brewing suggestions in an earlier post and I encourage you to send me your brewing suggestions and comments on our teas.  Thanks for being a member of the Morning Crane Tea Family.

Cooperative Producers

Dong Cheon Tea

Ha Il-Nam

Dong Cheon Tea

 (Jeongcha Style Green)

Dong Cheon green teas are different from nearly all of our other green tea offerings. These teas are produced Jeongcha Style i.e. first plunged into boiling water before pan-roasting.  Dong Cheon Tea is the first company whose teas I offered. That is the reason I'm celebrating by lowering their prices to 2010 prices. It is the choice tea company of some of the Buddhist temples near Seoul and highly respected by Korean tea masters who have told me I made a wise choice. One of the reasons many Dong Cheon teas are reviewed is that in our early years Dong Cheon was the only tea company we represented. Now other companies also sell their teas each having sourced from us or learned about Dong Cheon Tea through us. These teas like all of our teas are from hand-plucked and organically grown leaves from deep rooted bushes. 
A German client wrote a great email about this tea company. In it he said that he had tried many Korean teas but Dong Cheon Teas simply have more "life".

Jaksul (Sparrow Tongue Green Teas)
Note: These are 2010 Prices For You Today

                      Woojeon                  50g               $45.00

                      MuwiSejak             50g                $25.00

                      Sejak                        50g               $20.00

                      Jungjak                    50g               $15.00

                      Daejak                     50g               $10.00

                      Yipcha                    50g                 $5.00

Balhyocha
(Offered if Available)

               DC Dancha                    50g               $22.00                    

I must say a word about Dong Chong's tea they call Dancha. We at Morning Crane Tea were the first to introduce this delicious balhyocha to the Western market and offered it until they no longer produced it.  Then a few years ago they reintroduced it but we did not ask if they were producing it again. DC Dancha (We added the DC) is a delicious balhyocha was originally designated as a Hongcha but lately I see it referred to as a Hwangcha. Whatever the case, it is delicious. However, it must not be confused with the ancient Korean tea type also called "Dancha" that we are introducing as a new offering today. They are both delicious but different teas.   

 

Nong Johap

Tea Union of Jangguncha

Gimhae, Korea

Chung Jong Woo

Jangguncha Yeong

(Highest Rank Tea)

There is an ancient legend that a princess from India sailed to Korea and married the King of Gaya. The year was 42. With her, among other things, were tea bushes that were planted in the mountains near Gimhae. In my tea travels we have met many tea masters. At a special tea ceremony in Daegu not far from Gimhae I asked if the tea bushes in Daegu were the same as those used in Gimhae. The answer was, “No, the tea bushes used in Gimhae come from India. We use the same tea bushes that they use in Hadong." While I can’t say for certain that the tea bushes used by Jangguncha Dawan are actually historically from India, I can say that many refer to these bushes as "large leaf" and that some tea masters believe they are from India.

Their green tteokeumcha is wonderful and their balhyocha is one of my favorites. Their teas sell very quickly in Korea but they reserve a few bags for us. Will you claim yours? 

The story of the Princess from India is readily available on the web.  Is it true? I'll let you decide but thousands of Koreans claim they are descendants from this queen.

Tteokeumcha (Green)

Tteokeumcha             30g          $44.00

Balhyocha (Oxidized)

JD Balhyocha            30g          $33.00

 

Artisan Tea Producers

Jahacha Dawan

(Violet Sunset Tea)

Jeong Jae Yeon

Jahacha Dawan

(Violet Sunset Tea)

(ban balhyocha - hwangcha - Korean yellow tea.
or is it a wan-jeon balhyocha a hongcha? Korean red tea?)

This is truly a “monk discovered” tea, and truly a Grandmother Tea. You may know that Halmoni (할머니) means Grandmother. A monk told our friend Shin In-Suk the wife of the teaware master Park Jong Il and she told me about this great tea. We are the original Western source for this amazing balhyocha and may still be the only Western source. 

Jeong Jae Yeon makes only this one tea. This delicious balhyocha is made like her grandmother made it. She begins quite early, as soon as the leaves begin to appear with woojeon leaves and continues through Jungjak leaves.  It doesn't seem to matter, as they are all delicious.  Halmoni Jeong told me that the monks visit her often to enjoy this wonderful tea.
Jeong Jae Yeon's Halmonicha or "grandmother tea" has become the most posted about Korean balhyocha on the internet for good reason. This is truly a grandmother's tea and a great example of authentic traditional Korean balhyocha - delicious.

