Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Green Tea

We have been drinking a lot of great Korean green tea. Mr. Oh taught us the winter technique for making green tea Korean style. The tea set usually includes a water bowl along with teapot and small cups. First, boiling water is poured into the teapot, the water bowl, and all the cups.



Next the water is poured out of the warmed-up teapot and the tea is placed in the teapot.

The tea is then allowed to sit in the warm teapot to begin to open up.

Water is then poured from the water bowl into the teapot. This water has cooled down to about 80 centigrade.  The important thing is that the water is not too hot for the brewing, but all the utensils have been warmed so that the tea does not cool even more when you pour it into the cups.

The tea is then poured into the heated cups. 

Naomi is demonstrating the polite way to hold your cup. There are a lot of rules of etiquette in Korea... Although they are very forgiving of foreigners who mess up, it is fun to try to be polite especially because wherever we go it seems like people are very kindly serving us tea.  

After the first pour  the tea is poured into the pouring bowl and passed around. Each time the teapot is refilled with water and poured brings out different aromas and flavors in the tea- the second is supposed to be the best.

6 comments:

klineola said...

Makes me want to gather some pots and make some tea. I like the way the process involves all of the pots. Is it cold in there? Everybody's wearing coats. I know that in Japan they have special heaters under tables surrounded by blankets. Are there wood stoves in Korea?

Ron said...

I'm having my morning tea right now. Sarah always warms her cup. I'm too lazy, maybe I'll be more mindful to do that.
Liked the clay post. It will great to see you get into the making.

Tracey Broome said...

Thanks so much for this blog. I love Korean pottery and seeing this tea blog is just wonderful. I have a bowl of yours that I got at Crimson Laurel and enjoy very much with a small cup that I got while visiting Shawn Ireland. I'll have to share this post with my daughter, she is all about tea right now!

Niel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Niel said...

Y'all are bloggin' it up! Thanks so much for posting the info about your trip. Hey, I had my morning tea too. Earthenware cup heated with hot water...water dumped out and fresh, filtered hot water added...earthenware cup tea bagged with Twinings Earl Grey...honey, lemon added...sipped with pinky finger extended. Would it be rude if I extended my middle finger instead?

ps Sorry about the deleted post. I followed the trash can icon on the post to see what would happen.

Michael and Naomi said...

Niel- Hey! Thanks for writing! You are having your tea "doctor style." Kline, we'll probably do a whole post on the heating situation here. It's not too cold - there is a space heater, and our beds are on heating pads. Also, most houses (not Mr. Oh's studio) have in-floor heating, and everyone just sits on the floor all the time.