In March 2025, I had an opportunity to explore Jeju-do, the "hawaii" of Korea, full of history, sweet tangerine/hallabong, and beautiful tea fields. Coincidentally there's a new Netflix show called "When Life Gives You Tangerines" launching just around the same time as we went to Jeju island, featuring the lifelong tale back in 1950s on Jeju island. If you haven't watched, please do.
My encounter with Jeju matcha wasn't new. A sweet customer gifted some Korean matcha to me a few years ago, but the matcha didn't leave me much impression; then a few cafes also use Jeju matcha, so I tried a few times here and there. Last year we had a new staff member on board and she's from Jeju-do; her sister bought matcha from Osulloc (a major tea brand in Korea) for me to try. As a matcha lover myself, I'm always eager to explore matcha from different regions, and now different countries hoping to better understand matcha cultivation and production from a different perspective.
Many customers DM'd me about Osulloc tea, so when we were in Seoul we went to Osulloc's tea cafe near Hanbok village. The experience was really 10/10. They even had their own magazines for customers to read about their history & cultivation etc. I took a few notes here and there, but since Osulloc's main branch/factory/showroom is on Jeju island, I wanted to check out more once I got to Jeju.
What I didn't know is that, Osulloc's main branch on Jeju is a complete touristy spot. The main museum/retail/cafe area was packed with tourists from all over Korea and the world. I couldn't find the same magazines that I read; it felt a little chaotic inside. They had 2 grades of matcha for sale - one Ceremonial and one culinary. I've tried the ceremonial matcha that my staff's sister bought, and I was hoping that they'd have more varieties. It seems like their focus is more on flavoured looseleaf teas, so we left after taking a few photos outside where they had a few rows of tea plants and a cute truck.
(taking photos outside Osulloc's main branch, just like what every tourist does)
I read a lot online about Jeju matcha before I left for the trip, and from what I read was that, unlike Japan, most Jeju matcha isn't artificially shade-grown. They still advertise it as shade-grown tea, but most are naturally shaded by dense fog & mist blocking out the sunlights. This was also mentioned in Osulloc company's magazine about the natural shading effects on reducing the bitterness in teas.
After failing to find satisfactory matcha at Osulloc, we had another appointment with Orteas, a newer organic tea grower located on the east side of Jeju island, 320 meters above sea level in the mid-mountain area. We met Hyo Kang Lee, the 2nd gen of Orteas. "Or" stands for Organic. The pristine soil of their tea farm land has never been used to grow any other crops, so it's not polluted with pesticides. It's naturally enriched thanks to the volcanic ash accumulated for hundreds of years. Their matcha, is covered with black fabric net (寒冷紗 Kanleisha) for 10 days, just like how's done in Japan. The result is drastically different and better than all the Jeju matcha I tried so far! It actually has a nice fresh smell and umami profile. PLUS even they have 3 different grades, all of them are first harvest matcha!
(Orteas is located in the mountainous area in the east side of Jeju Island)
Of course, the one we brought back is the top ceremonial grade 😊 It's recommended for lattes but also suitable for Usucha. Many customers ask if the processing methods are different from how it's done in Japan. First of all, different tencha factories in Japan use different processing methods depending on the market they're in as well as the regions. Typically in Kagoshima & Shizuoka, more machinery & automation are involved in tencha production such as machine harvest & ballmill grinding, while Yame, Fukuoka & Uji, Kyoto tend to use the traditional methods such as handpicking & stonegrinding.
Orteas adopted the latest equipment for efficiency while perserving the quality as much as possible. The tealeaves are machine harvested, only once a year, so even their culinary grade matcha is from first harvest tealeaves, but the depth of the cut is deeper for lower grade matcha. The tealeaves are shaded for 10 days, in comparison to 14 days that most tencha farms in Japan do. Orteas did experiment shading for more than 10 days, but the tealeaves would grow side ways and become too big & hard. They found that 10-day shading is a sweet spot. After following the same processing procedure, flash-steam, dry, de-vein & de-stem, it will go to a freezer and only grind to order. The grinder is ceramic ballmiller with a cooling system, of which can handle larger volume while minimizing oxidization & retaining the green hue.
(volcanic ash soil around the tea fields)
The other differences between Japanese matcha & Korean matcha are the terroir (altitude, soil, water & weather condition etc) as well as the tea blender/master (in this case, Orteas blends the tealeaves themselves). This ceremonial grade matcha is a single cultivar tea, while their lower grade matcha are blended cultivars.
Have you tried Korean matcha? Let us know in the comment below!
