✨ Hola! Me llamo Soo. Hoy es el doce de agosto en dos mil veinte. Hoy estoy comezando mi experimento “1 day 1 Spanish with my tea.”
No estoy seguro de cuánto tiempo va a durar, pero queiro hablar español con fluidez. Creo que puedo hacerlo con té! 🍵
Deséame una suerte 🤞
Hasta mañana!
Hi! My name is Soo. Today is August 12th in 2020. I am starting my experiment 1 Day 1 Spanish with My Tea. I am not sure how long this experiment will last. But I want to be fluent in Spanish. I think I will be able to do it with my tea! 🍵
I have a love and hate relationship with black tea. Two years ago I had my first allergy attack after drinking chai, which I suspect.
I thought I would be okay, but I wasn’t. So I had to see several doctors.
Time to time I am okay with drinking black tea, but now I know my body will not react well for sure when my immune system is low.
I went to hospital, did my blood testing, the day I had to check my result I suddenly had to go to a tea garden (yeah right…speaking of responsibility), never checked my result 🙄 (ugh my money $$$). I had to fly out, so I haven’t checked the result at all.
Deep in down, I was so afraid that my test result will have caffeine as an allergen. I mean how could I enjoy tea as I have been, if I knew I had caffeine as an allergen?
Now that’s a toxic relationship.
It’s been two years, but today I could feel the allergy attack was coming again. After eating tea infused food, suddenly my throat was getting tight, my body was getting goosebumps (these goosebumps don’t go away until body recovers). I’ve had the same tea before many times, but today was the first time I reacted not well.
I have been working overnights with very little sleep or no sleep, so my immune system must have been extremely low. This afternoon, I felt like I was getting poisoned for moments.
I love tea, but there is no “I ♥️ tea” if I don’t exist anymore.
I am ready to embrace the test result. I am going to see whether I can pull out my test result online or something. If not, I will re-examine.
With coronavirus and everything, I am witnessing more and more how my life is so fragile. It’s like a glass. Just like glass is made out of sand enduring incredibly high temperature, maybe I am stronger than before with my experience and life skills.
But anything can happen in life, so to our fragile lives, one incident can take us down.
This is my note to self. Don’t take today for granted. Take care of yourself. Stop being stupid. Get out of a toxic relationship (hopefully with tannins).
Do you want to learn about Korean green tea? Start from here! This is the basic guideline for the Korean green tea and tea grading system based on the current regulation by the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service (NAQS) in South Korea.
The world of Korean tea can be confusing with different terminology, history, and custom.
Before I overwhelm you with details, I decided to prepare this basic guideline, so you can understand the basic terms and how the tea grading system works in South Korea.
The Rule of Law and Enforcement
In 2015, the NAQS introduced the first tea grading system to organise and standardize the artisan loose leaf tea market.
The regulation is controversial til today because the major tea grading system is solely based on harvesting time.
This means if you are growing tea in colder weather where tea buds come out later than the warmer region in South Korea, you might lose a chance to sell your quality tea under a certain name that consumers acknowledge and pay a premium.
Curious about the overall law and enforcement for the tea industry in South Korea? Korean Tea Industry.
Want to know about the specific law and enforcement for the tea grading system in South Korea? Korean Tea Grades.
* They are all written in Korean.
The Official Korean Tea Grades
우전 Ujeon = Woojeon (雨煎)
Grade Name: Ujeon Meaning: Before the grain rain (gogu, 穀雨). Harvesting Time: Before Gogu (-4.19) Harvest: First harvesting/plucking Leaves: Two leaves and a bud
Tasting Note: A tasting evaluation is non-regulatory. I opted out the tasting notes for this post.
곡우 Gogu (穀雨)
Grade Name: Gogu Meaning: The first spring rain Harvesting Time: 7 days within Gogu (4.20-4.27) Harvest: First harvesting/plucking Leaves: Two leaves and a bud
Honestly, I’ve never heard of Gogu as a tea grading before I read the regulation.
People don’t use it except the government official who probably doesn’t drink any artisan tea.
