LG 글 로 벌 챌 린 저 2 4 기 한 녹 차 팀
KOREAN
Green tea INDUSTRY
HADONG | BOSEONG | JEJU
M E L Y ( I N D O N E S I A N ) | H A L I N H ( I E T N A M E S E ) H A I H A ( I E T N A M E S E ) | N A T T ( T H A I ) Team Introduction Team Introduction Research Background Research Question and Variables Review Literature Research Methodology Hadong Overview Visiting DescriptionsPlaces: and Goals Museum Culture Tea Interview: Hadong Museum Visit Tea Hadong Ceremony Experience Tea Interview: Insitute Green Tea of Visit Dosim Dawon Plantation: Green Tea Museum Visit Tea Maeam andSsanggye-myeong Cafe Museum Visit Boseong Overview Visiting DescriptionsPlaces: and Goals Visit Daehan Dawon Plantation: Green Tea Pension and Museum VisitGolmangtae Pension and Museum Interview: Golmangtae Visit Bohyang Plantation Dawon Visit Tteok-Galbi Boseong Green Tea Tteok-Galbi Interview: Boseong Green Tea Island Jeju Overview Visiting DescriptionsPlaces: and Goals Center R&D Green Tea Interview: Sulloccha Garden Visit Tea Seogwang Museum Visit Tea O'sulloc Daheeyeon Garden Visit Conclusion Implication Korea Indonesia Vietnam Thailand
CONTENTS 한녹차팀 TEAM INTRODUCTION JULY 16, 2018 - JULY 26, 2018 HADONG | BOSEONG | JEJU
MELY DO THI HAI HA TEAM LEADER TEAM MEMBER INDONESIAN VIETNAMESE
The leader of the team as well as person in charge In charge of the team's financial activities for Korean speaking. Master degree student at which involves balancing plans and budgets. Yonsei GSIS, majoring at International Law and Master degree student at Yonsei University, Development Cooperation. She is from Jakarta, majoring in International Trade, Finance, and Indonesia. Management
NGUYEN TRAN HA LINH NATTAWALAI TEAM MEMBER TEAM MEMBER VIETNAMESE THAI
In charge of the team's SNS content and is a Jeju- A member in charge of media and production who lover who has been to the island 3 times this year. is passionate for food and cafe hopping. Master Master degree student at Yonsei GSIS majoring in degree student at Yonsei University, majoring in Korean Studies. She is from Hanoi, Vietnam. International Trade, Finance, and Management
4 members, 3 destinations, 2 weeks, 1 big goal for g r e e n t e a INTRODUCTION RESEARCH BACKGROUND
Nowadays, green tea industry has been growing up really well in Korea, presumably due to the good branding system they have. Various commercial products, such as food and beverages, even cosmetics have been using Korean green tea as its ingredients. By advertising certain products, claiming that it contains Korean green tea means indirect promotion of Korean green tea as independent commodity itself. Such strategy has been quite successful to spread the popularity of Korean green tea domestically and internationally. Furthermore, Korea has also promoted its green tea as a part of tourist attraction, which is considered as a really unique promotional strategy.
Considering the above-mentioned reason, the expedition program on the Korean green tea industry was conducted in order to provide a platform where the members can learn directly about the industry. Throughout this expedition, the members will visit diverse green tea- related places, such as plantation, museum, cultural centre, research institution and restaurant. All selected places are all located in three cities that are notable for their green tea production, namely Hadong, Boseong and Jeju. The expedition is expected to give valuable experience and knowledge to all team members about the green tea industry— particularly on the branding strategy. Similar as Korea, the countries where the all team members originally come from, have green tea industry as well. However, unlike here, the industry in each country has not yet well-promoted. Hopefully, throughout this expedition, each member will be able to generate idea that can be applied to improve the green tea industry performance in their home countries.
JULY 16-26, 2018 | HADONG | BOSEONG | JEJU INTRODUCTION RESEARCH QUESTIONS & VARIABLES
Addressed Question in this Research?
How does Green Tea Industry in Korea become Well- Developed?
Scope of Research?
Green Tea Industry in Korea, focusing on the green tea as drinks and as ingredient for other functional product.
Definitions?
Green tea is the one type of teas, in which the tea leaves is not fermented and processed, thus, the green colour of leave is still maintained.
Green tea industry is the industry, dealing with the whole production stage of green tea, starting from planting the tea leaves to distributing the end-goods to consumers. INTRODUCTION LITERATURE REVIEW
Economically, green tea—the most consumed tea among many kinds of tea in Korea, has been well-known for being very profitable and economically impactful toward the economies of Korea. With such view, the planted area of green tea had expanded from 448 hectares in 1990 to 4028 hectares in 2008, and the production increased from 296 tons to 4,062 tons during the same period.
Furthermore, considering its economic role, many households started having a tea garden, within the purpose to gain additional revenue, which in turn, increasing the production of green tea even more (Boseong Green Tea Research Institute, 2011). On the other hand, as the consumers in South Korea understands the benefits that the green tea brings for health, the consumption of green tea itself has been gradually increased since 1990s (Kim and Park, 2013). However, the growth of annual per-capita green tea consumption increased from 10 gram in 1990 to 82,6 gram in 2007, which was considered as a slow growth compared with the production. It, ultimately, led to the excess of supply, thus decreasing the price of green tea ingredients (Jeong et al, 2007).
Departing from such fact, numerous attempts have been conducted to increase the consumption of the green tea. Since 2000, various processed goods—including cosmetics, medicines, and food additives—containing green tea have been developed and released. In addition, the green tea drink market has shown rapid growth (Kim and Park, 2013).
INTRODUCTION LITERATURE REVIEW
Moreover, the government has been taking the initiatives, as well. In order to revitalize the Korea’ stagnant tea industry, the government would prepare sets of policies that could balance the production and export of green tea. The mentioned policies would consist of: establishing official green tea farming and production hubs that can produce safe, high-quality tea at competitive prices by initially registering Boseong, Hadong and Jeju; offering marketing, production and infrastructural support to local tea farms in the region; ensuring that all Korean green tea products obtain Good Agricultural Practices (“GAP”); building local training for tea specialist; and, increasing the branding of green tea by Korean companies (Lee, LA Times, 13 May 2009). INTRODUCTION RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research was conducted for 11 days, starting from 16 July to 26 July 2018, visiting 3 cities, Hadong, Boseong and Jeju that are well-known as three major cities for green tea production in Korea. The research was conducted in inductive rationale, which was started initially by gathering the data throughout the research, then followed by drawing answers and conclusions to address the research question according to the research findings.
