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Jungjak is
the heartiest of the early spring plucked teas, yet it
has a mellow, slightly roasted flavor and no
astringency. Jungjak is the perfect choice for tea
enthusiasts looking for a very satisfying flavor in
the cup. A delicious spring-plucked Korean
yaseng-cha at an affordable price.
About our Korean Green
Tea and Spring 2011 Harvest
Cooks Shop
Here
is proud to offer Korean green tea that is from an
organic tea production cooperative composed of over 60
tea farmers located in the Hwagae Valley. Each grower
must comply with rigid organic standards, and at
harvest time each may set the price of their tea. The
final selling price of the tea is determined by the
cooperative based on many factors, including total
crop yield for that year.
Spring 2011 was a very tough year for tea growers in
the Hwagae Valley. Thousands of tea bushes were killed
by winds and severe cold. A few producers lost as much
as 80% of their bushes, while for others, the bushes
suffered severe damage but did not die. And yet for
other growers, overall damage was minimal. Individual
situations depended on the location of the tea fields,
as some fields were destroyed or protected from the
worst of the weather simply by the good fortune of
their physical location in this area.
So while the 2011 spring season yielded devastating
plant loss, it was not the catastrophic loss as some
have reported.
There have also been reports of wildly high tea prices
for Korean green tea this year because of this
situation. This cannot be said across the board with
such certainty.
Despite the fact that most of the tea cooperative
members suffered varying degrees of loss to their tea
bushes, the group decided to sell spring 2011 tea to
us with only minimal price increases
over what we were charged last year. And, while this
year’s bad winter weather affected the quantity
of tea produced, it did not affect or compromise the
quality, flavor or mouth-feel of these wonderful teas.
We appreciate this gesture of good will by the
growers.
Update: it is now late winter of 2012, so we have
reduced the price of the current year's Jungjak,
because you should be drinking this from now until the
next harvest is available - which normally is not
until late summer or early fall.
We are proud to sell some of the best organic Korean
green teas that money can buy at extremely reasonable
prices!
Use 2 teaspoons (2-3 grams) per
6 oz of water
Steep 2-3 infusions at 2 minutes
each.
Water temperature should be 170˚ F |