Gogu is known as one of the seasonal days in Spring. It’s an important day for agriculture. That’s about it.
source: osulloc
세작 Sejak (細雀)
Grade Name: Sejak Meaning: A sparrow’s small and thin tongue Harvesting Time: 4.28-4.30 Harvest: First or second harvesting/plucking Leaves: Three leaves and a bud
image source: cholocwon
중작 Joongjak (中雀)
Grade Name: Joongjak Meaning: A sparrow’s medium tongue Harvesting Time: 5.1-5.31 Harvest: First or second harvesting/plucking Leaves: Three leaves and a bud
I only had roasted green tea in Daejak.
대작 Daejak (大雀)
Grade Name: Daejak Meaning: A sparrow’s large tongue Harvesting Time: After June 1 Harvest: Third-fourth harvesting/plucking Leaves: tea leaves
The Daily Korean Tea Grades (Unofficial)
Apart from Ujeon, Sejak, Joongjak, Daejak, there are also newly created and commonly used terms.
Geographically, it is very rare to harvest tea leaves in South Korea before April.
However with climate changes, sometimes tea farms harvest tea buds earlier than usual. With these tea buds, tea farms make the most tender and delicate tea.
These teas are sold as Teuk Ujeon means Supreme Ujeon, a higher version of Ujeon. It generally costs $100-150 USD for 30-40g.
But that’s what tea companies say. To me, it is another bad sales tactic. If I compare Teuk Ujeon to Ujeon, I barely see a difference or no difference at least on the internet. If you tried Teuk Ujeon that is truly superior to Ujeon, please let me know.
엽차 Yeop Cha
Grade Name: Yeop Cha Meaning: loose leaf tea Harvesting Time: After June 1 Harvest: Fifth harvesting/plucking Leaves: tea leaves and stems
You can easily purchase Yeop Cha from common Korean supermarkets such as Homeplus or Emart.
Since Yeop Cha is considered as the lowest tea grade that consumers don’t bother to pay a premium, I think NAQS opted out this category within the tea grading system.
For example, I purchased 150g of Yeop Cha less than 5 USD from Homeplus.
But you know what? Just because the market determines what is high and low quality doesn’t mean it carries the same value to you. I like Yeop Cha as much as Ujeon.
source: teazen
작설차 Jaksul Cha = 세작 Sejak
Many Korean teas are associated with a sparrow. I am not sure what’s so important about Korean tea and how it resembles a sparrow’s tongue, which is not even appealing. Anyway, Jaksul means a sparrow’s tongue. Jaksul Cha is usually equivalent to Sejak.
source: sundawon
우전 Ujeon = 첫물차 Cheotmul Cha
Cheotmul Cha means the first flush, usually means Ujeon.
Remember in order to sell tea under the name Ujeon, a producer needs to follow the official guideline?
What happens if there is a tea farm that gets tea buds later than usual and fails to prepare tea before the deadline?
Risk fines (under $10,000 USD) and sell tea as Ujeon anyway.
Sell Ujeon under Cheotmulcha, which means first flush tea.
Ujeon has the highest branding power, so Cheotmulcha is sold cheaper than Ujeon. This means you can purchase tea as good as Ujeon and pay less.
Although I love bargains I don’t wanna rip off hard-working farmers. This is one of the reasons why I think the regulation needs to be changed.
For Your Information, Cha = Tea
Cha means tea in Korean. So whenever you see the word cha, you can use tea interchangeably.
Jaksul Cha (작설차) = Jaksul tea
Dumul Cha (두물차) = Dumul tea
Ujeon Cha (우전차) = Ujeon tea
Lastly, Tea is cultural. Just because a certain term sounds cool, you can’t apply it everywhere.
When it comes to East Asia or any place, respecting originality is your best move, unless you have a legitimate reason.
While I am writing this post, I’ve noticed more and more tea companies in the West categorized Korean tea as sencha. Sencha is the term for Japanese tea.
If you are an avid tea drinker, you can easily notice that Korean sencha sounds as awkward as Sri Lanka Darjeeling or Yunnan FTGFOP. There is no reason to call any Korean tea as sencha unless a specific reason is backed up.
Are you considering to introduce Korean tea to the market? Please research or consult a professional before you mistakenly use a symbol or terminology.