In order to carry out comprehensive analysis, the research was conducted with combination of two main methodologies, which are Direct Observation and In- person Interview. While direct observation was carried out in every visited site, consisting of 5 plantations, 3 museums, 2 research centres and 2 restaurants; the in-person interview was conducted to some people, who was expert on specific field in green tea industry and culture. Furthermore, the research result, would be used as reference to deal with the problem concerning green tea industry in the country of each member.
Hadong OVERVIEW
1 0 0 0 Y E A R S O F H I S T O R Y
Hadong is a county located in the southern part of Gyeongsang Province, three hours away from Seoul by KTX. It is known as the first region to plant green tea trees in Korea. The history of Hadong traditional tea agriculture dates back to more than 1000 years ago. The long history is preserved thanks to the efforts of the local people who attempted to continue the environment and culture of tea farming regardless of unfavorable natural conditions of the mountainous region with little even land. Hadong is currently one of the two largest green tea producing regions in Korea. In order to experience how green tea are planted and harvested as well as acquiring a deeper insight into the long history of Korea green, we chose Hadong as our first destination of the expedition trip.
HADONG VISTING PLACES
DESCRIPTIONS & GOALS
Hadong Tea Museum
To learn about Korean green tea history and culture through interviews and tea ceremony activity.
Maeam Tea Museum
To get deeper understanding about Korean tea history and development as well as learning about Korean tea culture.
Hadong Tea Plantation
To experience how green tea are planted and harvested as well as acquiring deeper insight into the long history of Korean green tea.
Hadong Tea Research Institue
To learn how the researchers ensure the quality of green tea produced in Hadong plantation throughout their experiments. INTERVIEW
HADONG TEA CULTURE MUSEUM
Kim Myeong-Ae ( 김 명 애 ) Officer of Educational D i v i s i o n
The interview with Mrs. Kim was our first interview done during the expedition. Through the interview, we learnt a lot about Korean green tea history and culture as well as why Hadong Tea Museum was established. According to Mrs. Kim, Hadong Tea Museum was formed not only to present the history of Korean green tea, but also to help visitors get better understandings about Korean tea culture. In order to achieve its goals, Hadong Tea Museum offers lots of interactive programs as well as hands-on experience such as tea picking, tea harvesting, and tea ceremony.
Mrs. Kim also shared her opinions on the changes of green tea consumption trends in Korea. Despite the appearance of different products made from green tea, namely green tea food, green tea drinks and green tea cosmetics, she argued that it will not destroy the traditional tea culture. In addition, she also stated that the new trend of consuming tea was essential to boost green tea culture in a fast changing world.
As commonly known, current young generation loves compact and instant, meanwhile, considering the table manners of drinking tea, they may find drinking tea is less comfortable, therefore, less enjoying it as well. For this reason, from Mrs. Kim’s perspectives, using green tea on other products such as ice cream, cosmetics, chocolate to name a few is an useful way to raise the awareness of Korean people, especially the young ones, and to attract them on consuming tea through such products.
Furthermore, Mrs. Kim also shared about the factors that influence the taste of green tea. Three most important factors are water, skills of brewing tea and atmosphere. Mrs. Kim mentioned that temperature and portion of the water played an important role in determining the green tea taste. An appropriate temperature and portion should be maintained to keep the fresh taste of green tea. The skills of brewing, such as time and portion of brewed tea and atmosphere at which people drink tea also influence whether or not the tea will taste good.
Another helpful information that we learnt from the interview with Mrs. Kim are things that people should know about Korean green tea. According to Mrs. Kim, the first and foremost one is that Korean Green Tea Culture preserves lots of historical values. Furthermore, people should also know that tea drinking culture gives more respects on manners by teaching people how to be considerate to others. Last but not least, the taste of tea depends on how one feel when drinking it.
Check Points! - Hadong Tea Museum was established to present and p r o m o t e Korean tea history and culture.
- Korean green tea possesses lots of historical val u e s a n d Korean green tea drinking culture teach people grea t m a n n e r s and be considerate to others.
- Water, skills of brewing tea and atmosphere are t h r e e m o s t important things that can influence the taste of gr e e n t e a .
Hadong Tea Museum 하동 차 박물관
Interactive Activities
There are lots of interactive activities offered in different languages (Korean, English, Chinese, and Japanese) to help visitors understand about Korean tea history and culture. Through these activities, we acquired lots of useful information about Hadong tea history and culture.
Special Tea Set
Lots of different tea sets are displayed at Hadong tea museum. Each represent the traditional tea ware used by different era in Korea. We are really surprised by the designs of those tea set. TEA CEREMONY EXPERIENCE
Tea Ceremony is a free activity offered by Hadong Tea Museum. It is a 40-minute lesson teaching people how to drink tea in a traditional way. Wearing hanbok is also offered at no cost so that the guest can indulged themselves into a really traditional Korean tea TEA CEREMONY HISTORY drinking setting. Through the tea ceremony, we had the chance to Tea ceremony and tea drinking culture was recorded to start learn about Korean tea ceremony as well as learn how to make and drink during the Shilla Dynasty when Shilla started adopting it into tea from the position of both host the palace. Tea ceremony became more frequently to do and guest. We were also taught how to behave in proper manners, during the Goryeo era, thanks to the spread of Buddha and from very simple behaviour such as trading activities brought by Chinese and Indian. offering to and receiving a cup of tea from other, pouring tea into cups in correct orders and clean the Tea ceremony was almost forgotten during the Japanese pots after pouring tea. colonization as people were under the labour force and had no time to do that. It was only upholded after the Olympic 1988 when government started using tea to unify people. They started upholding the tea culture again, but not simply highlighting it as the usual tea drinking culture, yet also to combine it with the tea drinking manners as well.
TEA CEREMONY EXPERIENCE
TEA BREWING
Skills of brewing tea is believed to be one among three important factors that influence the taste of green tea. Water used when preparing green tea should not be more than 80 degrees Centigrade. The degree of the water varies among high-quality and low-grade quality green tea.
