My friend invited me along to make green tea today. The day started at 8am with a drive out to his parents property in the country. Their property is in a small city named KimJe (it's about a 30 minute drive out of JeonJu). We climbed the gently sloping hill out the back, were each handed a bag, and told to pick until it was full. 3 hours later... the kids were beat and we were allowed to stop. I love kids!
Next, we prepared the tea. The men gloved up. They had to put on 5 pairs of cotton gloves on each hand. The vat that the tea was being prepared in heats up around 500 degrees. The men worked in shifts. As soon as they could feel the heat through their gloves, they tagged out. Another took over tossing the tea, and the previous used the air compressor to blow cool air down the gloves. It was quite a fascinating display.
The tea was tossed around and then taken out and put on a drop cloth. We tossed it and sorted it more down here while they tossed around the next batch. We were just breaking it up and un-bunching it. The tea was tossed with heat and then beaten on a map 3 or four times as it shrunk down more and more. Suddenly our 3 hours of picking (5 adults and numerous kids) didn't amount to much! It smelled wonderful tho!
One of the men (he has the long ponytail in the photos) is a pro at this. He makes green tea for a living! It's a great way to stay in shape! Well... more than 8 hours later... still tossing and sifting and no end in site! We called it quits. ^_^
See my 'Photos' section for more!
