Boseong is one of the main tea regions in South Korea. Do not confuse it with Busan. Boseong is where the tea grows and Busan is where the train goes during the zombie apocalypse… Boseong is a seaside region, some of its plantations are located very close to the sea. Not on the coast, but not far away — the fresh and humid sea wind reaches them alright. Tea in Boseong has been grown since about the 17th century, but the region reached industrial volumes of tea production only in the 1930s, during the Japanese occupation. Actually, the tea industry was set up by the Japanese there — that is why the Japanese varieties of the tea plant dominate in Boseong. These two factors — proximity to the sea and Japanese tea varieties — usually form the basis of marketing legends explaining the specific marine note in the taste of Boseong green teas. If there was no sea nearby, this note would not be called marine, but umami — it forms a very pleasant composition with a dense, warm and floral aroma of the tea.
Sejak (세작) is the name of the second tea plucking in the Korean tea harvest season. It is produced in early May and, along with the first harvest, April (woo-chon, ujeon, 우전), is considered the best.
Boseong Sejak Green Tea Brewing Chart
Boseong Sejak Green Tea Gallery
Olga Nikandrova & Denis Shumakov. Teatips.info. 2021