A Korean traditional tea set to prepare green tea normally consist of a tea kettle, tea pot, three to five cups and a tea jar. Korean tea cups are smaller when compared to Western ones but bigger than Chinese traditional tea cups. Teaware also includes a big bowl and a small bowl for cooling hot water, a tea cloth to protect hands from hot water and to clean the cups, a tea spoon, a teacup-saucer, and a filter. TEA CEREMONY EXPERIENCE
TEA SERVING AND DRINKING
Right hand is used when serving tea as Korean people believe that right hand is a “good hand”. The first serve of tea is poured directly into the cups, little by little, back and forth for three times until all cups are filled. Actually, there is a reason behind the practice of serving tea in three layers, It is influenced by Korean believe toward number three, arguing that the number will bring more luck.
When drinking tea in a Korean way, two hands should be used to carefully hold the cup. You should not drink the tea right away, but should slowly follow the following five steps. Firstly, view the tea color. Secondly, inhale the tea’s fragrance. Thirdly, taste the tea on the tongue. Fourthly, follow the taste of the tea in the throat. And lastly, enjoy the tea little by little. TEA CEREMONY EXPERIENCE
CHECK POINTS
Tea ceremony and tea drinking culture was recorded to start during the Shilla Dynasty and became more during the Goryeo era thanks to the spread of Buddha and trading activities brought by Chinese and Indian.
Tea ceremony was almost forgotten during the Japanese colonization and only upholded after the Olympic 1988 when government started using tea to unify people.
Skill of brewing tea is one of the factor that influence the taste of the tea. Appropriate water hot level should be applied to each type of tea to maintain the taste of it.
Korean people prefer using the right hand when serving tea and serve it little by little in 3 layers. Two hands should be used when drinking tea. People should follow the five steps to fully enjoy the taste of tea.
INTERVIEW INSTITUTE OF GREEN TEA
Mr. Park Sang-gi Principal Researcher
The 2nd interview was with Mr. Park Sang-Gi, principal researcher at Institute of Hadong Green Tea. Thanks to Mr. Park, we acquired more academic understanding about Hadong green tea industry and technical development. According to Mr. Park, this institute does researches on both agricultural techniques and end-product development. Their researches will then be applied into practices but only limit to Hadong as to promote the specialty of Hadong green tea.
Mr. Park also shared his perspectives on the difference between green tea and other caffeine- contained drinks. He mentioned that green tea not only has caffeine substance but also Amino acid, which can only be found in green tea. Also, caffeine in green tea works more slowly compared to other caffeine- contained drinks, which not only help drinkers to be but also can charge their energy slowly. Due to this fact, green tea is really popular among Buddhist monks as it helps them to concentrate on their work and meditation much better.
Through Mr. Park's sharing, we also learnt that the level of Amino acid in green tea is affected by the location of plantation. If it is located in the upper side of hill, the green tea plant will be exposed with sun even more, which will decrease the degree of Amino Acid, thus making the tea taste even more bitter. Moreover, thanks to Mr. Park, we finally understood that Hadong Green Tea's unique and strong taste is due to the fact that it was made by roasting it at 250 ~ 300 degree Celsius.
When being asked about his opinion on whether the diverse green tea products can badly influence the traditional culture of Korean drinking tea, he argued that the production of such green tea products shall not be considered as if it destroys the traditional culture of green tea drinking. After all, the traditional culture is still maintained. On the other hand, he believes that such production should be seen as an effort to expand the general consumption of green tea instead.
Check Points!
- This institute’s research focuses both on agricul t u r a l technical and end-product development.
- Their researches are applied into practices but o nly limit to Hadong as to promote the specialty of Hadong green t e a .
- Green tea contains Amino acid which makes it bett e r f o r human health than other caffeine-contained drinks.
HADONG GREEN TEA PLANTATION DOSIM DAWON
One of the oldest tea plantation
Dosim Plantation, which is located in Hadong, is one of the oldest plantations in Korea. The tea tree growing in this plantation is originally harvested from the big tea tree, which age is already more than 1000 years, located inside the plantation as well. The plantation is well-known to its organic tea product. It is also stated that the plantation offers green tea in its unique taste and aroma. Throughout the visit, we had a chance to talk with the son of the owner’s, discussing about green tea harvesting seasons and how different season affects different way of harvesting and picking the tea leaves.
A Talk with Farmer
We had a chance to visit to the tea plantation on a really hot day and were so lucky that we received the help from the son the owner of the plantation. He drove us to the top of the plantation by truck, which was a scary but interesting experience as the road was really small and stiff. On the way there, he gave us some useful information about the tea plantation and how people in Hadong plant and harvest tea.
MAEAM TEA MUSEUM 매암차박물관
Main Hall
Maeam Tea Museum as esta lished in 6 ith the ie to redis o er and preser e the original traditional tea making te hni ues that has een forgotten for the past years. This museum is not just a general museum that displays artifa ts. It is a hands-on museum here parti ipants an e perien e stories a out the tea produ ing pro ess and tea ulture in general. It is a ridge to lo al ulture, a pla e of tea ulture preser ation, and a story a out the true tea ulture in hi h human alues and alues of life are respe ted. Maeseok Tea House
After spending time e ploring the main museum and near y green tea plantation, e had great time enjoying tea at Maeseok Tea House inside the museum area. The spe ial thing a out this tea house is that isitors ill re and ser e tea y themsel es, hi h let them e perien e the real Korean drinking ulture. After drinking tea, isitors e en ha e to lean up y themsel es. CAFE AND MUSEUM 쌍계명차
Tea Products Shop
This cafe is more like a tea products shop, a tiny tea culture museum and a green tea food restaurant rather than just a normal coffee shop. It offers a wide range of products made from tea, which are all well-packaged. We were really impressed by its packaging design which is simple yet attractive. This is one of the outstanding features that we can learn from to improve green tea branding in our own countries. Green tea Pizza
Green tea pizza is a special food offered by Ssang Gye Cafe. At first we found it really strange as we had never heard of any pizza with green tea flavour but once we tasted it, we were so in love with it. We were also surprised by the way Korean people come up with a variety of food made with green tea ingredients such as noodles, ice cream, rice, cakes, etc. It adds flavour to the food and makes it more delicious. BOSEONG OVERVIEW
Boseong is a city located in South Jeolla Province in the southern part of South Korea. Boseong is the second destination of the Korean Green Tea Industry Exploration since the city is a home of the biggest green tea plantation in the country. With the geographical location in the southern part of the country and near by the sea, Boseong is one of the places that has highest rainfall rate in South Korea. The weather which is, in general, not too cold during the winter and not too hot in the summer, makes this city appropriate for tea tree plantation. From Hadong, it takes around 1 hour by Nam-do Sea Sightseeing Train (or S-Train, which is designed specifically for tourists who want to enjoy the Southern sea) to travel to Boseong city. BOSEONG VISITING PLACES
DESCRIPTIONS & GOALS
Daehan Dawon Plantation To s e e t h e p ro d u c t i o n c ap ac i t y o f t h e b i g g e s t g re e n t e a p l an t at i o n i n S o u t h Ko re a
Golmangtae Pension and Museum To l e arn an d e x p e ri e n c e t e c h n o l o g i c al re l at e d g re e n t e a m an u fac t u ri n g an d p ro c e s s i n g e q u i p m e n t s
Bohyang Dawon Plantation
To l e arn h o w t o ap p l y g re e n t e a an d t h e b e n e fi t s o f g re e n t e a i n t o fo o d s an d e x p e ri e n c e t h e t rad i t i o n al w ay o f g re e n t e a p re s e rv at i o n
보성녹차떡갈비원조식당
To e x p e ri e n c e h o w t o ap p l y g re e n t e a as t h e m ai n i n g re d i e n t o f fo o d DAEHAN DAWON PLANTATION 대한다원 녹차밭
SITE VISIT
Our isit onsisted of 3 main parts starting from the o ser ation de k, the first plantation, and the se ond plantation. The o ser ation de k as surrounded y high mountain lo ated 350m a o e the sea le el. From the de k, some parts of the plantation an e seen. At the end of the plantation, it as Yulpo ea h. This sho ed the appropriate geographi al lo ation for green tea plantation. The lo ation that as surrounded y the high mountain and near y the sea made the temperature not too hot in the summer and not too old in the inter. Signifi antly, the temperature is the most important fa tor ontri uting to a good uality green tea.
