[Enjy KOREA] Boseong Green Tea Festival

Boseong Green Tea Festival - Boseong Market

Boseong, the largest tea producing region, started Korea's first tea culture festival in its tea fields on May 12, 1985. The festival consists of various events such as ritual for bumper crop, tea leaf harvest, tea making, Miss Green Tea Competition, etc. The festival is held every May.

 

 

There are plenty of hands-on programs prepared for participants: tea leaf harvest, green tea making, beauty care with green tea, green tea cookie baking, green tea soap making, learning etiquettes of drinking tea, hanji (Korean traditional paper) craft, natural dyeing, green tea tasting, etc.

 

There is more to Boseong than just the hands-on programs, it is the wide and vast green fields enchanting visitors to do nothing but just capturing photos. Do you want to be enchanted with the natural beauty? Plan your trip to Boseong in May.

[Enjoy Food] Jjangddungeo Tang (shuttles hoppfish soup)

Jjangddungeo Tang (shuttles hoppfish soup) - Boseong Market

Jjangttungeo or shuttles hoppfish is also called "loach of the sea" or "mini seal" since it's strong enough to crawl or even hop on the mud.

Jjangttungeo is the only fish that hibernates from early November to April. Also, it cannot be farmed so it must be caught.

Jjangttungeo tang is made by boiling fillet with spice, unlike loach soup which boils grinded fish. What's good about jjangttungeo tang is that it has no fishy smell. The soup goes well with soju(distilled liquor made from grains). One could have a try when you tour to Korea.

Tip
Jjangttungeo is caught between mid-April and mid-October,

and it is the fattiest in September.

Thus, September is the time to enjoy the fish as a stew or grill.

[TalkTalk Market] Boseong Market

Boseong Market

 

 

 

Opened in 1955, Boseong Market was chosen as a "Cultural Tourism Market" in 2009 since it was located near natural tourist attractions such as green tea fields and Mt. Jeamsan. Most of all, it is located in Boseong, the cultural hometown of world famous pansori (Korean traditional vocal and percussional music performance). Local agricultural products as well as seafood caught from Deukryang Gulf are traded in the market, such as shallot, potato, kiwi, strawberry, green tea, linen, kkomak (ark shell clam) and nokdon (green tea-fed pork).

Boseong Market has linked local specialty shops with places of interest such as green tea fields, Yulpo beach, Beolgyo (the setting of Korea's one of the greatest novels "Taebaeksanmaek"), Mt. Ilimsan (the habitat of royal azalea), Mt. Jeamsan Recreational Forest, and Daewonsa buddhist temple, etc. Furthermore, the market established concert stages and experiential learning activities to add more flavor.