Balhyocha (Oxidized)

(2010 Celebration Prices)

Halmonicha           40g               $16.00

The review link for this tea is from the first taste by independent reviewers of this tea. It has gone on to be reviewed many other times and in other languages. AT the time of this review there was still some confusion about Chibnese yellow tea and Korean 'yellow tea' or hwangcha. We had not yet adopted the name Halmonicha or Grandmother tea.

 

Halmonicha         300g             $98.00

Halmonicha is bulk packed in a 300+g bags.

The actual weight is approximately between 320g and 360g

Oh Si-Young and son Oh Jae Hong

Dosim Dawan

Tteokeum-cha (green) and 

Wan Jeon Balhyocha - hongcha- red tea

Dosim Dawan, a father and Son team, can not only boast about their delicious teas but also boast that they own some of the oldest most deep rooted tea bushes in Korea - including the 1000 year old millennium tea tree. Korean tea connoisseurs believe these older bushes provide the most tender and flavorful buds and their deep roots encourage the development of the most cha-qi. I recently received several emails thanking me for their So-ip-cha. Don’t ignore their really wonderful green teas that have also received great reviews.  Dosim Dawan is a tea tour favorite stop.

Tteokeumcha (Green)

 

Sejak                       50g               $28.50

Jungjak                   50g               $19.50

Balhyocha (Oxidized)

So-ip-cha                50g               $28.00

Dae-ip-cha              50g               $14.00

Dae-ip = Large Leaf

Yejeon Dawan

Kim Yu Ja and son Jeon Ju Hyun

Yejeon Dawan

When we arrived at Yejeon Dawan, on one of our tea tours, a couple of our guests, who were tea connoisseurs from Australia, suddenly exclaimed, "This is the one! This is the one!" while hugging each other. Then they explained. They had been to Korea a few years earlier and had visited the Hadong Tea Festival. The rows of tea producers are long and many, so they walked up and down the many rows tasting all of the teas. Then they came to Yejeon Dawan and decided this was truly the best.  However when they returned home the information on Yejeon had been lost. To this tea couple and to many on our tea tours, this is truly a "stand out from the crowd tea producer." Since that tour it has become an Australian favorite.

  

Tteokeumcha (Green)

Woojeon                 40g               $45.00

Sejak                       40g               $22.00

Balhyocha (Oxidized)

wan jeon balhyocha - hongcha - Korean red tea

Junggan-ipcha        40g               $25.00

juggan-ip = Medium Leaf

SOA Dawan

Kim Se Jin

SOA Dawan

There are many artisan tea producer in Boseong and some of the most famous and romantic tea fields are found there.  But we look for more than beautiful bushes and international advertising. After some search, we selected SOA to be our one Boseong representatives. Their teas are excellent. When the famous Korean TV Chef Judy Joo's producers contacted me to help find a Korean tea producer in Boseong for her series "Korean Food Made Simple" I recommended Kim Se Jin.  He knows his teas intimately and is certified organic internationally.

I once gave a bag of SOA Gogucha to a knowledgeable Korean friend who exclaimed on receiving it, "This is the best tea made in Korea! How did you know?"

Tteokeumcha (Green) 

Woojeon                40g               $30.00

Gogucha*                 40g               $24.00

Plucked April 20: 
Note: I have changed the Anglicization of this term to correspond with the Korean Government

Sejak                      40g               $18.00

Jungjak                  40g               $12.00

 Balhyocha (Oxidized)

ban balhyocha - hwangcha- Korean yellow tea

Balhyocha SD       40g               $18.00

Butdangol Dawan

Kim Jong Yeol

Butdangol Dawan

(Forever Existing Temple Tea)

To learn more about Master Kim click here.

Did you click that link? You should! Master Kim is one of the most acclaimed tea producers in Korea. I don’t create posts on many producers. In 2018 a noted Korea tea connoisseur contacted me personally to say that Kim Jong Yeol's Butdangol Woojeon was the best he has ever had, and that is saying a lot. While I obviously have not tried his Woojeon this year, the early spring in Korea is similar to the last 2 years when Master Kim said he produced his finest teas. The teas produced by Kim Jong Yeol truly live up to their outstanding reputation.

Mr. Lee, my Korean tea partner, contacts Master Kim often just to discuss tea.  I have not yet priced the woojeon as that price may vary depending on the quality. But I did lower his prices a little.
Note: In 2019 Master Kim Jong Yeol was awarded the "Best Tteokeumcha" award at the Hadong Tea Festival. Typically that equates to the best.  

