This photo shows a tea tree growing in Korea and I’m hoping to see scenes like this when I’m there in a few weeks’ time. I’ve just been invited to an international symposium that is to take place in October in Seoul and I’m so excited about my visit as the Korean tea culture has a long and fascinating history which I began to appreciate when a group of Korean tea students spent time with me in London last year. Dedicated to studying and understanding tea in its many different cultural and agricultural settings around the world, the group of 20 or so ladies spent a week in the UK in November 2007. We worked together in the classroom, discussing British tea history and our traditional afternoon tea ceremony, and tasting a wide range of the typical black teas that we still prefer here.

At one point, we split into groups and, using a selection of tea wares and linens from my cupboards at home, I asked each group to set the table for a particular tea event - a cream tea, an afternoon tea, a high tea - with tea brewed in the old fashioned way with leaves in the pot and poured through a strainer, or prepared in the more modern fashion using infuser pots that allow easy separation of leaf from liquor. Apart from a slight confusion about the strainer, the groups were brilliant and prepared their tables with great charm and thoughtful coordination of colour and style. We had such fun and of course, they taught me a great deal too.

After two days in the classroom, the ladies scurried around London, taking tea in all the ‘best’ places, but the highlight of the week was our trip to Devon and Somerset by coach to visit a tea factory, have lunch in a charming little tearoom in Dunster and then to enjoy Afternoon Tea in a real ‘manor house’. I met the group at their London hotel very early in the morning and was overwhelmed to find that they had all dressed in their stunningly beautiful silk traditional costumes, their little bodice jackets and skirts an absolute blaze of colour - pinks, and purples, lime greens and dark blues, sunshine yellows and crisp white - and with their hair twisted into traditional plaits and knots and decorated with carved pins, slides and ribbons. They had decided that, as this was a special day of special visits, they would wear their finest, traditional clothes and they looked wonderful.

We left after an early breakfast, and reached the D J Miles tea factory in Devon well before lunch. And, as the ladies emerged from the coach in their glorious colours (to be welcomed by Derek Miles and his team), the factory workers stood for a moment or two in silent awe of this amazing sight and then ran off to get their cameras so that they could capture the unusual and unexpectedly beautiful scene. Normally, it’s the tourists that take all the photographs, but on this occasion, the locals were snapping away at the tourists while the tourists were busy snapping away at the locals - and also taking pictures of the factory, the tea machinery, the bowls laid out in the tasting room and the teas.

We were having such a wonderful time at Derek’s factory that it was hard to persuade the ladies to leave but we eventually moved on to the small, nearby town of Dunster. As we walked (in rainbow-coloured single file) down the cobbled streets to our chosen tea room for lunch, every passing car slowed almost to a stop so that drivers and passengers could enjoy the sight of 20 or so Korean ladies making their way through this old market town dressed in full-length, sweeping silken skirts in colours that are rarely seen in November in Britain!

From Dunster, we drove through narrow country lanes to arrive at Leigh House (pictured left), an Elizabethan house and the country home of friends, where we were to take tea. As Clifford (my friend and our host for the afternoon) opened the huge, heavy wooden front door, the ladies surged inside, fascinated by the house, the vast rooms, the décor, the pictures - Clifford later described their entrance as being rather like releasing a jar of very active little tadpoles into a pond! They darted in all directions, trying to take in four hundred years of British history in just five minutes, taking photos, popping out into the garden, peeking carefully around doors and behind curtains to see what other historical treats were hidden there. Once they had explored, we were served a perfect afternoon tea in the dining room with tables laid with pretty linen cloths and decorated with fresh flowers, and platefuls of neat little sandwiches with the crusts cut off (of course), warm scones, jam and clotted cream, lots of cakes and pastries and endless cups of tea. To make our visit even more memorable, Clifford then led the group upstairs to the music room and played the grand piano for them. He too became the subject of their cameras as each member of the group was photographed standing at the piano while he played. What fun!

While we were on the coach on the way and on the way back home, I was able to ask lots of questions and find out more about Korea’s ancient tea drinking customs and about the teas that are made and drunk in the country today. Tea was first introduced from China to Korea, probably by Buddhist monks travelling between the two countries, in the 6^th or 7^th century AD and it became popular at court. So, as in Europe, it was at first a luxury enjoyed by the aristocracy but by the 12^th century, everyone around the country was following the rituals of ‘The Way of Tea’. And as in China and Japan, tea also became an essential part of life in Buddhist temples and monasteries where it was served to help the monks focus and concentrate during long sessions of prayer and meditation. Sadly, the Korean rituals were suppressed during Japanese rule from 1910 to 1945 but have subsequently been reintroduced and have once again found an important place in Korean society. The photo on the right shows the ceremony today.

I hope to learn so much more while I am in Korea in October, and I shall be visiting the tea growing region in the south so will have plenty to write about after the trip.

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