Cheongtaejeon

Where it grows

The districts recorded against this tea, all of them in South Korea. Elevation is given as the band the district is recorded at, not a measurement of the garden this leaf came from.

• Jangheung — 100–700 metres

  How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it. The wild stands run from the coastal hills up the flanks of Gajisan and Cheongwansan. The band is read from those mountains rather than from a stated figure, and no source consulted gives one.

How it is made, in order

Read top to bottom: the list is the production sequence, and the sequence is what makes this tea its category rather than a neighbouring one. The same leaf from the same bush becomes a green tea or a black tea depending on where the heat falls relative to the bruising, so reordering these steps would not vary the tea — it would produce a different one.

1. 1. Steaming (Japanese fixation) — Denatures polyphenol oxidase using saturated steam, arresting oxidation without applying dry contact heat to the leaf surface.
2. 2. Rolling and shaping — Ruptures cell walls to expose leaf juices, and forms the leaf into the shape it will hold through drying and storage.
3. 3. Compression — Reduces the leaf’s exposed surface area and fixes it in a stable physical form, slowing and evening out subsequent change.
4. 4. Drying — Reduces residual moisture to a level at which enzymatic, microbial and oxidative change effectively stops, stabilising the leaf for storage.
5. 5. Ageing and storage — Allows slow oxidative, microbial and thermal change to continue in stored leaf, gradually converting sharp young character into darker, rounder and sweeter character.

The route it is made by

The steps above are what happens; this is the named production route they belong to, with the other teas made the same way.

• Pounded and aged coin tea — Steamed leaf beaten in a mortar until it is a paste, formed into discs with a hole through the middle, dried and then held while a slow microbial change works inward. It is the only route in the catalogue whose leaf never exists as separate leaves after the second step.

  Where it is practised: Jangheung and the surrounding districts of South Jeolla in the south-west of the Korean peninsula. It is a local product rather than a national one and is not made at scale anywhere else.

What its chemistry turns on

Every true tea contains caffeine, catechins and amino acids, so listing them would say nothing about this one. What differs is what the processing above does to them — and that is the same list of steps, read for its chemistry instead of its craft.

The compounds that substantially decide what this tea is: Organic acids.

• Steaming (Japanese fixation)
  • creates Dimethyl sulfide
  • lowers Green-leaf volatiles
  • locks Chlorophyll
  • locks EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate)
• Rolling and shaping
  • converts Leaf lipids
  • creates Theaflavins
  • raises Pectins
• Drying
  • creates Strecker aldehydes
  • raises Beta-damascenone
  • raises Thearubigins
• Ageing and storage
  • raises Gallic acid
  • raises Pectins
  • raises Pheophytin
  • raises Thearubigins
  • lowers Catechins
  • lowers Chlorophyll
  • lowers Tea cream

These are statements about the leaf and the cup. What any of these compounds does in a body is a different kind of question and is not answered here or on the pages linked from it.

Brewing

• Boiling aged and dark tea (zhu cha)

  0.8–1.5 g/100 ml · 95–100 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Needs: Kettle, Brewing saucepan, Tea strainer

  Open in the brew assistant

• Western brewing (teapot or mug)

  1.5–2.5 g/100 ml · 95–100 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Needs: Western teapot

  Open in the brew assistant

Common mistakes

• Steeping it like a green tea. The disc is dense and a three-minute steep barely wets it; boiling is the method.
• Assuming it is a Korean pu-erh. The microbial change is slow and unforced, with no wet pile anywhere in the route.

When the cup goes wrong

Written against dark tea and pu-erh as a category rather than against this tea in particular, and worked back from the symptom to the likely causes in order. 15 apply to the category; the first 6 are shown.

• Every infusion in my gongfu session tastes the same — The cups are pleasant and interchangeable, with none of the change from steep to steep the method is supposed to show.
• My clay pot has changed how the tea tastes — A tea that tasted right in porcelain comes out muted, differently scented, or carrying something that was not in the leaf.
• My first infusion is always the worst one — The opening cup is thin, dusty or flat, and the second is markedly better — consistently, across different teas.
• My gaiwan is too hot to hold — The rim and lid become uncomfortable within seconds, the pour is rushed, and tea ends up on the tray.
• My gongfu tea is bitter even at five seconds — The timer says five or ten seconds and the cup is over-extracted anyway, with the later infusions dropping off sharply.
• My pu-erh cake will not break apart cleanly — The cake resists the pick, then gives way suddenly into powder and fragments rather than intact leaf.

Every diagnosed brewing problem

If you like this

Grouped by why they were suggested, strongest reason first. Nothing here is a blended score — a suggestion appears under the best reason that exists for it, and never under a weaker one as well.

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