Hi, its Rob here. I thought it might be interesting to share a number of short blogs from my trip to South Korea - so here goes with day 1. Any questions please do just get in touch! Cheers Rob
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After a long journey to Seoul via Beijing I arrived an took the airbus and a taxi to meet up with Seong Il Hong at his newly opened pottery exhibition. His work is part of a large exhibition for the eight top teaware makers from South Korea. It was great to get a taste for the city on the journey across and then a great honor to be able to attend the exhibition. I have never seen so many breathtaking and skillfully made tea pieces in one place.
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Leaving the exhibition we then headed for dinner - a traditional Korean restaurant where we barbecued pork before placing it on lettuce leaves with fresh vegetables and wrapping the whole thing up. Very fresh and tasty and welcome at the end of a long day travelling.
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After dinner I was very excited and intrigued to be invited by Seong Il to visit the home of one of his friends houses for tea.
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By 'tea' I mean some of the finest tea I’ve had the pleasure to enjoy on my travels around the tea world. Our tea session started with some fine Korean nokcha (green tea) and then went in to include korean yellow and even some North Korean nokcha. Conditions in North Korea are not ideal for growing tea so this was quite a surprise! After this we were served some Taiwanese tea in the form of Dong Ding, aged 1980’s Dong Ding and finally some 1990’s puer. Quite a treat after such a day.
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As is often the case on these tea trips we are joined for tea by a diverse selection of people from across the local tea landscape. Our host, YongJae, works with Korean, Taiwanese and Japanese governments and had just finished a day of meeting delegates and serving them tea so I was truly honoured he went to all this effort. In the picture above you can see
YongJae sitting opposite me with Seong Il in the foreground and the two tea masters in between us. The night finished with some of his mother’s extraordinary homemade black beer and Kyung ju bopju, a rice based alcoholic drink. Both were incredible.
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By now I had been awake around 36 hours - I collapsed into bed, exhausted but feeling very excited about the days ahead.
Up Next : Day 2 : To Boseong and the studio of Seong Il Hong.
