Step aside, coffee: Tea is Korea's hip new subculture

Food & Travel

Published: 21 Jan. 2024, 09:15 Updated: 22 Jan. 2024, 10:19

Step aside, coffee: Tea is Korea's hip new subculture

Red bellflower tea is served with complementary food, which is a canape. The tea is included as one of the winter tea courses available at Cocosienna, a posh teahouse located in Yeonnam-dong of Mapo District, western Seoul. [KIM SANG-SEON]

“This tea is made with young mugwort leaves. The scent is strong but it tastes as smooth as vanilla and as sweet as white chocolate. The matching tea food is monaka, stuffed with homemade adzuki bean paste and topped with cream made with yuzu preserves and lavender,” said Kim Eun-ji, the owner of Cocosienna, a posh teahouse located in Yeonnam-dong of Mapo District, western Seoul.

The teahouse is a well-known tea omakase. At omakase, a concept originally derived from Japan, customers can’t choose from the menu — chefs decide what to offer their customers.

“This tea is often considered an equivalent to champagne. When dazzling tea leaves are brewed for a long time in cold water, their taste and color become similar to that of champagne. Let me serve you this tea in a champagne glass because it is the year's-end season,” a server said, working at the lounge bar of Le Meridien Seoul Myeongdong, located in Jung District, central Seoul.

“The tea food we’ve prepared is based on yuzu and potatoes, which are seasonal ingredients, along with puree made with carrots, peas and roasted scallops,” the server added.

Tea and tea food served at the lounge bar of Le Meridien Seoul Myeongdong, located in Jung District, central Seoul. The tea is often dubbed the champagne of the world of tea because the color and taste are similar to those of champagne. [SEO JEONG-MIN]

Cocosienna and the lounge bar of Le Meridien Seoul Myeongdong serve simple tea courses with complementary food. It costs between 40,000 won ($30) and 50,000 won per person and requires a reservation in advance, but such places are buzzing with popularity.

Given modern Koreans’ extraordinary love for coffee, the sustainability of tea omakase's popularity remains questionable. Koreans’ unfailing love for iced coffee throughout all four seasons has even made headlines in the foreign press.

Industry experts say young people classify omakase as high culture, leading to the creation all types of omakase imaginable: serving hanwoo (Korean beef), specialty coffee, deep-fried chicken, gimbap (rice roll wrapped in seaweed), and sundae (blood sausages).

Choi Won-seok, the head of Project Rent, says, “Millennials and Gen Z know they can’t afford to pay for high-priced sushi omakase. So instead, they began enjoying tea omakase, which is relatively cheaper than sushi omakase but still classy.”

Yunnan black tea with shrimp cooked with grapefruit, apple and tomato at Le Meridien Seoul Myeongdong [SEO JEONG-MIN]

Project Rent, a marketing firm, has been holding unique pop-up store events by teaming up with local brands such as Ghana Chocolate and Samsung Electronics.

“The younger generations are always in search of something new. Specialty coffee doesn’t intrigue them any longer. In addition, tea offers more things to enjoy, such as tea etiquette rules and tea tools, than coffee does,” Choi added.

Cafes heavily influenced by Japanese style, espresso bars and afternoon tea sets were some of the things these generations had been enthusiastic about in the past. Before Covid-19 broke out, people would form lines in front of places like EERT, a cafe in Seongsu-dong of Seongdong District, eastern Seoul, and Gabaedo Coffee, which has a couple of branches across Seoul. Their zen style and simple interiors worked magic on anyone who preferred atmosphere over anything else.

For a time, social media was flooded with photos of espresso cups, stacked in a neat tower or filled with the beverage. Many people jumped on the bandwagon to prove their love for espresso, but the craze ended up turning into a sort of subculture.

Fancy, DIY afternoon tea sets were in fashion when people were stuck at home during the pandemic, but as soon as they were able to roam around outside again freely, cafes and hotels began to introduce their own tea sets to attract those new tea aficionados.

