Just below Ssangye-sa temple we explored a more organized tea field. Here the bushes have been planted in orderly rows and are kept trimmed mechanically so that those picking the tea need only stretch out a hand and the tips seem to come leaping up of their own accord. Until a few years ago, as in most such plantations, artificial fertilizers were used but now everyone knows that, while they may increase the bulk of the yield, they do nothing for its quality, on the contrary. This plantation has not been fertilized with chemicals for a number of years now. The main difference between green and red tea is the time that elapses before the leaves are fully dried.
Green tea is dried quickly, without interruption.
The oils that give the taste change dramatically if they are exposed to the oxygen in the air. In a newly-built tea room with walls and floor of red clay, we taste the red tea. Strongly perfumed, sweet to the taste, much closer to English breakfast tea than to green tea, it is decidedly different and very pleasing. In the room, incense is burning and we recall that these are the same people who delight in introducing Korean incense to the throngs in Insa-dong on Sundays. Their incense is made entirely of natural products, the barks and resins of trees mainly, and there is no conflict between the scented air and the scented tea.