About Seoulful Tea
Seoulful Tea started the way most good things do, sideways, and without a plan.
My name is Matt. I live on the island of Jersey in the English Channel, a small place most people locate by saying “near France” and hoping for the best. A few years ago I started learning Korean, which led me to Wish (소원), my Korean teacher, who lives in Seoul.
Wish is a patient teacher. She is also, as it turns out, someone who thinks a great deal about tea.
Between lessons, we kept finding ourselves talking about what she was drinking that week — a delicate green tea from Boseong, a roasted grain tea her mother made, something floral she had picked up at a market. I was curious. She was generous with her knowledge. And gradually it became clear that Korean tea culture was something genuinely special that most of the world had simply never come across.
So we decided to write about it.
What SeoulfulTea is
This is a site about tea, culture, and the small pleasures of daily life — seen from two very different places.
Wish brings the inside view: what Koreans actually drink at home, how tea fits into the rhythms of Korean family life, what to look for when you are buying, and the seasonal traditions that give Korean tea culture its particular depth. She drinks this tea. She grew up around it. That knowledge is not something you can find in a Wikipedia article.
I bring the outside view: what it is like to discover Korean tea culture as a foreigner, how to find good tea when you are nowhere near Korea, and the honest questions a newcomer asks that locals might not think to answer.
Together we cover both sides of the experience — the authentic and the accessible.
A little wider than just Korean tea
We started with Korean tea and that remains our heart. But SeoulfulTea has grown into something slightly broader: a space about tea culture in general, and about life connected to Korea from a distance.
You will find content here about English teas too, because good tea is good tea, and because many of our readers are curious about both worlds. And occasionally you will find posts about life in Korea, places we have visited, films we have seen, and the everyday texture of a culture we both love.
Not every post will be about what is steeping in the pot. Some will just be about what it feels like to be paying attention.
A note on how we approach things
We are enthusiasts, not academics. We try to get things right and we consult Korean sources when we are uncertain, but we will always be learners rather than authorities. If we get something wrong, we want to know.
What we can promise is honesty. We will not tell you a tea is wonderful if it is not. We will not dress up cultural tourism as expertise. And we will always tell you when something is our opinion versus something we know to be true.
We are glad you found us. Pull up a chair, put the kettle on, and stay a while.
Matt (Jersey) and Wish 소원 (Seoul)
