Friday, February 3, 2017

Life/Culture/K-Food : Strange Tea in Korea???

Most of COUNTRIES in EAST NORTHERN of ASIA are RELATED to either BUDDHISM,CONFUCIANISM or TAOISM. You must be WONDER why I suddenly TELLING you this and what is the RELATION between these FAITHS with the TOPIC for TODAY isn't it?? Since these THREE faith is popular in East Northern of Asia COUNTRIES, TEA play such an IMPORTANT roles in their DAILY life. I LOVE to write about COFFEE but somehow why I mentioned TEA now??O-o

Did my TASTE bud CHANGE?? lol In these THREE faith, TEA is NOT just a TEA but there is a SYMBOLIC meaning behind the TEA ceremony. For today I will NOT explain about it though.ㅋㅋ NO worries! I need to STUDY a lot if I WANNA write about that!ㅋㅋ. Lets talk about it in LIGHT way.ㅋㅋㅋ

We are AWARE that most of KOREAN practice CONFUCIANISM aspect in their DAILY life regardless what their RELIGION is. That's mean TEA ceremony is ONE of BASIC that they should KNOW at home, but in these MODERN era, I'm NOT sure if every Korean YOUNGSTERS knows about this TRADITION well. For THOSE who ever BEEN in KOREA, I am sure MOST of us seen COFFEE Cafes are ALMOST everywhere COMPARE to TEA cafe isn't it?? COFFEE culture is totally a DIFFERENT lifestyle, abruptly took OVER their TRADITION, its more to WESTERN culture. 😒 

Back to the TOPIC, at my COUNTRY, we DON'T have many POPULAR type of TEA, if you asking around we normally either have NORMAL tea or TEA with MILK which is FAMOUS as TEH TARIK! However in KOREA, they have VARIOUS kind of tea, Some TEA might be WEIRD for us as FOREIGNERS! I mean NEVER thought or HEARD about it! It's like a NEW world to me when I HEARD about it at Korea!ㅋㅋㅋ TEA in Korea known as CHA. Now lets take a look at some of their TEA.

Have you ever HEARD about JOB'S TEARS Tea and SOLOMON'S SEAL Tea?? The NAMES of tea itself is WEIRD isn't it?lol Well maybe because they TRANSLATED it to ENGLISH name??ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ For KOREAN name I guess its just FINE.ㅋㅋ JOB'S TEARS Tea or known as YULMU- CHA(율무차) is very HIGH in PROTEIN, one of FAVORITE beverage among Korean sipping in BETWEEN of classes. This tea also known as best beverage in helping STUDENTS to do EXCELLENT in their ACADEMIC if taken daily. Well I have NO idea since I'm NOT a Korean.ㅋㅋ For those who like THICK and SOUPY tea, YULMU-CHA might be your BEST choice as it been made by COMBINATION powder of JOB'S TEARS, a grain plant and nuts like WALNUT or sometimes they use BLACK BEANS.

Next is SOLOMON'S SEAL Tea. Solomon's Seal Tea is very FAMOUS among Korean and they said its COMMON to get this tea at any GROCERY store. However if you ASKING them using the ENGLISH name, it might make them CONFUSED ㅋㅋㅋ, instead tell them that you WANNA DOONGGUL-RAE-CHA. (둥굴레차) This tea is LIGHT, NUTTY and SLIGHTLY sweet, even you LEFT it for a long time, it DOESN'T brew heavy. Doonggul-rae-cha is GOOD to keep your body MOISTURE and COOL.

CHUNMA-CHA(천마차) is another STRANGE tea type. Why I SAID it strange, let's HEAR about it ENGLISH name first, TALL GASTRODIA and CORNFLAKES tea. CORNFLAKES tea?? Isn't that WEIRD??ㅋㅋ Plus what is TALL GASTRODIA? O-o Tall gastrodia basically is a TUBER of orchidae family. The taste is SWEET and MILD. Seems like NOT related to CORNFLAKES at all! ㅋㅋㅋ Well this TEA, normally they ADD with BROWN RICE POWDER or any other GRAIN that they BLEND. This kind of tea OFTEN considered as TEA or EQUAL part of BREAKFAST as there is CEREAL in it.ㅋㅋㅋ

Last but NOT least is GUGIJA-CHA (. Gugija-Cha is a GOJI BERRY tea.This berry RECENTLY known WORLDWIDE as one of SUPERFOOD as it have HIGH anti oxidant. However in KOREA for Gugija-Cha, they COMBINE this DRY berry/DATES with GINGER. They said it CREATE even, sweet FLAVOR. Have NO idea about this,ㅋㅋㅋ maybe I SHOULD try it when I go to KOREA again SOMEDAY~   

Yulmucha 

Doonggul Rae Cha

Chunma Cha

Gugija Cha


p/s: For those who INTERESTED to watch KOREAN soap, you might WANNA watch Love on a rooftop. It's about TEA industry in Korea. ^-^

Sources: https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/10/10-strange-and-wonderful-korean-teas.html

Photos Credit: imgrum.net
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