And we’re back with another review of the What-Cha haul! This time, the tea is a Korean tea, which is one of the countries I don’t know much about. For reference, the only other straight tea from Korea that I’ve tried is the Volcanic Rock Tea by O’Sulloc, so I was super excited to find out if there were going to be any similarities between the two.

According to the What Cha product page, this tea was made by “a co-operative of small farmers with the goal of maintaining Korea’s rich history of tea.”

First Impressions

The tea leaves are pretty cute – small and curly. I’m getting a faint smell that reminds me of Chinese medicine, but nothing much other than that.

Tasting Notes

1st steep: The tea liquor for the first steep is very light but smells incredibly sweet. In terms of taste, this is very, very sweet and grassy, with a slight toasted note. The taste of the tea lingers in your mouth and I’m so tempted to call this a desert tea because the sweetness feels so indulgent.

2nd steep: The tea for the second steep is still sweet and grassy, though less sweet than before. It actually smells a bit like sencha, though there’s no umami in this tea. I’m starting to notice a slight medicinal note at the back of the mouth, though I wouldn’t have noticed it if I hadn’t been primed to notice it from the rock tea and my first impressions of the tea.

3rd steep: There’s no more sweetness in the tea, which is pretty surprising given how sweet it was starting out. The medicinal/bitter note is getting stronger, which to me signals the end of the tea. But if you like bitter teas, you may want to continue steeping.

Spent leaves: The spent leaves are interesting. I can see the stems of the leaves, but they also look as though they’ve been chopped before being rolled. At one point, the smell of the leaves reminded me of sencha, so I was mildly surprised that the spent leaves weren’t as soft as sencha spent leaves.

Final Thoughts

This was definitely an unusual tea. I don’t think I’ve tasted a green tea that started out so sweet before – at least, not one that wasn’t flavoured.

In terms of brewing, this one requires more attention – I had one session where the water was either too hot or I steeped it too long by accident, and I started getting the medicinal note and a bitter note from the second steep onwards. So if you’re brewing this, I’d suggest starting with a lower temperature (maybe 70~80 degrees water) and short steeps (30s) before playing around with the temperature and steep to find your preference between taste + lightness of tea liquor.

I also looked back at my review of the volcanic rock tea and it seems like the medicinal note that I got here is something that may be common to Korean teas. I’m not sure if this is due to terroir or processing methods, but it does mean that if I buy another Korean tea, I will be a bit more careful about the brewing parameters to make sure I don’t draw out this note too early.