The first plantation is the part here tourists ould a tually ome and isit. The plantation o ers the hole mountain hi h made the s enery e en more spe ta ular. This pla e as also the filming lo ation of many Korean dramas. Tourists ould also taste arious kinds of green tea meal at the restaurant inside the plantation. On the other hand, the se ond plantation does not open for the pu li . It as really fortunate for us to get an a ess into into the se ond part of the plantation thanks to the o ner of the Golmangtae Pension, ho anted to gi e us a han e to see the real produ tion plant of Daehan green tea plantation. THE BIGGEST GREEN TEA PLANTATION
Daehan Da on Green Tea Plantation has een esta lished sin e the period of Japanese o upation and later as pur hased y the Korean entrepreneurs in 957, ho had transformed the traditional green tea plantation into a spa ious plantation oth for the purpose of green tea manufa turing as ell as tourist attra tion. No adays, Daehan Green Tea Plantation is the iggest green tea plantation in South Korea. Moreo er, the plantation is the setting for arious Korean Drama su h as The Legend 007 and Legend of the Blue Sea 0 7 .
GOLMANGTAE PENSION & MUSEUM 골망태 펜션 & 박물관
PRODUCTS OF A MAN'S PASSION FOR GREEN TEA
Apart from providing the accommodation for tourists who visit Boseong, Golmangtae pension owns the museum showing technology related to green tea production and manufacturing process which had been used before in the Golmangtae plantation. The pension was established in 2005. At the beginning, the pension and the green tea plantation had been operated altogether. However, the plantation was ceased the operation due to uncertain market situation. The technological equipment was kept inside the museum for educational purpose.
INTERVIEW GOLMANGTAE PENSION & MUSEUM
Mr. Shin Tak Yeol T h e o w n e r
During the expedition in Boseong, we were warmly welcomed by the owner of Golmangtae pension, Mr. Shin Tak Yeol. Mr. Shin brought us to the museum and kindly explained about the market situation of the green tea in Korea. At the time Golmangtae pension was established, the price of green tea after first harvesting was relatively high, which made many entrepreneurs investing in green tea plantation here in Boseong. However, until now, the price remained at that level or even lower. Green tea plantation had to adjust the activities approaching more tourists or create more value-added products, unless the business could be operated properly. For example, some plantations here had been sold to another owner and ceased the operation.
Mr. Shin was the one who, has strong passion toward Korean green tea industry. He also answered the question of why Boseong became the biggest area for green tea plantation of the country. The answer was because the geographical location and the weather. Weather in Boseong is warm and the appropriate rainfall rate contributed to the clean atmosphere. The taste of tea depends on the where it is located and how the weather is. In order to make the tea tastes delicious, the weather is important. The tea would taste bitter, as a result of the tree naturally adopts themselves on the hot weather.
The owner explained the practices in Korean green tea plantation in which, all the production procession at the beginning were conducted by human, and, later when the production capacity expanded, technological equipment played role to support the increasing production capacity. The equipment exhibiting inside the museum was partially invented by Mr. Shin to adapt with local practice of Golmangtae plantation. The equipment had been used from the process of harvesting, dehydrating, storing the dried tea leaves, and packaging. Traditionally, green tea leaves were kept in the form of “brick” which will be edible for 15 years. The longer time, the better taste and smell of the leaves would be. His objective for inventing the equipment was to register them as a cultural heritage of Korea. Since the equipment had been designed for local farming environment of Boseong, it should be maintained and adopted to enhance the outcomes of green tea in this society. In order to achieve this goal, everything must exist at least for 100 years before being able to be registered. Therefore, Mr. Shin constructed the museum and kept everything for educational purpose.
Check Point! - Green tea was traditionally preserved in a form of 'brick'. The longer, the better of the taste and smell. - Each equipment had to be designed specifically to the local environment to maximize the its use. - Temperature is the most important factor for green tea production, preservation, and taste and quality of the end products. BOHYANG DAWON PLANTATION 보향다원 녹차밭
A MODERN PLANTATION
Esta lished in 937, Bohyang green tea plantation is no one of the plantations produ ing orld- lass high- uality tea. No adays, Bohyang green tea plantation is not only a traditional plantation, ut also offering arious kinds of a ti ity for isitors to learn and e perien e green tea in different ays su h as tea pi king e perien e, traditional tea dinking e perien e, making green tea ho olate, and storing green tea. By isiting this plantation, our team parti ipated in a ti ities, hi h ere making green tea ho olate and storing green tea.
