The Story Behind Our Name and Symbol For Morning Crane Tea:

The Story Behind Our Name and Symbol For 

Morning Crane Tea:

This is the story behind the name I chose for our tea enterprise and the symbol I selected to represent it.
On one of our earliest trips to Korea I had received a grant to produce a video on Korean ceramics.  One very early morning we were traveling in Chollanamdo through a beautiful valley that had been designated to be flooded to create a fresh water lake. Crossing that magnificent valley, while also knowing that nearly everything I saw would soon be under water was a sad experience. But I also knew that Korea is surrounded on 3 sides by water - salt water. Korea also has many mountain springs but at that time Korea was in desperate need of more fresh water.
It was early in the morning and the sun was still very low in the eastern ski. A small river paralleled the road and out of a stand of young bamboo a beautiful white egret flew along the river and turned to its right, away from the road, and landed in a huge tree. “Look at that crane!” the driver said. I was already looking, and to be honest, at that time I’m not sure I would have been able to argue the difference between an egret and a crane - since then my knowledge of birds has greatly improved.
I could see that the tree was filled with birds so I asked the driver to drive closer to it. He turned right and drove across a rickety wooden bridge, stopping about fifty yards from the tree. We didn’t want to disturb the birds. I grabbed my video camera. The tree was filled with egrets and heron. Near the top the egrets silhouetted against the morning sun were working together to build a nest. We stayed for some time absorbing that amazing scene. At the same time, we were remembering that within the summer a dam would be built and that tree, along with the entire valley, would be flooded and these birds would have to find another home. It is still a poignant memory.
About ten years later I was exhibiting my teaware at the Chassabal Festival aka Teabowl Festival in Mungyeong. I was selling quite well especially to the monks. Then an elderly Korean gentleman approached my booth and looked at my work.  He asked how often I drank Korean tea and what did I know about it. He went on to say that he would not buy teaware from someone who did not drink Korean tea every day. I didn’t even have access to Korean tea in the USA but his words haunted me.
When I returned to Seoul, I went to my favorite tea shop and spoke with my favorite tea producer Ha Ilnam from Dong Cheon Tea and asked him if he sold tea internationally. He said he did sell in England because his son lives in England. “Would you be willing to allow me to offer your teas in America?”, I asked.  He immediately agreed.  Thus I had a tea enterprise. But I didn't have time to make it an on-line tea shop so I simply absorbed it under the work I try to do at Morning Earth Korea - promoting Korean culture, particularly ceramics and now tea. 

I had to come up with a name. I remembered that incident with the tree full of birds. The name “Morning Egret Tea” just didn’t sound right. Thus we have a symbol depicting egrets for a tea enterprise named Morning Crane Tea.
"We may not know our birds", but after 15 years, we do know our Korean teas.  Join us on TeaBuy Korea 4355 aka 2022.