Korean Ttok-cha

I can honestly say I'd never heard of Ttok-cha* before about one month ago. That was when my well-traveled and highly knowledgeable tea friend Eric Glass, who had recently attended a demonstration on this interesting Korean brew at the Penn State Tea Institute, told Cinnabar and me of his plan to bring a piece to Phoenix Tea and prepare it for us correctly. Although I didn't really know what to expect, I was very excited.

When, at last, the day arrived, I was treated to the following display of olive-pit-charcoal pyrotechnics!

Snap, Crack, Pop and Burn!

After we had our glowing olive-pit coals resting in Cinnabar's brazier, one lucky piece of ttok-cha was carefully roasted for about 10 minutes until it developed a reddish brown color and softened slightly.

While the ttok-cha was being roasted, a glass kettle of spring water was brought to a boil. When it was deemed ready, the ttok-cha was placed in water and kept at a gentle simmer. Eric had planted the "three and a half hour steep time of excellence" seed in my mind. I had complete faith that something magical would happen when this benchmark was reached.

The tea liquor surprised me by turning dark red fairly quickly. We tasted it a couple times at random intervals and these early sips were pleasant enough, but we all knew that they would be nothing when compared to what was soon to come.

The waiting turned out to be easy. Thanks to an unexpected visit from an excitable local newsman and some top notch Da Hong Pao oolong served up by Becky Li we had plenty to occupy our minds.

Unfortunately, Becky and her friend William had to depart at the 3 hour mark. We toasted her visit with some 3 hour ttok-cha. It was great... but it needed something... you guessed it... it needed to steep for about 30 more minutes.

At last, the magic hour arrived! 12,600 seconds after we submerged the ttok-cha, Cinnabar poured the steaming hot, amber colored tea. Shu Shu and I gazed on in wonder and anticipation.

Ahhh. I truly loved it. It is a rich, rosy, fruity, toasty, luscious, complex and fragrant cup of tea. It felt thick and syrupy in my mouth. It made me feel relaxed and comfortable.

Interestingly, after it had simmered for another hour or so, it started losing flavor quickly in my opinion and by the following day it had lost most of its flavor. Even with many hours of steeping behind it, the little tea cake remained intact. It reminded me of a flower, it bloomed beautifully, and then it faded away but it was worth every second.

*It's pronounced something like "doke-cha." Tteok-cha, ddok-cha, and ddeok-cha are a few other fun ways to spell it. Check out this Cha Dao blog post for a better understanding of this old style of Korean tea.

Korean Lotus Root Infusion

My new friend Jason C. (president of the Penn State Tea Institute) recently returned from another one of his Asian tea treks. While he was in Korea I emailed him about my desire for some "primo Korean green tea." Jason didn't find any worthy specimens so instead I was so generously treated to a small can of dried lotus root tea!

The lotus is a beautiful and useful edible plant. It carries deep symbolic meanings for Buddhists. I've eaten lotus root before and found it to be quite delicious but for some reason I'd never thought about infusing it as a herbal tea. As it turns out lotus root tea is a very popular beverage the world over. The folks at Eden Foods state that lotus root tea is a macrobiotic staple and "long valued for its contribution to respiratory health."

I steeped about 8 slices of lotus root in ~8 ounces of boiling hot water for 5 minutes. The resulting cup had a pleasing amber color. The aroma was roasty, earthy and savory and it reminded me somewhat of french fries. The flavor in the mouth was a lovely surprise. It had a sweet, nutty, oolong-like flavor that I found slightly floral and very satisfying. I'm excited to have discovered this exotic infusion.

Korean Green Tea Tasting Notes

I learned quite a bit from attending Yoon Hee Kim's Korean green tea tasting at this year's World Tea Expo. Yoon Hee is a great speaker on the subject of tea and it was clear that she is very passionate about promoting Korean tea traditions. I liked that she stressed the importance of using all five senses during a proper tea tasting to fully understand the flavors as they "peak" and "blossom." At one point she said, "Don't be afraid to get your nose wet," which I think is excellent advice for any tea taster (assuming the tea is not too hot!) She also expressed sadness that we didn't have time to try multiple infusions of these great teas and that she was not able to brew them in proper Korean teaware. However, she did provide real glazed tea cups so that we could avoid the paper-cup-taste that would have otherwise tainted our delicate greens.

One of the many standouts was learning these three steeping terms:

Hah tu - First add the leaves and then pour the water over them. This is how we commonly brew our tea in the West. For Korean tea this method is recommended during cold weather.
Joong Tu - First fill the vessel half full of water, then add the leaves, then add the remaining water. This style was the preferred method for several of Yoon Hee's teas. It is used to control the temperature and the infusion of the leaves. This method may be more common during mild weather.

Sahng Tu - First fill the vessel with water, then add the leaves. I had heard of this method used for Bilouchun (碧螺春) and Dragonwell (龍井茶) when brewed in a glass during hot weather but I have never tried it myself.

For this tasting, we used For Life brand teapots with steel basket infusers. We proceeded to taste six teas. The names of the teas and my tasting notes are below. Unfortunately we are not allowed to take any photos at the World Tea Expo, so you won't be able to see the leaves and liquors.

#1 Sah Wohl Organic Ujeon (brewed Joong tu style)
Aroma = Bright, crisp and very fresh. Taste = Buttery, delicate and sweet

#2 Gamnong Jakseol
Aroma = Roasty, popcorn, warming, crisp. Taste = Refreshing, dry, reminded me a little of sencha.

#3 Misty green organic second flush Saejak
Aroma = Woodsy, nutty, reminded me a little of bancha. Taste = full body, forest, grass

#4 Early Summer Joongack (brewed Hah tu style)
Aroma = fuity, ocean, spice. Taste = thick body, brothy, sweet dew.

#5 Chigarok Hwang Cha (an oolong)
Aroma = wood, rose, wine. Taste = rich and dark, reminded me slightly of keemun.

#6 Bountiful Earth HyunMi Nokcha (blended with toasted rice and steeped for 4.25 minutes)
Aroma = strong and roasty, nutty. Taste = cereal, genmaicha.

All of these teas were really amazing but if I was forced to rank them I would choose this order: 1, 2, 5, 3, 4, 6. The sublime flavor of tea number one still lingers in my memory.