The weekend felt like summer, then Monday morning brought unexpected rain. This spring rain feels like Mary Poppins descending with her umbrella for the children—it puts the season back in its proper place. Today is Goku (Grain Rain), the solar term when spring rain fattens the grain, and it’s also the tea farmers’ deadline. What deadline? The Ujeon (Before Rain) harvest deadline!
Ujeon literally means tea made from very young buds and leaves picked “before the rain” of Goku. Because it’s made from tender buds and leaves where catechins, caffeine, and other compounds responsible for tea’s astringency and delicate fragrance are concentrated, it’s characterized by a sweet, smooth, and clean body.
Maybe it’s a Korean thing, being an age-centered culture, but the explanation that categorizes and grades teas by harvest timing and leaf maturity—Ujeon–Sejak–Jungjak–Daejak, in order of appearance—is widely known. The first time I visited a tea fair and asked about Ujeon prices, I nearly fainted. As fresh tea that comes once a year, it commands quite a price.
But Korean green tea, with its refined and clean charm between the splendor of Chinese green tea and the solemnity of Japanese green tea, is the essence of freshness worth paying for.
The trees along the main road I walk every day are already flourishing with such dense foliage they feel lush. The way they stretch forward fearlessly resembles youth. Before fully sprinting into the season of sun, how about calming down with a cup of Ujeon?
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