Foreign affairs are no joke. No matter how your intention is innocent, your ignorance can put you in danger.
I hope this post helped you to understand some tea terms and the grading system for Korean tea.
Due to bushfires in Australia, I’ve been breathing heavily smoky air for more than a month. It’s been very frustrating to experience how the toxic air significantly affected my breathing.
My nose feels blocked. My throat feels dry. I can’t do a sensory evaluation of teas. Then, I decided to get some help from my beloved friend, tea.
Medical Disclaimer: This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please consult with your physician with any questions that you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you read in this article.
Teas for Breathing, Lung Cleanse, and Your Overall Respiratory System
Tea comes from a plant called Camellia Sinensis. Depends on how tea leaves are processed, the result becomes one of the six tea categories.
All tea contains caffeine that acts as a bronchodilator. A bronchodilator is a substance that dilates the passages that air travels through. A bronchodilator helps respiratory muscles to relax, creates less resistance in the airways, therefore, increases airflow to and from the lungs.
Although all tea contains similar chemical compounds such as caffeine, catechins, theanine, polyphenol, and so on, you can find more medical studies related to green and black tea due to its popularity.
White Tea
White tea is made from the youngest, tender baby tea leaves in spring. White tea undergoes the least processing, yet still complex to make, and contains characteristics of delicacy, flowery, mild, and spring. When I drink white tea, orchids generally pop up in my mind.
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Green Tea
Why green tea and black tea look so different when they come from the same plant? That’s because of a different oxidation level. Green tea is unoxidized, black tea is fully oxidized. It’s so hard to generalize a tea because there are different types of tea within each tea category. However, green tea generally contains characteristics of raw, grassy, savory / umami. Premium green tea tastes sweeter and more floral.
Yellow Tea
Yellow tea is very rare and hard to produce. It provides all the health benefits of green tea, yet tastes milder and sweeter.
Oolong Tea
Oolong is a semi-oxidized tea in between 8-75% oxidation level and contains characteristics of fruity, floral, or smoky when the oxidation level is high.
Black Tea
Black tea is fully-oxidized and contains characteristics of malty, sweet, and robust.
Dark Tea
Dark tea undergoes microbial fermentation and is a fermented tea. The most famous fermented tea is pu-erh.
Caffeine and anti-inflammatory
You will breathe better when caffeine is consumed in moderate depends on your health condition. However, when you consume too much caffeine, it can cause trouble to breathe. For example, my heart pumps too fast and I feel uncomfortable to breathe when I drink a coffee (generally 1 cup of coffee contains caffeine equals to 3~7 cups of tea)
Tisanes
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Lemon Myrtle
The most concentrated source of plant citral (>90%). Citral contains powerful antimicrobial and antifungal properties, which are even superior to those of terpene hydrocarbons found in the renowned tea tree oil. This herb has stronger lemon scents than lemon but tastes delightful without acidity or sourness. It’s also nice for steam therapy.
Peppermint
Menthol, the main chemical component of peppermint, is an effective decongestant. Decongestants shrink the swollen membranes in the nose, making it easier to breathe. Menthol is also an expectorant. Expectorants loosen and bring up mucus from the lungs.
Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus leaves are rich in antioxidants and decrease mucus and expand the bronchi and bronchioles of your lungs.
One 12-week study gave 32 people with bronchial asthma either 600 mg of eucalyptol or a placebo per day. Those in the eucalyptol group required 36% less medication to control their asthma symptoms, compared with those in the control group, who needed 7% less
Licorice
Licorice is recommended to treat respiratory problems. Taking licorice as an oral supplement can help the body produce healthy mucus. Increasing phlegm production may seem counterintuitive to a healthy bronchial system. However, the opposite is true. The production of clean, healthy phlegm keeps the respiratory system functioning without old, sticky mucus clogging it.
Butterfly Pea Flower
Butterfly Pea acts as an expectorant and has shown to reduce the irritation of respiratory organs, useful in treating colds, coughs, and even asthma.
Ginger
Ginger helps to break down mucus, making it easier for your body to expel air. It also helps improve circulation to the lungs and reduces inflammation. One way to ingest ginger is to boil chopped ginger in water, strain the ginger out, add honey and drink it as a tea.
