Back in the 1200s green tea was drunken in powdered form, in bowls, wisked to a froth with a bamboo wisk. This occurred in China, Korea and Japan. At the end of the 1200s the mongols invaded, somehow wiping out this tea culture. As the mongols weren't able to successfully invade Japan, it survived there, later becoming the Japanese tea ceremony.
In Japanese and English it is called Matcha, in Korean its Malcha 말차. In Busan today, there are two places that serve green tea that way, the best of which is in Someyeon at a place called DaSoul.
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As you can see on the map here DaSoul is located next to the McDonalds and the public library. To get there, take the street between The Burger King and the underground McDonalds heading away from the underground shopping mall street.
Heading down that street will lead you to this corner. On the left is the police station and the library. On the right, blood donation and photos. DaSoul is in that building on the 2nd floor. To the right you'll see the sign.
This is the enterance to the Zen garden that is Da Soul.
Inside you'll see there are plenty of seats. This teahouse is always busy.
As you can see here, my friend Will enjoying his tea. I quite often bring my friends here for tea as everyone always has a great time. Japanese Matcha is quite strong in flavor as you are consuming the entire leaf of the tea in your bowl opposed to infused teas. These days many Korean companies are making their own powdered green teas as the Matcha market is greatly expanding.
My main recommendation for this place is their Malcha Shake as it is called, which is essentially a Matcha Affogato : Powdered green tea whisked to a froth with a pad of sherbert ice cream ! An awesome innovation to the Song Dynasty green tea. If you like you can simply order the Malcha and have it without the icecream the way the Goryeo dynasty Yangban used to.
Open from 12 till 12 they offer a wide variety of the traditional Korean teahouse teas but are known for their Matcha or Malcha as it is called here in Korea.
Drop by while you can! The Bi-annual Busan Tea & Craft Fair is on at BEXCO. Interestingly enough it coincides with the Cafe Fair also going on at BEXCO. However, unless you are going to join a coffee franchise I suggest you drop by the Tea & Craft fair: Theres lots of stuff you can buy for your home or as gifts !
As you can see here there are alot of Korean tea sets for sale and at decent prices too !
This year there are at least 3 vendors from China mostly selling Pu'er tea.
Mother of Pearl !
These days in the west restaurants, tea shop owners and conoisseurs are all singing the praises of loose leaf tea. There has been a mass proliferation of teashops in Canada and the U.S. selling loose leaf tea. Yet the West is lacking hte hardware required to get the most out of this 'loose leaf' tea that is so widely promoted and praised. The concept is simple: With loose leaf tea, in principle, the tea leaves are free to swish around and blossom open in the water releasing their fragrance more and providing consumers with a better cup of tea.
The problem the West is having (that has been solved here in Asia for centuries) is with hardware. Most western tepots have one hole for the spout and must use a wire mesh insert inside to hold the leaves. The problem with this is that the leaves haven't the full pot to roam around in. A more horrible solution is the tea infuser pictured at right: 
Loose leaf tea, yet confined in a small ball like infuser. You might as well be using a teabag then ! Here in Korea we use teapots that don't require an infuser ~or~ a wire mesh insert ! Its what's inside that counts !
All this week Sumo wrestling is on TV via Japan's NHK broadcasting channel! To celebrate I pulled out my Chinese Gong-Fu teaset and brewed up some Japanese sencha green tea (煎茶) I picked up in Osaka to go with of all things nachos and salsa. I chose the sencha as it is Japanese matching the sumo. The gaiwan, as it was how we took the tea at an old teaseller's shop in Osaka. The lid of the gaiwan preserves the scent of the tea quite well.
Its been awhile since I last posted ㅜ.ㅜ I've been busy teaching and taking Chado tea ceremony classes. Here are some pictures of last years 2011 Busan Tea and Craft Fair held at BEXCO in November.