Tea classes, where people can sample and learn about a variety of teas, are now on the bucket list of many savvy, on-trend young people.

Kim Se-ri, the director of the Korea Tea Culture Industry Research Institute, who also works as a visiting professor at Sungkyunkwan University’s Asian Tea and Culture department, said, “I've noticed that tea consumption has gone up and there are more clubs with tea themes at colleges."

Kim added, “People are always interested in drinks. They are serious about it. Both coffee and alcohol are often used as mediums of socializing. During Covid-19, a lot of people wanted to find healthier drinks. In the past, they would first think of [complicated] tea etiquette when they thought of tea, but now tea has become a more accessible option thanks to more tea shops springing up.”

Yoon Rang, a 35-year-old designer who participated in a tea class co-hosted by Onjium and Tea by Dojae, said, “I began enjoying tea during Covid-19 to get rid of my miscellaneous thoughts and as a way to enrich my meditation.”

Onjium is a research institute on traditional Korean culture including everything from clothing and food to housing, while Tea by Dojae is a tea producer based in Hadong County, South Gyeongsang.

“I often feel cold, so I’m picky in choosing what to drink. I began to drink pu-erh tea after a friend of mine recommended it. Since then, I've become an ardent tea lover and I’m so into it, hoping to explore the world’s different kinds of tea,” Yoon said.

Local food manufacturers are quick to respond to new trends like this. A wide selection of health-conscious offerings — from pumpkin tea to milk tea using hojicha, which is roasted green tea — are available on market shelves. Even coffee franchises such as Paul Bassett use seasonal ingredients for limited-time offerings such as sweet pumpkin latte and apple cinnamon tea.

Tea and tea food prepared by Onjium, a research institute of traditional Korean culture [SEO JEONG-MIN]

Another appealing aspect of tea culture lies in variety. “People can enjoy their tea time by trying out different tea tools as if playing with toys,” director Kim said.

A handful of tea tools are used during the whole brewing process, such as a teapot, strainer, bowl, tea tray and tea knife. For the younger generations who prioritize new experiences, this tea culture is considered a kind of fun activity, not a tradition.

Kim, the owner of Cocosienna, said she sees mostly couples on weekends and young office workers during weekdays.

“One memorable review wrote that it was therapeutic for them to spend more time brewing and sipping tea than having coffee,” Kim said. “They said after experiencing the entire process of brewing, pouring and drinking tea, they said it felt like they’d watched a short theatrical play.”

Tasting the complementary tea food is another pleasure of experiencing a tea course. Depending on whether the tea is from China, Japan, European countries, India or Korea, the food is meticulously cooked and paired by chefs.

A single tea course consists of four or five different tea offerings and is filling enough to replace a casual brunch.

Ginger-scented black tea and sweet and sour pork topped with strawberries at Cocosienna [KIM SANG-SEON]

The tea course also allows young people to revisit the old days and taste tea food and desserts made with more traditional ingredients such as black sesame, yuzu and pine nuts, which give a more healthy, mild taste. These desserts fit well into the halmaennial trend. Halmaennial is a portmanteau of halmae, a casual Korean term for grandma, and Millennial.

Halmaennial has become a keyword in the local food industry as young people embrace retro trends and create their own new versions of it, which is called newtro, a portmanteau of new and retro.

With all the young people taking an interest in tea culture, many Koreans are getting to know Korean tea, which will eventually lead them to discover their own tea preferences, according to director Kim.

“The biggest virtue of Korean tea is its simple, clean and plain taste,” Kim said. “Scented teas from European countries may captivate you with the first sip, but it is too much to drink every day. You will discover the charm of Korean tea.

“So many different tea houses produce their products in different parts of Korea in various ways. Many brand new ones are also in the making. Once you start this journey, you will find yourself immersed in the taste of Korean tea.”

BY SEO JEONG-MIN [kjdculture@joongang.co.kr]