Dark

Korea

Korean post-fermented teas are distinct from both the oxidized balhyocha and hongcha that sit under black, and they are not Chinese-tradition hei cha. Tteokcha is a genuinely fermented pressed tea shaped like a rice cake; Hadong Heukcha comes from wild-harvested leaf in Hadong, Korea's oldest tea region, with a fermented, earthy character that has no close Chinese analogue. These are small-production styles outside the mainstream Korean green tea tradition, interesting to collectors who want to see what post-fermentation looks like without the Chinese process framework.

teabert, the tealytics teapot, keeper of the kettle

Korea's post-fermented teas, rice-cake-shaped tteokcha and wild-leaf Hadong heukcha, are small-batch, a little off the map and have no neat Chinese equivalent. The whole category is made by a handful of people, so it is small enough that you could, with some effort, meet all of it in person.

Styles in this family

Tteokcha (Korean Pressed)

Tteokcha, literally 'rice-cake tea,' is one of Korea's oldest tea forms: leaves steamed, pounded, and pressed into small cakes or coins, then dried and aged.…

Hadong Heukcha (Korean Wild Dark)

Hadong heukcha is a Korean dark, post-fermented tea from the Hadong region in the foothills of Jirisan, Korea's oldest and most celebrated tea-growing area,…

How it's made

The steps overlap in practice; this is a reading order, not a set of separate stages.