Monday, July 7, 2014

Summer time tea in NYC

For our June tea meeting we had fresh green teas from Korea.  Hand made "dami" tea from Korea.  Hand picked and hand roasted by a Buddhist monk Jidam.  He hand picks fresh green tea leaves from the wild tea trees growing in the Jiri mountains where his Buddhist temple is located.

We also tasted this year's spring tender picks by the youngest daughter of Cho Taeyeon.  We had tasted green teas by Cho Taeyon before, but it is the first time tasting green tea made by one of his children.  Her first flush green tea had the most tea oil of any tea that I had ever tasted.  As soon as the tea entered my mouth the thick tea oil coated my mouth, throat and stomach, absolutely amazing.

Dr. Lee is an imminent linguist.  He got his doctorate in Turkey.  Korean, Turkish, Finnish, Japanese, and Mongolian all belong in the same language group.  If you are curious about Finnish, all I can tell you is that the northern Finnish people have the most Korean DNA among all ethnic groups.  I know it sounds strange.  But it is all connected with how Koreans have DNA that most closely resembles 6000 years old frozen shaman from Siberia.  Anyway Dr. Lee surprised us with teas from Turkey served in crystal cups.  It was delicious.  He promises more tea from around the world next time.  Speaking of next time.  Our July tea meeting will take place on Friday, July 25th at 7 pm at Korea Language Institute.  See you there.  

Jaenam