A MODERN PLANTATION BOHYANG DAWON PLANTATION 보향다원 녹차밭
MAKING GREEN TEA CHOCOLATE
Both chocolate and green tea have its own benefit for health. In order to make the green tea chocolate, what important is the temperature. At the first, when the chocolate and green tea were mixed, the temperature of the mixed ingredients had to be at 47 degree Celsius. After that, it had to be cooled down to 27 degree Celsius. How to cool it down was to mix it up with the knife faster. After it went down to 27 degree Celsius, it had to be warm up to 31 degree Celsius, before the chocolate was shaped into different forms.
Not only to keep the atmosphere temperature when making green tea chocolate, the temperature of those who made it is also important. Since the chocolate was made by hand, temperature of our hands should not be cool because it would freeze the chocolate before shaping it. One of the easiest ways to increase your body temperature is to drink green tea. By drinking green tea, its substances would slowly increase your body temperature, thus, strengthening your health. By drinking green tea, it would help the internal organs to let out the poison, fat, and/or other bad substances from our body, therefore, drinking it constantly would make it better.
A MODERN PLANTATION BOHYANG DAWON PLANTATION 보향다원 녹차밭
MAKING GREEN TEA (전차)
전차 Is the way to maintain good quality of tea for a long period of time. It was initially introduced during the Shilla dynasty, in 1200. Dry it on the drying room for 10 days, in 60 degree Celsius. The result can be used up to 15 years. The older it is, the tastier it will be. Before making the green tea bricks, we had to pick the tea leaves in the plantation by selecting only the first 3 leaves on the top which are the best part of the tea. Then, wash the leaves and mix together. After that, combined the leaves into bricks before dry in a room for 10 days.
Although Bohyang Dawon was quite well-maintained, however, not all the tea plantation worked well. Some grew, some not. The difference between the green tea quality between countries depends on the weather. The same 전차 method may be also applied in Southeast Asian countries, but it should be checked directly. Because it was impossible to say whether one farming, planting, or industrial method was applicable simply by looking into their weather. Although it was sure that the quality of tea depended on weather, so that at least people could make a guess simply by seeing the weather, but still, we had to go there directly to check whether it was applicable or not.
A MODERN PLANTATION BOSEONG GREEN TEA TTEOK-GALBI 보성녹차떡갈비원조식당
SIGNATURE DISH OF BOSEONG
Open in 2004, the restaurant becomes a signature of green tea tteok-galbi in Boseong. Tteok-galbi is a Korean style stone grilled tender beef. The most significant ingredient that makes tteok-galbi here different from others is the green tea powder inside the beef. Not only the tteok-galbi as the main dish, the restaurant also offers green tea cold noodles as an appetizer as well.
A MODERN PLANTATION INTERVIEW BOSEONG GREEN TEA TTEOK-GALBI
Miss Yoon Kyung Ok T h e o w n e r
When asking about the history of Boseong Nok-cha tteok-galbi, we were surprised by the fact that the name did not come from the dish itself. However, the name came from the fact that the pig, that are being slaughtered for this food was fed with green tea leaves as initially, the tteok-galbi had been made by pork, not beef as today. While raising the pig, tea leaves were used to feed pig so that it won’t produce oily and smelly pork meat. Usually, they started feeding the pig with green tea leaves three months before the slaughter itself. Starting from this fact, green tea had been integrated into this menu since the cattle feeding process. With green tea, the beef would not be smelly and oily. When the menu was cooked, green tea powder would reduce smell and oil.
As the process of using green tea starting from the animal feed until ending up in the kitchen for cooking, only the green tea for animal feed derived from Boseong. Green tea powder in the menu and green tea noodles in green tea cold noodles were from other places. The traditional way of cattle feeding increased the quality of beef and made the restaurant unique from others. The restaurant was the first one in this region. If you checked the other restaurant, they usually would not focus with tteok-galbi only, they had more menu to offer. The specialty was what made this restaurant different. Usually people when they came to this restaurant, they posted their review online. People usually came here after reading those kinds of reviews. Sometimes, people also came here again bringing more people with them. That was why a lot of people visited this place eventually.
point
What makes Boseong green tea different is the 'temperature'. From plantation toward the value-added products, temperature is the most important factor for smell, taste, and quality. Jeju Island OVERVIEW
THE FASTEST GROWING GREEN TEA REGION
Jeju-do or Jeju Island, located in the southern coast of Korea, is a volcanic island dominated by Halla Mountain, a volcano which is considered to be the highest mountain in the whole country. Being blessed with fertile volcanic soil and sub-tropical climate, the island has an ideal condition for tea cultivation. Considered to be the fastest growing region of tea production in Korea today, Jeju Island tea plantations are dominated by Seoul-based conglomerates who have established huge tea operations based on automation and modern cultivating methods. These highly commercial operations have been aggressive in exporting their product and as a result, Jeju Island green tea is the most commonly available and the most well-known to international tea drinkers. JEJU VISTING PLACES
DESCRIPTIONS & GOALS
Sulloccha R&D Center
To learn about history and development of the Osulloc brand as well as researching activities of the institute on Jeju island's green tea.
Seogwang Tea garden
To witness the achievement of modern technology applied in green tea cultivation
O'sulloc tea museum
To learn about the history of tea industry and tea culture in Korea and to experience Amore Pacific’s efforts in branding Korean tea culture
Daheeyeon tea garden
To experience Jeju’s tea industry in a very unique way with various activities INTERVIEW
SULLOCCHA GREEN TEA R&D CENTER
A l e x L e e ( 이 민 석 ) Principal Researcher/Ph.D.
Right after setting foot on the land of Jeju, we came to Sulloccha Research Institute, the R&D center founded by AmorePacific Corporation. There we were warmly welcomed by Mr. Lee Minseok - principal researcher at the institute. Mr. Lee then gave us a very informative presentation on the history and development of the O’sulloc brand as well as research activities of the institute on Jeju island's green tea. He was also willing to answer all of our questions on the Korean green tea industry and the company’s role in reviving Korean tea culture.
Through Mr.Lee’s presentation, we had learned that the history of the O’sulloc brand as well as green tea industry on Jeju Island could be traced back to the 1980s. Although being considered to have perfect condition for growing tea, Jeju was the latest among the three biggest Korea’s green tea production areas (along with Boseong and Hadong) with a rather young and newly developed industry. The main reason lies in the fact that in the beginning, the land on this island was filled with nothing but stones and wind which was extremely difficult to grow any kind of crop. However, after many years of cultivation with full understanding of the area’s natural environment, the abandoned lands on Jeju were born again into lush green tea farms which can produce the prestigious global award-winning tea.
