06/03/2026
Things I learned for the time spent at the tea fields 🍵👇
1. Without human care, there is no tea.
People think wild tea just grows on its own. It doesn’t. Someone is always there - picking at exactly the right moment, watching the plant, caring for it, and watching for when it’s ready to harvest. If you miss one there might be no leaf... These farmers show up every single season and have been doing it for generations.
2. Tea is as good as the water around it.
This one hit me when I got to Hwagae Stream - the stream that first tea in Korea was planted around over a 1000 years ago. The water comes straight off the snowy mountain peak, super fresh and clean and it is literally what feeds the plant and effect the flavor of it.
3. Weather and terroir affect the tea
Same plant but grown in the different mountain will have completely different tea flavor. The mist, the altitude, how cold it gets at night - it all leaves a mark on the leaf. So turns out that terroir isn’t just a wine thing 👀.
4. Tea picking is very labor intensive
A lot of high quality tea is still being picked leaf by leaf by hand. In the early morning before the heat comes in. What ends up in your cup is hours and hours of work that most people never even think about.
5. Every harvest is different
More rain this spring, a late frost, a warm March - it all changes the tea. There’s no identical cup year after year.
6. Processing is where the magic happens
Green tea, black tea, white tea, oolong tea - they all start from the same leaf in the same field. What makes it different is everything that happens after picking. The heat, the timing, the hands. This is where the craft is.
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