Teas / dark / Jangheung Cheongtaejeon (Korean Tteokcha "Coin Tea")

Jangheung Cheongtaejeon (Korean Tteokcha "Coin Tea")
🇰🇷 South Korea

Jangheung Cheongtaejeon (Korean Tteokcha "Coin Tea")

장흥 청태전 · 長興 青苔錢

tteokcha · bing

Cheongtaejeon (청태전, "green moss coin") is Korea's signature tteokcha (떡차, "rice cake tea") — small disc-shaped post- fermented tea cakes pierced through the centre with a bamboo needle and strung together. Tteokcha was the dominant form of tea in pre-modern Korea before steeped leaf tea displaced it. The cheongtaejeon style was developed in the late Joseon period (1800s) at Borimsa Temple in Jangheung, near Mt. Gaji, by scholar Jeong Yak-Yong and priest Choi Sun-sa. Production: leaves are dried 24 hours, steamed, ground to a near-paste in a mortar, pressed into bamboo molds, primary-dried, pierced and strung. Distinct from Chinese heicha both in form and in the grind-to-paste step.

Quick facts

Region
Jangheung
Harvest year
2018
Harvest season
spring
Shape
bing

Brewing

Leaf
5.0 g / 100 ml
Water
100°C
Rinse
yes
Gongfu steeps (s)
10, 15, 20, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120

Boiling water like other heicha. Break a small piece off the coin (the bamboo-needle hole helps); for older cakes rinse twice. The pre-modern Korean processing method involves pounding to paste before pressing — gives a denser, slower-opening cake than Chinese heicha.

Calculate leaf weight for this tea

Tasting notes

Aroma
aged wood, dried longan, faint medicinal, mineral
Flavor
smooth, sweet, woody, mineral
Mouthfeel
thick, oily
Finish
warming, long

Aging potential

Like Chinese heicha, properly stored cheongtaejeon mellows over decades; the production scale is small so well-aged examples are rare.

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