Chinese Origins: Monks of the Tang Dynasty

The history of Korean tea begins not in Korea, but in China, under the Tang Dynasty (618–907). During this period, China was the intellectual and spiritual center of East Asia. Korean Buddhist monks regularly traveled there to study sacred texts in the great monasteries of Chang'an and Luoyang.

It was in these monasteries that Korean monks discovered an astonishing plant: Camellia sinensis. Chinese Buddhist monks had used tea for centuries as an aid to meditation: its natural compounds, notably L-theanine combined with caffeine, create a state of calm alertness that helps maintain a sharp mind during long hours of contemplation without the agitation that an ordinary stimulant would cause.

For the Korean monks, it was a revelation. They didn't just bring back Buddhist texts in their luggage; they also brought back seeds.

The Kingdom of Silla: First Seeds, First Gardens

Korean historical chronicles, notably the Samguk Sagi (Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms), dated to the 12th century, contain the first written mention of tea in Korea. They indicate that in 828 AD, during the reign of King Heungdeok of the Kingdom of Silla, Ambassador Kim Dae Ryeum officially brought tea seeds from the Tang court in China.

The king ordered these seeds to be planted on the slopes of Mount Jirisan, in the region that would later become Hadong. This site, where wild tea plants considered direct descendants of these first plantations still grow today, is revered as the historical birthplace of Korean tea.

The Goryeo Period: The Golden Age of Korean Tea

The Goryeo period (918–1392) represents the golden age of tea culture in Korea. Buddhism was the state religion, and tea was at the heart of monastic and court life.

The Joseon Period: Decline and Resistance

The Joseon period (1392–1910) marks a long and painful decline for Korean tea culture. Confucianism replaces Buddhism as the state ideology. Buddhist monasteries lose their lands and influence. With them disappears the main infrastructure for tea production and knowledge transmission.

Tea gardens are abandoned. Knowledge of preparation fragments. What was an organized national culture becomes a confidential practice, maintained by a few monastic families in the most remote regions of Jirisan and Boseong.

It is paradoxically in this context of decline that the figure of Monk Chou-ui (초의, 1786–1866) emerges, today considered the greatest reformer of Korean tea culture. Against the current of his time, Chou-ui studies ancient texts, replants tea plants, develops his own production methods, and writes the Dondasong and Dasinjeon, two foundational texts that would later be translated and disseminated in the West thanks to Brother Anthony of Taizé.

The 20th Century: The Revival of Korean Tea

The Japanese occupation (1910–1945) brought a new threat: Korean cultural practices were suppressed in favor of Japanese culture. Paradoxically, it was during this period that some Koreans, in silent cultural resistance, reappropriated tea culture as a marker of identity.

After the liberation in 1945 and the Korean War (1950–1953), the country rebuilt itself. Tea culture started almost from scratch. The revival truly accelerated in the 1970s and 1980s, driven by two parallel movements: on one hand, artisanal producers from Boseong and Hadong who replanted and resurrected the ancient methods of Gamasot; on the other, companies like Amorepacific, which founded Osulloc on Jeju Island and democratized access to quality Korean tea.

Boseong, Heir to this Odyssey

Today, Boseong is the living guardian of this millennia-old odyssey. Its terraced plantations, its artisans who still master Gamasot by hand, its families of producers whose expertise goes back several generations: all of this is the direct result of this 1,400-year journey, from the temples of China to the mountains of Jeolla.

At Maison Boseong, we work directly with these heirs. Every tea we select carries this history. To taste it is to participate in the continuity of an odyssey that is not yet over.