Tteokeumcha (Green)

1. Butdangol Woojeon        50g     $55.00

Butdangol = A Place for Buddha

Plucked: April ? – 20

2. Chungiljem Sejak           50g     $35.00

Chungiljem = Above the Crowd

Plucked: April 25 – 30

3. Koom                                 50g     $30.00

Koom = Dream

Plucked: May 1 – 6 a later Sejak

  Balhyocha (Oxidized)

wan jeon balhyocha - hongcha - Korean red tea

1a. Woojeon Balhyo (name pending)  50g     $100.00

Woojeon Balhyo = (name pending)

Plucked: Before April 20^th 

1. Sebyukhangki                        50g     $35.00

Sebyukhangki = The Fragrance of Dawn

Plucked: April 25^th - May 5th

2. Hongiljeom (a hongcha)       50g     $30.00

Hongiljeom = Excellence in the Crowd

Plucked: May 5^th - May 15th

 (Previously named Buttea)

3. Noeulhangki ( a hwangcha)  50g     $30.00

Noeulhangki = The Scent of Sunset

Plucked: May 6^th - May 25th

Blends
Nokcha or Balhyocha with Tisanes (herbals)

       1. Nokcha w Persimmon Leaves   50g     $30.00

       2. Balhyocha w Ginger                  50g     $30.00

 

Note: This is the one producer who gives me his precise plucking dates. Balhyocha producers prefer various leaves for a variety of reasons. An early or later pluck has no bearing on the tea quality but it does influence the flavor. That is why plucking dates are seldom used with balhyocha teas. The above plucking dates are from 2017. 

Temple Tea

Daeheungsa

Monk Wol Woo

Daeheungsa

Haenam, Korea

This is the temple that was the home of the famous ChoUi Korea's great historic Tea Master.  The tea comes from large older tea bushes is hand plucked from these deep-rooted bushes and hand made in the tteokeumcha or buchocha (roasted) traditional manner. When we visit Daeheungsa on our tea tours we hike up the mountain to Cho Ui's hermitage Ilchi-am where some of his famous poems were written and where the same fresh spring water that Cho-Ui used to make his famous teas still runs. Their teas sell fast but they reserve a few bags especially for our clients. Claim yours and you will not be disappointed. Recently two tea connoisseurs expressed how great this tea is.

  

Tteokeumcha (Green)

 Special Tteokeumcha             50g           $58.00 

Special Tteokeumcha             25g           $30.00

Dancha & Tisane

Please see our Blog Post on this Mysterious Tea Dancha

  
Sin Mog

Maewoldang Dawan

Namwon, Korea

Dancha

Note: There are two types of Dancha both are priced the same.  SM Dancha A, that my tea partner Minhyeong Lee continues to rave about is a sweet lighter low % ox cross between green tea and a hwangcha that matures as it ages. The other SM Dancha B perhaps the one you were wondering about is a deep flavored wan-jeon balhyocha that matures into a hu-balhyocha. What does that mean? Ans: A hongcha that matures into a heicha i.e. Black tea

    

 Please designate Goryeo SM Dancha "A" or "B"

Goryeo SM Dancha          100g              $150.00

Goryeo SM Dancha          350g              $500.00

Goryeo SM Dancha          900g            $1250.00

The tea artist Oh Dong-Seop, who uses his artist's name Sin Mog has become a TV tea sensation in South Korea since many TV stations have discovered and featured him and the production of his wonderful Dancha. All of his wild sourced teas sell out completely in Korea but he is reserving some for us.  A man close to nature Sin Mog immerses himself into his tea production. Sin Mog ignores the common approach to tea production and returns to the ancient methods - from wading steams and climbing mountains to finding and plucking the finest wild tea leaves to roasting them over burning wood that he cut and split personally. This is authentic Korean Dancha, produced using historic processes, made by a true master.
A word about Namwon. Namwon is north of Hadong, close to Guyre and right next to Jerisan National Park that is filled with wild tea. You may have heard that Jerisan is the holy mountain for tea.
Visit the beginning of a special post on Master Sin Mog. HERE.
  

Lady Hadong
Hadong, Korea

(Note: Many of Lady Hadong teas are packed in onggi jars. Each jar weights approximately 400g or 500g. 500g is about 1lb 2oz.  Onggi Jars are the jar of choice for storing all sorts of teas. We are still in discussion with Lady Hadong as she is busy most of the days producing teas.) 

