AmorePacific offers premium organic green tea

The interior of an OSULLOC teahouse in Myeong-dong, central Seoul / Courtesy of AmorePacific

By Lee Hyo-sik

AmorePacific has been fostering its green tea business to honor the spirit of its late founder Suh Sung-whan who worked hard to revive Korea’s traditional tea culture.

Since Suh initiated AmorePacific’s green tea business in 1979, the company has invested heavily to transform rocky fields and thorny bushes on Jeju Island into 33 square kilometers of green tea fields.

The fields now produce some 1,000 tons of premium organic green tea every year, or around 25 percent of the total production in the country. The green tea is sold under the OSULLOC brand by AmorePacific, best known as Korea’s largest cosmetics maker.

The green tea fields have become one of the world’s three major production sites, in addition to Mount Huangshan in China and Mount Fuji in Japan.

AmorePacific has constructed a number of amenity facilities on its green tea fields, including a teahouse and a tea museum, to turn the plantation into a must-visit place for visitors to the country’s southern resort island.

The company has recently pushed to roll out a wide range of products using its high-quality, organic green tea to spark interest among consumers, many of whom have begun drinking tea because of its numerous health benefits.

“We began harvesting green tea at our Jeju farm on April 8. We are excited about making premium products with our newly harvested tea leaves,” an AmorePacific spokeswoman said. “Consumers wanting to drink our freshly roasted green tea can visit our OSULLOC teahouses in Seoul and elsewhere or order packaged tea products from department stores and other retailers.”

AmorePacific’s green tea has won numerous international awards over the years, the spokeswoman said, adding that it took all first, second and third places at the 2015 North American Tea Championship.

“The international community has long been recognizing our organically grown green tea as one of the world’s best. We will continue to actively take part in global competitions to showcase our products and help reinvigorate Korea’s tea-drinking culture,” she said.

The company will hold the 10th OSULLOC Tea Festival at its Jeju green tea fields from May 5 to 8, drawing a large numbers of visitors. It organizes the event to increase public awareness of Korea’s tea-drinking culture and its health benefits.

“We expect tens of thousands of tourists will visit our green tea fields and nearby facilities during the festival,” the spokeswoman said. “The OSULLOC Tea Museum and the Tea Stone, a space for tea classes, will be open to visitors, enabling them to learn more about traditional tea ceremonies and try our products.”

To expand its green tea business, AmorePacific has set up an OSULLOC shop at the Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts in downtown Seoul, which opened last October. In addition to the current 20 stores, the company plans to open more OSULLOC teahouses across the country.