Osulloc Tea MuseumClaimed by the owner

Osulloc Tea Museum sits among O'Sulloc's tea plantations in the Seogwang area of Jeju Island. O'Sulloc is a Korean tea brand founded in 1979 by Suh Sung-hwan and now run as a subsidiary of Amorepacific, producing green and black teas from fields on Jeju and one plantation on the mainland. The museum, opened in September 2001, gives visitors a look at the tea fields and the company's tea-making process.

Tea fields and cultivation

O'Sulloc's tea comes from four plantations, three on Jeju Island and one in Gangjin on the mainland. The Jeju fields cover about 330 hectares in total, with roughly 180 hectares under harvest, and are grown on volcanic ash soil that retains moisture well. The island's humid subtropical climate gives stable temperatures and heavy rainfall year-round, conditions the company cites as favorable for tea cultivation. The Dolsongi field, developed in 1979, was the company's first, planted on land that had originally been covered in volcanic rock. The Seogwang field, converted from rocky, infertile land in 1983, is now the largest tea field in South Korea at about 52.9 hectares.

Production and recognition

Tea leaves are machine-harvested, then either fermented or steamed and roasted depending on the blend: fermented leaves are treated with a Bacillus subtilis culture and aged in cedar barrels for 100 days, while green tea leaves are roasted in iron pans and dried with hot air. In 2002, O'Sulloc's tea factories became the first in the industry to receive HACCP certification, and in 2010 the company's organic teas were certified under the US Department of Agriculture's National Organic Program. O'Sulloc teas are also sold internationally, including in China, Japan, and the United States.