Although being the latest to join the three biggest tea producing regions of Korea, the green tea industry on Jeju island is the fastest growing, thanks to the ideal environment on the island as well as the efforts in research and development of the Amore Pacific Corporation. There are four tea plantations throughout Korea that belong to the Amore Pacific’s O’sulloc Farm system: one in Gangjin County in South Jeolla Province, and three on Jeju island, along with the O’sulloc Head quarter and research center. While the total area of all the O’sulloc plantations only takes up 5.8 percent of Korea’s tea cultivation area, they actually produce more than 1/4 of the country’s tea production. Environment, of course, plays an important role in this amazing performance. Comparing to Boseong and Hadong, Jeju has a rather temperate climate, fresher air (due to its being an offshore island), more rainfall and natural shading. The island is also blessed with the cleanest ground water source and fertile volcanic ash soil with good drainage, which is ideal for many types of crops.
Besides the blessings from nature, the research activities of the O’sulloc R&D center also contributes a lot in the fast development of Jeju green tea industry. The motto of the Center is “Nature and Science Make O’sulloc Tea”, which pretty much explains it all. All of the tea produced by O’sulloc farm is organic. As commonly known, when tea is produced and harvested in an organic way without the usage of any chemical, the productivity of the tea plantation is only 50% comparing to tea plantation cultivated in normal method. However, the research center of O’sulloc has managed to increase the productivity of their organic plantation up to 85% (comparing to normal tea plantation), so that they can produce high quality organic tea yet still remains economically profitable. Because most of the harvesting and watering jobs are done by machine, there are only 61 people working on O’sulloc’s Jeju plantation, including the researchers. Automatically controlled cultivation not only helps save a lot of time, effort and human resources, but also guarantees the quality of tea production.
All of these efforts are well-paid since the green tea made from the O’sulloc plantations has been received worldwide- global acknowledgment. Especially in Germany, where the tea consumers are considered to have distinctive taste and really high demand on premium products, the price of O’sulloc green tea is the highest compared to other countries, which shows its superior quality and competitiveness. O’sulloc has also become the exclusive supplier of organic green tea powder for the globally famous Starbucks coffee chain. Through this way, it serves as a representative of Korean green tea industry that can spread out to not only Asian, but also European and Middle Eastern markets. Since Starbucks as well as their green tea-based drinks are very popular to young people, this is apparently become a good sign that Korean green tea can have a firm position in the modern lifestyle of the young generation.
In terms of products variation, Amore Pacific not only focuses on producing different types of tea for drinking, but also on both "beauty" and "health" as the company has claimed. While the “health” concept is represented by tea drinks, tea-based food products, and functional food (under O’sulloc and Vitalbeautie brands), “beauty” products consist of a wide range of cosmetic and skin-care products using green tea extracts as its ingredient (under the prominent brand Innisfree).
The Sullocha institute has also put a lot of efforts in conducting research in order to maintain and boost green tea’s valuable benefits when being consumed. Although green tea is widely known for having numerous benefits to human’s health (such as preventing multiple cancers, boosting heart and brain function, clearing up acne, containing high levels of antioxidants, which helps slowing down aging process), these benefits can only be gained when tea is consumed in an amount of 8-10 regular cups per day. Nevertheless, drinking that much tea for one day might be impossible for many people, plus high amount of tea can also cause some negative side effects. Therefore, the center has come up with the idea of creating functional food which contains all the precious essence of green tea, but is convenient to consume without any side effects. One of their VitalBeautie brand’s best seller, the Metagreen tablet, is an achievement from these research. The tablet made from pure green tea extracts that is claimed to be able to promote body fat reduction, blood cholesterol improvement, and smooth metabolism. Furthermore, the research conducted in this centre is not only concentrated in the tea leaves only, but also focused on the green tea seeds. Extract from tea seeds is now used as an important ingredients in their dietary supplement products as well as cosmetics and skin care, of which the Innisfree’s green tea seed oil products line is gaining popularity all over the world.
Research has also been done on improving the cultivating process that can maximize green tea’s quality and benefits, while not negatively affecting the surrounding environment. In this regards, a major organic farming system is applied in all O’sulloc tea farm. Processes such as disease and pest. Processes such as disease and pest controlling, fertilizing and weed controlling are completely done in an organic and environment-friendly way. For example, in order to control pest, eco-friendly measures, such as natural substance spraying, microbial insecticides, using pheromone trap and natural enemy are applied, instead of toxic chemical pesticides. The research center manages to compile all data regarding weather, rainfall, so that, it can find the best technology to deal with the environment, thus enabling to maximize tea production. The data compilation is made at each plantation, as each of them is designed to focus only on one particular purpose. For instance, the tea trees at Hannam plantation in Jeju are “younger” comparing to ones at Seogwang and Dosun plantations, so that they can contain high levels of amino acid which enhances the taste of teas.
Talking about the future objective of the O’sulloc farm, Mr. Lee said that the institution will still continue their previous efforts to focus on “high quality” – by producing the premium quality tea; “safety” – by ensuring the standard of production by acquiring International Standard Operation and “value improvement”- to increase the value of green tea by producing cosmetics and dietary supplements products that uses green tea extracts as ingredient. When being asked about his opinion on the future of the Korean green tea industry, Mr. Lee asserted with confidence that the industry will continue to grow well. Started from 2001, green tea production and consumption started to grow up. Moreover, nowadays many popular coffee franchises, such as Starbucks, already have green tea-based drinks in their menu and on top of that, value added products like cosmetics and functional foods help make the consumption of green tea becomes varied and easier. Thanks to many new types of blended tea, green tea fusion cuisine, functional foods and cosmetics, people no longer have one way to consume tea by sitting and drink tea green tea in a complicated ritual as before. Because of these reasons, he argued, the green tea production and consumption in within the last five years has increased, and is predicted to continue going on this trend.
Check Points!
- The green tea industry on Jeju island has been gr o w i n g f a s t thanks to the ideal environment on the island as we l l a s t h e efforts in R&D. - Research should be done to create value-added pro d u c t s t o increase the value of green tea. - O'sulloc's future objective: “high quality, “safe ty” and “value improvement".
