Hadong Mountain Dew Tea Festival

[punuri]

Hadong Mountain Dew Tea Festival

Date(s): May 19-22, 2005

The Mountain Dew Tea Cultural Festival is held every year in in Hadong, the birthplace of Korea's tea culture. Hadong County, South Gyeongsang Province, is the nation's most famous tea cultivation area. Tea was first cultivated here under the proclamation of the King in 828 during the Silla Dynasty, who had brought tea seeds from Tang Dynasty China.

In particular, Hadong is famed for its high quality tea cultivated on large plantations. Unlike regular tea, Hadong tea undergoes nine grueling, repetitious cycles of painstaking hand processing. Rubbing and drying the leaves starts in the rainy season and lasts until late May. During this time, Ssangyesa-sa in Hadong is filled with the aroma of tea leaves.

Visitors can participate in the festival by picking tea leaves and tasting the tea. Other activities include tea ceremonies at tea cultivation areas, tea making demonstrations, green tea sampling, the Premier Tea of the Year Contest, and a tea drinking etiquette contest for children. Visitors who becoming drenched in the aroma of the mountain dew tea of Hadong will hold on to those memories throughout their lifetimes.