  
Korean White Tea      30g                  $30.00

Dancha

LH Dancha A         100g                 $150.00

 LH Dancha B        100g                 $150.00

Tisane Teas - Herbal Tea
 

                     Magnolia bud            40g               $40.00

                     Omija*                      100g             $60.00
                     Chrysanthemum        20g               $50.00 
                     Beet                         200g               $30.00

Note: Tisane Teas were developed for health purposes. You may be allergic or have a health condition that these teas may help or possibly hurt. Please research your tisane selections before purchasing. The Korean term "Omija" is also called *schisandra chinensis. These are not camellia sinensis teas.  

Please help us. What Herbal teas are you looking for?

Lady Hadong makes many tisane teas. We are creating a post on her and her many teas. What are you looking for?

This is Lady Hadong who burst onto the Korean tea scene a few years ago, seemingly out of nowhere, and with her creativity, spirit and innovative methods is quickly making an important name for herself in Korea's Tea World. However, Lady Hadong did not spring out of nowhere. She was literally born to produce tea as a daughter raised and nurtured by a tea farming family. Lady Hadong has what I call 'body knowledge' of tea. The ability to produce exceptional tea is in her pores.  She sells out all of her teas. We are fortunate that she is willing to share some with us at Morning Crane Tea.
Note: Lady Hadong's tisane teas are made at different times of the year including Autumn. We decided to offer a special Lady Hadong tisane tea offering in October. If she has any of her other teas available then we may add them to that offer. Watch for it.

Not Just Ddeokcha

(aka Tteokcha and Doncha)

Note: Last year we offered Ddeokcha in a very special way that resulted unexpectedly in our taking a loss of about $7.00 per client because an offer of a discount from one of the producers did not materialize. This year we simply can't make that offer again. Yet we still believe in this exceptional tea and hope that you will try it. We selected Park Jeom Ja for several reasons. The most important is that of all the producers she is the only single artisan producer we have offered. She is also a long time tea friend and produces her teas green teas the traditional Jeongcha style including 9 quick immersions of tealeaves into boiling water followed by 9 hand roastings using he same processes used by the famous Myungwon Studio. She has discounted her teas for us and we are passing on that discount to you.

Park Jeom Ja
Myungwon Studio 
Gangjin, Korea

Jeongcha Nokcha (Green)

 

  PJJ Woojeon               40g               $55.00   

                    PJJ Sejak                     50g               $45.00

Balhyocha (Oxidized)

                     PJJ Balhyocha           40g               $35.00

Ddeokcha 

                  PJJ Ddeokcha            10 coin            $60.00

This is Park Jeom Ja whom I have known for about 20 years and longer than any other of the producers we offer. She and I used to talk for hours about Korean tea while I was exhibiting and demonstrating my ceramics at the Gangjin Celadon Festival. These discussions had a lot to do with my decision to promote Korean tea. Because of the personal connection, you may wonder why I haven't featured her teas as much as the other producers. Ms Park is the President of the Myungwon Cultural Foundation group in Jeollanamdo and as such has a great following in that area of Korea. She usually sells out completely. This year she is reserving some teas for us - for you.
Park Jeom Ja lives in Gangjin, Jollanamdo Provence where I am told the production of Ddeokcha or Doncha has not ceased for more than 1000 years. It is artisan producers like Park Jeom Ja that really represent the true traditional heart of Korean Tea. 
The Myungwon Cultural Foundation headed by the renowned tea master Chae Won-Hwa is quite famous in Korea for reviving the Korean tea ceremony and training many Korean tea masters.  It is extremely difficult read "impossible" for us to get teas made by Chae Won-Hwa.
I selected Ms Park because she represents the long and important tradition of individual artisans who work not only to produce ddeokcha and other teas but to promote it to the world. We salute her for that lifetime of work.

Discovering Ddeokcha may be one of the most interesting Korean tea adventures, and that adventure can become much deeper and adventuresome than you might imagine.