Seogwang Tea garden 제주 서광다원
Located in Seogwipo-si, Jeju, right in front of the Sulloccha R&D Center, Seogwang Tea Garden is often referred to as the most well managed and largest tea plantation in Korea. Experts at the center has conducted precise calculation so that the tea leaves at this plantation receive just the right amount of sun in order to be made into the highest quality product. With an area of nearly 530,000m², the green field stretches over the slopes of Seogwangseo-ri and attracts many visitors to visit due to its beautiful scenery.
According to Mr. Alex Kim at the Sulloccha Center, the specialty of Seogwang plantation are: (i) the best quality and safety; (ii) the best climate (to plant green tea); and (iii) the better developed technology (comparing to other plantations throughout Korea). Because its location is near to the Sanbang mountain where many clouds and fogs are formed, the plantation has a perfect natural shielding effect that helps improve the color of the tea leaves as well as the tea quality.
However, in the past, the fields didn't use to be this green. The ground was full of volcanic rock and the soil composition was not fertile enough for any kind of plants to survive. The transformation from a barren land to a lush green tea field became a good example of successful agriculture in the mountain areas.
O'sulloc Tea Museum 오설록 티뮤지엄
First tea museum in Korea
This is the first tea museum in Korea pened by Amore Pacific in 2001 with the purpose to introduce and propagating Korean teas as well as the traditional tea culture of Korea. Harmonizing the Eastern and the Western culture, as well as modernity and tradition, it was chosen as one of top 10 museums in the world by designboom – a globally famous art and architecture magazine. The museum has a variety of spaces including tea gallery, eco-friendly resting area, and café where visitors can enjoy a variety of delicious tea drinks and tea-infused desserts. It is also one of the most popular tourist attractions in Jeju, attracting 1.5 million visitors annually. T ea Stone Tour
Through this tour visitors can experience Korean tea culture in their everyday lives. The space is divided into an upper and lower floor. The upper floor, which is surrounded by Gotjawal Forest, offers a space for visitors to enjoy a beautiful teatime experience; and the lower floor has a ripening facility for Samdayeon, which is Korea’s representative fermented tea that is produced by O’sulloc. Daheeyeon Garden 다희연 다원
A Green Tea Theme Park
Daheeyeon Garden, located on the east side of the island, is a major tea plantation in Jeju. Within the plantation area, there are two cave cafes, Evergreen Luce Garden and Eve Hall, which serve different types of tea-based foods such as naturally fermented green tea bread, cookies, muffins and drinks like green tea latte.
The place is like a green tea theme park that offers many interesting activities and spaces surrounding the green tea theme. Besides the two cafes, there is also a restaurant, zip- line over the green tea field, cart tour across the plantation and foot bath sauna using tea salt and tea essence oil.
Unfortunately, we came when the place was under total reconstruction for an art event. Therefore, we could only experience the tea foot bath, which was very relaxing. Daheeyeon is a good example of creativity in making use of the tea industry’s potential in tourism.
Conclusion
Prior to the conduction of this research, it was believed that the well- developed green tea industry in Korea had been gaining positive accomplishment in both domestic and international markets majorly due to its effective branding strategies. Nevertheless, the findings achieved from the research and field trip have shown that branding is not a sole factor contributing to the industry’s successful story. In addition to marketing activities, natural conditions as well as advanced technology resulting from relentless efforts in research and development also play essential roles in building up Korean green tea’s global reputation.
However, there are still rooms for improvement as tea consumption has been facing many challenges, primarily from the domination of Korean consumers’ coffee drinking habit. Coffee is considered glamorous and a symbol of the modern life, while tea is deemed old-fashioned. In order to become an equal in the tough competition against the coffee industry that has already dominated the market with ubiquitous global chains like Starbucks, more attempts should be put in reviving and renovating tea drinking culture in Korea.
The Korean tea industry is nonetheless a very good example that provides many valuable lessons for its Vietnamese, Indonesian and Thai counterparts to learn from. More exchanges and sharing in technologies and cultivating methods among these tea producing countries are expected to happen in the near future.
Implication For Korea
Through our 11 days and 10 nights expedition trip to Hadong, Boseong, and Jeju, we have acquired lots of valuable knowledge regarding Korean green tea industry. Those knowledge would be helpful to help us draw some implications for our own home countries. However, from the eyes of foreign tourists, we also have some recommendations for Korean green tea industry that would somehow help it to be more developed.
Although Hadong and Boseong are really famous for green tea, we found it really difficult to find information in English about those places. Most of the tourist attractions’ websites are in Korean. Furthermore, lots of hands-on programs educating about green tea industry and green tea products are offered in Korean only. This limits its reach to only Koreans or those who are fluent in Korean. Therefore, as foreign tourists, we suggest that it would be much better if those information are offered in multiple languages, or at least English. This could help attract more international tourists to visit the area.
Another difficulty that we encountered during the expedition is that it was really difficult to travel from one place to another due to the lack of frequent public transportations as well as difficulty in contacting local taxi even we had two team members who are really good at Korean. Though sometimes we were so lucky that the owner of the pension we stayed and the teacher of the green tea program that we joined gave us a drive, other foreigners would not be that lucky. Therefore, we suggest that the local tourism organization should offer some green tours to some of the most notable green tea hubs and green tea attractions for both local and foreign tourist who are interested in green tea.
Furthermore, for the green tea industry in general, having famous idols to promote for green tea locations as well as green tea products would be a good idea to attract more foreign tourist, especially those from Asian regions where Hallyu wave are popular.
For Indonesia
According to the research that had been conducted, it was concluded that the well-developed green tea industry in Korea was influenced by two aspects, the suitable weather and the advance-research and technology.
Apparently, both aspects are almost non-exist in Indonesia. Geographically, the weather in Indonesia is naturally unsuitable for planting green tea, as the sunlight and exposure are too strong, yet the wind is quite weak. Furthermore, the development of research and technology concerning green tea is not significant in Indonesia. Unlike in Korea, where the provincial government of Hadong and Boseong had established Green Tea Research Institute to support the development of research and technology for green tea industry by establishing, there is no such alike institute in Indonesia, which is believed to hinder the development of green tea itself. Moreover, in contrast with Korean company, Amore Pacific, which established its own research institute to enhance the green tea industry in Jeju Island, Indonesian company has not yet reached the point where they are willing to contribute on the improvement of technology of local industry, mostly arguing that such obligation is government’s duty.
