Korean Tea Producers | Who Actually Makes Korean Tea | KTeaShop
Who actually makes Korean tea
Most English-language writing about Korean tea names one company. Korea has hundreds of tea farms and a national craft-designation system that almost nobody outside the country has heard of. This is a working reference to the gardens and makers behind the tea — with the certifications each one publishes, and how to check them yourself.
This is a reference compiled from published government, academic and producer sources. It is not a list of KTeaShop’s suppliers, and inclusion here is not an endorsement or a commercial relationship. Certifications are shown as each producer or source publishes them; where we could not verify a certification number against a primary register, we say so.
If you are sourcing, verify independently. We tell you how at the bottom of this page.
The scale you are dealing with
Korea is a small tea origin, and more concentrated than it looks from the outside.
That last figure matters if you are building an origin story. Osulloc (Amorepacific) alone farms about 56% of Jeju’s tea area and accounts for roughly a quarter of Korea’s entire tea production. Jeju is not a smallholder region — it is one large estate plus a few dozen small growers. Hadong and Boseong are where the smallholder picture is real.
Korea’s Food Grand Masters (식품명인)
This is the part of Korean tea that has almost no English-language coverage, and it is the most useful thing a buyer can learn.
Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs designates individual craftspeople as Food Grand Masters — a numbered, government-conferred designation tied to a specific traditional method and a specific person, not a company. For tea, the designations are held by a handful of makers, almost all in Hadong.
A Grand Master designation is not a quality certification and it is not transferable. It says the state recognises this person as a holder of a particular traditional craft. For a buyer, it is a traceability anchor: you know exactly who made the tea and by what method.
Hadong (하동)
The heartland of jaerae-jong — native, seed-propagated tea rather than clonal cuttings — and the region holding Korea’s only FAO GIAHS tea designation (Traditional Hadong Tea Agrosystem, 2017). Most of Korea’s tea Food Grand Masters are here.
| Garden | Known for | Designation / certification |
|---|---|---|
| 명인다원 Myeongin Dawon박수근 Park Su-geun | Gujeung-gupo — nine steamings and nine pan-firings, entirely by hand in a cast-iron cauldron above 160 °C. | 식품명인 제16호 · 1999수제녹차 · first tea designation |
| 화개제다 Hwagae Jeda홍순창 Hong Sun-chang | Jungnocha (bamboo-dew tea), third generation. | EU organic · 2012USDA · JAS식품명인 제92호 · 2023 |
| 조태연가 죽로차조윤석 Jo Yun-seok | Founded 1962. Korea’s first registered green-tea trademark, Seoncha (仙茶). Sells Ujeon, Sejak and Jungjak as separate lots. | EU organic · 2012USDA · JASGold, World Green Tea Contest 2025 |
| 청석골 감로다원황인수 Hwang In-su | Wild tea on Jirisan around 700 m, cauldron pan-fired. One harvest a year, mid to late April only. | 식품명인 제91호 · 작설차Organic farming |
| 쌍계제다 Ssanggye Jeda김동곱 Kim Dong-gon | Ujeon specialist, long-established Hwagae maker. | 식품명인 제28호 · 우전차 |
Boseong (보성)
Korea’s most photographed tea landscape, and an engineered one — beds excavated to 50 cm with a 30 cm organic layer, cut on 2 m contour intervals. Boseong holds Korea’s Important Agricultural Heritage System No. 11 (2018) and 보성녹차 was the country’s first registered geographical indication (2002). Plantings here are mixed — jaerae-jong alongside improved cultivars.
| Garden | Known for | Designation / certification |
|---|---|---|
| 몸중산다원Mongjungsan · 정경완 | No agrochemicals since 1990. Full range — green, black, white, yellow and dark tea. Exporting to Germany, France, USA, Canada and China since 2012. | EU organicUSDA organic전통식품 품질인증 · since 2000 |
| 선다원 Sundawon박순례 Park Sun-rye | Publishes the full grade ladder as separate products — Ujeon, Sejak, Jungjak, Daejak — plus matcha, balhyocha, hwangcha, white and black tea. Ships internationally. | Organic claimed · number not published |
| 보향다원 Bohyang Dawon최영기 Choi Young-gi | Garden worked since 1937. Green, black, powdered, herbal and dark tea. Operates an English-language site. | Organic products sold · body not stated |
| 대한다업 Daehan Dawon | Established 1957. The terraced estate in every photograph of Boseong; Korea’s largest single tea estate. | Not stated |
Jeju (제주)
Volcanic ash soil, the warmest and wettest of the three regions (16.2 °C, 1,850 mm). Also the most concentrated — 40 farms in total, and plantings here include substantial Japanese cultivar acreage (Yabukita, Fushun) dating from the 1979 estate development.
| Garden | Known for | Designation / certification |
|---|---|---|
| 오설록 OsullocAmorepacific | Estate begun 1979 by Suh Sung-whan. About 330.6 ha — roughly 56% of Jeju’s tea area and a quarter of national production. Museum opened 2001. | Organic claimed for Hannam garden · body not named |
| 수망다원 Sumang Dawon | About 6.6 ha. Green tea, matcha (G50+) and black tea. Already exporting. | 유기농산물인증 · 2013 · 제18100276호유기가공식품 · 2015 · 제18800026호HACCP · ISO 22000 · US FDA |
| 서귀다원 Seogwi Dawon | Small owner-run garden on Hallasan around 250 m, converted from a citrus orchard. Green tea and hwangcha; shades in May for matcha. Indoor tea room. | Described as organically grown · no number published |
How to verify any of this yourself
Every claim on this page can be checked against a primary register. If you are sourcing seriously, do it — and ask any supplier, including us, to hand you the document rather than the adjective.
- Organic certification (Korean): the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service (국립농산물품질관리원) maintains the register. A genuine Korean organic certificate has a number in the form shown above; ask for it and look it up.
- EU organic: Korean organic certification and EU organic are not the same document. A producer certified under Korea’s scheme is not automatically EU-organic. Ask which scheme, which control body, and what product scope the certificate covers.
- Food Grand Master (식품명인): designations are numbered and published by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. The number, the person and the specific craft should all match.
- Geographical indication: registered with the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service. 보성녹차 is No. 1 (2002); 하동녹차 was registered in 2003.
Elevation. No Korean government, academic or institutional source publishes cultivation elevation for any tea region. The two figures in circulation are a single estate’s self-published 350 m and a “1,200 m” number that refers to the Jirisan massif, not to tea fields. Elevation has to come from the producer at lot level — and a producer who can give it to you is telling you something real about their traceability.
Current-year availability, MOQ and price. These change every season, and in a short harvest year allocation matters more than price. No public source carries them.
Sourcing from Korea?
Tell us what you are building and we will match a region, grade and certification route to it — including where EU-organic certified supply actually exists.
Build a sourcing briefWholesale & OEM overviewRelated
- Beyond Osulloc — why one company dominates the story, and what else is out there
- Ujeon and Sejak — what the harvest grades actually mean, and why they are not an official standard
- Pan-firing — the processing choice that separates Korean green tea from sencha