I love tea. Tea is wonderful. It has a brilliant ability to make everything that bit better, especially when you’re across the other side of the world and you can’t exactly get a ‘mum hug’. It also has wonderful medicinal properties, which change depending on the ingredient. As part of my work for the Wellness Tourism program run by the Korean Tourism Organisation (KTO) I took a class (and a foot bath) at the wonderful Tea Therapy Haengrang Branch in Jeongno-gu, Seoul to learn about tea and women’s health.

Tea Therapy Haengrang Branch:

The building is part of the restored birth house of Yun Posun (2nd President of South Korea) and has been awarded the status of a cultural asset to South Korea. The building is older than the main Apgujeong branch, and has a more rustic feel to it. It’s interior is classic and traditional, and gives the classes a more old-fashioned backdrop for all the photos you’re going to want to take.

The class:

The class my group chose was ‘Women’s health’. This was a class that focused around ‘tea that is good for women’, so blends that help with skin, reproductive health, circulation,

We started with an introduction to the class, talking about what Tea Therapy is and their aim to educate people on the different medicinal properties of tea, for our class it was specifically related to how different ingredients can affect different aspects of female health. We also learned a little about the concepts of blood health (혈허 / Hyeolheo) and how to recognise if something is off, as well as blood stasis or stagnation (어혈 / eohyeol), which is an important underlying cause of many diseases according to traditional medicine.

We then moved on to the tea tasting!

Tea tasting at Tea Therapy Haengrang Branch

The tea tasting consisted of 9 different teas, and an explanation about how they helped different symptoms or conditions. We were presented with a box of Tea Therapy’s 12 different dried ingredients, so that we could learn to recognise the names, appearances and smells before trying each tea.

I won’t go through all of the different teas, but some that really stood out to me were Danggui or Angelica root, which is an ingredient that helps with blood circulation especially in the abdomen and pelvic region. I really enjoyed the cinnamon tea we tried (a little bit of Christmas warmth at the start of summer), as well as the Mugwort or Artemisia tea. Which should come as no surprise since I am loving mugwort these days.

The feeling during the class was very relaxed, we were able to ask questions if we needed clarification or more information, and we were also able to pour all our own teas to our taste. A great thing if we thought we might not like one from the smell or explanation of ingredient (there are lots of natural ingredients that can have laxative like effects in tea).

At the end of the class we were able to make 2 bags of our own tea blends using the dried ingredients we were perusing during the tea tasting. We could blend anything we wanted together to make a tea unique to our needs using what we’d learned during the class. I made a goji berry and jujube blend, as well as a mugwort and peppermint blend. Jujube has properties to help with sleep and blood pressure/circulation, and peppermint is great for settling your digestive tract.

During this time, we were also presented with traditional korean snacks to nibble on during the tasting. Snacks are a customary part of the Korean Tea Ceremony, and although we weren’t performing one even loosely, they are usually had alongside tea.

I really enjoyed the class, and felt like I learned a lot about different natural ingredients that can be used for healing. Tea Therapy Haengrang branch does conduct the class in Korean, so if you have no knowledge of the language it is best to bring someone with at least a moderate level of fluency. I’m at an intermediate level and could understand almost everything with few clarifications of either more traditional or medical words. Even for those in my group with minimal Korean it was still an enjoyable and informative experience.

Foot Bath at Tea Therapy:

Both branches of Tea Therapy have foot bath stations, which is a great way to relax after walking around the attractions of the Jeongno area (there are many). Tea Therapy’s Haengrang branch has its footbath station outside, so it’s a lovely calming space to relax on a hot summers day. It really doesn’t feel like you are in the middle of a capital city at all.

The foot bath is complementary for anyone who orders tea, but if you wish to add a special foot bath blend is an extra 5,000W. You can choose from two types, A (which is for stress relief ) or B ( which is if you are feeling heavy or have poor circulation). You can choose the temperature and depth of the bath yourself, and they are cleaned before and after each patron.

It was a lovely way to finish the healing experience at Tea Therapy Haengrang branch, I felt very relaxed and refreshed afterwards. Healing Mission: Complete.

Useful Information about Tea Therapy:

If you wish to make a reservation for the Tea Class, Korea Wellness has a discount coupon running (on a first come first serve on-site basis) from July 1st to August 31st. There are also a lot of different places you can go to! You can get your discount coupon here.

You can also check out other destinations that fall under the umbrella of wellness/medical tourism at the KTO Wellness Tourism website: Visit Medical Korea.

Let me know if you’d check out Tea Therapy! I genuinely loved the time I spent there, and I actually bought two extra sets of teas on top of the little gift bags they gave us! One was an allergy relief tea (my allergies have been bad recently), and the other was a sleepy tea for the boy.

The staff are all very welcoming, and it’s a very nice spot to hang out if you’re wandering the area!