Therefore, throughout this research, a lesson may be withdrawn by Indonesia to improve its green tea industry. As weather is a geographical matter, which is quite impossible to be altered into different way, Indonesia may focus in improving its support in developing the research and technology for tea industry instead. As Korea did, Indonesian government may start with establishing its own public research institute that will focus on the green tea industry. Moreover, it should provide more research incentives and/or grant for the researcher, so that, it can boost their willingness to conduct research and experiment on the green tea. Furthermore, the country may as well issue policy to give certain incentives for the green tea company that is willing to contribute on the development of local green tea industry, thus, escalating the tea production and consumption in the local region.
Hopefully, the above-mentioned suggestions will, thus, shape the green tea industry in Indonesia not only to higher production and consumption rates; but also, to a better quality of green tea itself.
For Vietnam
Vietnam is one of the largest and oldest tea-producing countries in the world. Similar to Korea, tea drinking culture also plays an essential part in people’s daily life both in the past and at the present. As a commodity, tea is also one of Vietnam’s most important exports. However, Vietnamese tea industry is facing many challenges such as: reduction of crops’ quality and low yields due to conventional and unsustainable cultivating methods; decline in prices and international reputation due to low products quality; and on top of that, is the fact that Vietnamese tea does not have a strong brand and is still very little known globally.
Through our expedition to explore Korean tea industry, we have concluded some implications and suggestions that can be applied to improve the performance of Vietnamese tea industry as follow:
Firstly, the traditional cultivation habit should be changed. From the prominent example of green tea cultivation in Jeju, we have seen how sustainable farming can turn tables for an abandoned and rocky island. By applying modern and eco-friendly cultivating techniques on tea plantation, not only the products quality will be improved, but also the farmer’s livelihood as well as the surrounding environment will be protected. An example of success is “The Mainstreaming Sustainable Management of Tea Production Landscapes” project, a $14 million Global Environment Facility-backed partnership between UN Environment, the Rainforest Alliance and partners in Vietnam, Sri Lanka and China. With the help of this program, Vietnamese tea growers are educated to adopt sustainable farming techniques, and this has resulted in a 30 percent increase in average income in only two years. However, this model has only been applied to a small number of farms in the whole country. Besides depending on the help of international NGOs, Vietnamese scientists at research institutions and green tea enterprises should cooperate with the farmers to develop and apply the environment-friendly farming equipment and techniques for the better future of the industry.
Secondly, innovation is one important factor that the Vietnamese tea industry still lacks, while their Korean counterpart is doing a very good job at. While international brands is taking over Asian tea consuming market with their innovative tea-based products, Vietnamese companies only sit back and keep on producing the same old traditional products they have always been
Source: http://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/greening- vietnams-tea-industry sticking with. In conclusion, the Vietnamese tea industry needs a total makeover in order to gain a firm stand in the international tea market. This should be started by spending more efforts in R&D to create greater variety of tea products, including not only beverage products, but also new value- added products such as cosmetics and functional foods. Market research should also be done in order to come up with many types of products that serve the demands of different markets and consumers.
Branding is also another essential issue that the Vietnamese tea industry should learn more from what the Koreans have done, especially in Jeju case. We had conducted a little survey on social media about people’s awareness on green tea in general and Korean tea in particular. When being asked about the first thing coming to their mind when mentioning Korean green tea, most of the participants answered “Jeju”, “O’sulloc” or “Innisfree”. Although Boseong is in fact the biggest tea producing region in Korea and Hadong is where the first tea tree was planted in the country, many people, especially foreigners, are still not very well aware of their significance. Jeju, on the other hand, has managed to surpass its counterparts and become a new icon of Korea’s green tea industry thanks to its good branding strategies through tourism and commercial brands like O’sulloc and Innisfree. Visiting the tea showrooms in Jeju, as well as in other regions on our field trip, we were in awe of the beautiful packaging designs of their products, which would totally persuade any customer to buy them without much consideration. In Vietnam, most companies in general, not only within the green tea industry, do not focus much on package design and that is one of the reasons why their products cannot attract many consumers comparing to imported products from other countries.
Last but not least, an integration between tourism and green tea industry should also be considered. In Vietnam, the tea plantations in Lam Dong province are very famous to local tourists due to their greenery natural scene. However, all that people can do at these places are just taking pictures and buying some traditional tea products. The local tourism has no plan in turning the region’s tea industry into a serious tourist attraction, and has not made use of all the potential that they already have. This is a regrettable lack of both tourism and green tea industry in Vietnam. For Thailand
Green tea is one of agricultural plants that has significant effect toward the life of local people in the northern part of Thailand. They plant green tea instead of opium as they used to do in the past. Recently, the popularity of green tea increases rapidly among Thai society. However, according to the research published by Food Intelligence Center Thailand, the domestic market value of green tea covers a very small portion from the overall hot beverage market. In contrast, bottle green tea beverage becomes the first selected choice of beverage among Thai people according to the survey by Positioning Magazine.
This reflects the fact that Thai people have little interested in traditional green tea beverage which always comes in a form of hot drink. Bottle green tea beverage is popular because the weather is hot, so consumers always find cool drinks and bottle green tea beverage is the right choice for them. Moreover, there are a lot of consumer goods commercializing the word ‘green tea’ as one component inside their products in order to create health and environmental-friendly perception from consumers.
Sources: http://fic.nfi.or.th/MarketOverviewDomesticDetail.php?id=80 https://positioningmag.com/60465 Thai consumers are lack of basic knowledge of the real benefit of green tea since there is no traditional tea drinking culture in the country. By drinking green tea, consumers do not know what is the real taste of the green tea. According to the inspection by Thai Health Promotion Foundation in 2017, most of the bottle green tea beverages consist of relatively high level of sugar compared to the total quantity of one bottle and only few percentages of real green tea inside. The use of the word ‘green tea’ is only for commercial purpose in which the real benefit of natural green tea cannot be proved. Even though there are a lot of benefit in integrating green tea into various kinds of products, the producers provide little concern on this.
By conducting the expedition on Korean green tea industry, it implies that research and development process is significant in the current market of green tea. Consumers tend to care more about their health and it is the task for producers to offer them good choices based on the deep understanding about benefits of green tea. Moreover, the recognition toward traditional green tea culture will also make people concern more on the real benefit from the nature.
Sources: Thai Health Promotion Foundation