▲ Myeongin Dawon / CEO Park Su-geun

Foggy and humid and sharp rise and drop of temperature in Hadong County has made it a perfect location to grow tea. A story goes that the envoy Daereom came back with tea seeds from Tang Empire during the reign of the King Heungdeok of Silla who asked him to plant the seeds in Jiri Mountain, the ancient book Samguk Sagi records. 

The teas grown in Hadong County in particular were for the royals for a long time for excellent quality. Today, around 2,000 tea growers are cultivating green tea here and one of them is South Korea’s first handmade green tea master Park Su-geun.

Park started to learn tea growing at the age of 16 from his father and father’s friend monk Yangeum. The family business now has passed down three generation with the very secrets for ultimate taste intact alongside running Myeongin Dawon, a tea house in Hwagae-myeon, Hadong County.

“There are many tea growers in the county. The difference we have is that we make tea by a traditional method called ‘gujeung-gupo’. The method roasts tea leaves 9 times in an iron pot at 160 degree Celsius and dries them for 2 hours and 30 minutes. The result is bitter-free but deep fragrance of the tea leaves. Even after around 10 times of adding hot water again and again, the fragrance keeps its place” explains tea master Park.

Apart from green tea, Park makes teas for autumn and winter in limited quantity of 200 boxes and 20~30 boxes respectively. Those who are fond of seasonal teas are recommended to try as many of them already are in love with them. 

Also, the salt roasted for 36 hours in a red clay kiln at 800~1,200 degrees Celsius, according to Park, releases heavy metals in our body such as cadmium and it makes blood clean and helps digestion. 

It is notable that Myeongin Dawon was appointed as the Tea of the Year at the 1998 Hadong Culture Festival and Park listed his name in the Food Master No.16 by the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in 1999. He also received an honorary plaque of the international tea master in 2001 and appeared himself in the TV series Sikgaek in 2008 as a handmade green tea master.

Park’s diligence and passion did not stop there. He introduced ‘tteok-cha’ which had been kept secret for three generations and renamed as ‘Sugeun-kicha’ following his name. A 1kg pack of Sugeun-kicha was sold at 25 million won ($21,000), the most expensive tea in the world at the time of the selling.