Guest Post by Tea Institute Member Gaby Parker: Last week we made the trek from Gimje to Gurye to spent a couple days on Mr. Hong’s tea field! It was one of the most memorable parts of the trip for me because everything I’ve learned about tea and

Guest Post by Julie Miler: Long after this trip has ended there will be several experiences that will still remain vividly in my memory. One of these experiences happened last week near the small town of Gurye. Nothing that I have done on this trip has enhanced my knowledge of

Guest Post by Pat Penny: We arrived in Gurye just in time for dinner, we were met by the familiar face off Mr. Hong Kyong-Hee. Mr. Hong was one of the guests that flew in to Penn state to present on Korean tea ceremony and tea production methods. After a

Guest Post by Liz White: I guess you could say I’m a bit of a country bumpkin. The city is always fun and exciting, but for me, there is just something about the rural areas that make me feel alive, fully embracing the carpe diam inside me. So what

As I’m sure many of you know; I study ChaXi with Teaparker (Chih Jung Sien) and Stephane Erler of Tea Masters Blog; and like them, I like to make ChaXi in far away, hard to reach, exotic locals. Sometimes The Penn State Tea House just doesn’t cut it,

For those of you who don’t know, Korea is obsessed with with coffee. The history of tea is long, exciting, and full of cultural depth; but coffee is the here and now today. Most of the coffee in Korea is terrible; if you think my letter to Saints in

We spent two days with Professor Park, Director of the Paik-Inje Memorial Library, and Mr. Jang, Manager of the Paik-Inje Memorial Library traveling from Gimje to Gurye. First we stopped for lunch in Muan for a traditional Korean meal, with lots of banchan (Korean Side Dishes). Like all Korean food,

Guest Post by Pat Penny: During our temple stay at the beautiful Daeheongsa  (Temple) we had the chance to visit two hermitages. The monks at these hermitages harvested and processed there own tea from the wild tea trees growing in the temples land. The first hermitage we visited was ilchiam