Special Important Notes:

I know there are some of you who would like to 'test' various teas by splitting an order thus making 50g bags become 25g and 100g balls become 50g etc. If you are one of those, contact me with your request. It may be possible but as they say, "It takes two to tango".   It takes people like the our new producers, Lady Hadong and Shin Mok as well as our other exceptional producers, to both keep the Korean Tea Tradition alive and well and to carry the Korean Tea Spirit to new heights.  In their own ways each of our producers have either continued the historic tradition with pride and/or developed deep insights into production methods and brewing. Each of our tea producers is producing hand plucked, organically grown premium teas. We at Morning Crane Tea are proud of our contribution to Korean Tea over the last 14 years.
I have received comments from several of my clients who have told me I am undercharging our prices for the quality of the teas we offer.  That they would say so is in itself amazing to me. Thank you. But to be fair, these thoughts come from clients I know personally and who also  know I am not a rich man.  Our goal is to cover our costs and we have often gone below that goal.  If you would like to contribute a little to our work to help keep us afloat, you may do so and it would be appreciated. 

We at Morning Crane Tea are proud to represent each of our producers to the wider World of Tea.

All prices are plus shipping. 

That means shipping from Korea to me and shipping from us to you.  This year we will be shipping some onggi jars with our Dancha and Herbal teas. Those jars will add considerable weight. They will not add to the cost of the teas of those who do not order any of the teas with onggi jars. We checked on tea prices without onggi jars but that is not possible at this time.

To Order or Contact me Click HERE

Note: Typically, clients order their teas and receive a preliminary invoice. We will not know full shipping costs until a box is packed. This means we do not add shipping costs until later. It also means that you can add to your order until we ask for your payment.

We have been trying to anticipate the exact shipping costs from Korea so that we can charge you up front.  However, shipping costs have ranged from about .02¢ per g to .08¢ per g.  Should I charge the .08¢?

Please Read This Important Information!

Note: When purchasing teas in our TeaBuy Korea you are placing a special order.  Since we are not a regular tea company, we cannot return funds once the teas have been purchased from the producer. If there is a shipping error and the teas are returned to me, I will pay for the return shipment to you but I cannot refund your purchase or shipment money. Placing your order is your acknowledgement that you understand this policy. Thanks for understanding.

You may also want to read the post An Introduction to TeaBuy Korea  it contains considerable information about picking dates and our company.  Click HERE to go there.
You may also like to read our post on Korean oxidized teas or balhyochas. Chick HERE to go there. 

When we offer TeaBuy Korea, it is a Group Buy. That means that in some cases (not all) the producer offers us a small discount on their normal tea prices. Our clients order their teas at different times. So a customer ordering in April, just after we announce our TeaBuy, must wait much longer than someone who orders in early June. The risk is that the early June clients may discover the tea he or she selects are sold out. We ship most teas from Korea to me in the same box(s) where I must repack them to send to you. That saves you considerably on shipping costs. However, depending on where you live we can send some of those teas directly to you from Korea. We have sold our teas to clients in 28 different countries. However, one or two or even a few different clients from each country does not mean we have a financially strong enterprise.

Those of you returning to TeaBuy Korea will note that some of our tea prices have increased slightly from two years ago. Morning Crane Tea is a tea service. It has never been a profitable business. In fact it simply grew out of a personal need to educate the Western world about quality Korean tea and Korean tea ware. The best Korean teas were not available for tasting, so I had to offer them. During the 14 or so years I have been offering these teas there has never been a profit to speak of.  Expenditures have increased for the advertising part of Morning Crane Tea. As an example, my educational web presence costs surpasses by far any profit I make from our TeaBuy.

In spite of this, I continue to offer some teas at my cost and because of COVID-19 have reduced the prices of many other teas for 2020. If you have been particularly hit financially by this virus, please contact me in private and we will discuss how we may be able to help you to continue to have some Korean teas.
We have been attempting to launch a new Morning Crane Tea website so I am not planning on stopping this tea service. That decision to stop or continue is really up to you and the other members of the Morning Crane Tea Family by your support.

When I began, there was little talk about Korean teas. Few Korean teas were available on the Western market.  While Morning Crane Tea may have had a little to do with the current interest in Korean teas, few tea shops or wholesale tea outlets buy from me. In many cases they went to Korean producers based largely on price. I don't want to imply that other Korean teas are bad, but we have made a concerted effort over our years of research to bring you some of the best teas made in Korea at the most reasonable prices. We are able to access teas from nearly every tea company in Korea. We are looking for more tea shops and wholesale tea suppliers so please send them our way. Thank you for your continuing support and trust.
One other note. For those of you who have "subscribed" on this site, my apologies. I am having difficulty accessing your information. I am not ignoring you. I'm just technologically illiterate - but trying to learn.  

When you order Morning Crane Tea or Teaware, you become a member of the Morning Crane Tea Family.