Sejak
Sejak is one rung on Korea's harvest-timed grade ladder for green tea, plucked in spring from small, young leaf shortly after the very first pluck. The grades run earliest to latest as ujeon, sejak, jungjak, and daejak. Sejak sits near the top, so the variable that matters most is pluck timing, which determines tenderness, sweetness, and price.
Look for small, tender, evenly made leaf, a deep clean color, and a sweet, nutty, lightly vegetal aroma without scorched or dull notes. The name jakseol (sparrow's tongue) describes the small early-spring leaf shape that good sejak should show. Most Korean green is pan-fired and hand-finished, so a gentle roasted sweetness is correct, while a flat, papery, or aggressively grassy character suggests later or careless picking. Hadong and Boseong are the names to look for as origins. As with all fine greens, current-year spring material in sealed packaging is the baseline quality signal.
Korea's main green-tea regions are Hadong (around the slopes of Jirisan in South Gyeongsang), Boseong (South Jeolla, known for terraced gardens), and Jeju Island. Sejak is defined by timing rather than place: it is picked in spring after ujeon but before the leaf coarsens, traditionally tied to the solar terms around Grain Rain (Gogu). The dominant processing tradition is deokkeum, pan-firing and hand-rolling in iron cauldrons, which gives Korean green its characteristic nutty-sweet profile; some producers steam instead, but pan-firing is the benchmark.
Korean greens brew like fine Chinese greens, cool and with plenty of leaf. Western: 70-80°C, 3 g per 200 ml, 1-2 minutes, 2-3 infusions. Gongfu or small-teapot style: 75°C, 4-5 g per 120 ml, 30-45 seconds for the first steep, ascending, 4-5 infusions. Keep the water clearly off the boil; Korean tradition often pours water into a cooling vessel (sukwu) first to drop the temperature before it touches the leaf.
€20-45 (about $22-49) per 100 g for typical sejak; €55-90 (about $59-97) per 100 g for top hand-made lots from named Hadong or Boseong producers.
Prices reviewed June 2026
Ujeon (Pre-Grain-Rain)
The grade above it, picked before Grain Rain from the very first buds: more tender, sweeter, scarcer, and more expensive.
Jungjak
The grade below, picked a little later from slightly larger leaf: fuller and more robust, a better everyday Korean green.
Daejak
The latest, largest-leaf grade: bolder and more astringent, often the value daily drinker or a blend base.
Longjing (Dragon Well)
A useful Chinese reference, since both are pan-fired greens; Longjing is flatter and more chestnut-sweet, sejak nuttier and a touch more vegetal.
Korean tea grades are tied to the lunisolar calendar rather than to leaf number: the cutoffs reference traditional solar terms such as Gogu (Grain Rain, around April 20), so a tea's grade name effectively tells you roughly when in spring it was picked.