The broad expanse of SULLOC Tea Garden in Jeju Island embodies the devotion of the founder Suh Sung-whan (pen name Jangwon) to green tea. Without his dedication and strong resolve to restore Korea's beautiful tea culture and traditions, it would have been difficult to build the high-quality organic tea garden over such a large area. For this article, News Square met with Jangwon CEO Lee Jin-ho, who now works with the same spirit of devotion shown by the founder into making the best tea in the world. Let's hear from Mr. Lee about the story of the fresh green Jeju SULLOC Tea Garden.

Q. It's great to be able to meet you through News Square. Could you tell us briefly about Jangwon?
Jangwon is one of the places that best represents the motto and spirit of AMOREPACIFIC Group. This is because it's here that the beautiful challenging spirit of the founder Suh Sung-whan truly comes alive. Through his dedication to restoring Korea's beautiful tea culture and traditions, AMOREPACIFIC Group was able to reclaim the wastelands of Jeju Island, Gangjin, Jeollanam-do and build a Tea Garden in the 1980s.
Prior to the 2000s, we focused on the automation of Tea Garden, the development of fertilization and management technologies, and on improving overall productivity. Then, with the new millennium, we put more focus on enhancing quality and safety. As a result, we were able to export tea made in SULLOC Tea Garden to 15 countries around the world, even winning several trophies at the World Tea Forum. This illustrates the indomitable challenging spirit and dedication of AMOREPACIFIC Group, which lie behind the foundation of SULLOC Tea Garden.

Q. Seogwang Tea Garden, Dosun Tea Garden and Hannam Tea Garden are located here on Jeju Island. Is Jeju Island a good environment for tea leaves?
Jeju Island famously has a wonderful natural environment. It has a huge daily temperature range and sea mist, which are the ideal conditions for growing tea trees. Also, Jeju Island has an oceanic climate and mineral-rich soil, which helps with the penetration of slightly acidic water. These factors combine to make Jeju Island an ideal place for cultivating tea trees. Of course, this isn't to say it didn't take considerable time and effort to reclaim the derelict lands on Jeju Island.
Tea tree is a heliophobic plant, which means that it doesn't grow well in strong sunlight. In April and May, when the tea harvest begins in earnest, the monsoon season starts on Jeju Island, with the sea fog creating thick mist that drifts landwards. This season is the so-called Bracken (Gosari in Korean) Rainy Spell. This is when great quality tea with its sweet and tasty ingredients is harvested due to the lack of sunlight.

Q. What is the current focus of Jangwon?
Korean fans of tea and cultured people still prefer Chinese-made tea. Though the Korean tea market remains depressed, over 600 tons of Chinese-made tea is imported to Korea each year. The most popular Chinese-made tea includes Pu-erh tea (post-fermented tea, black tea). One of reasons behind the tremendous popularity of Chinese-made tea is that we do not have a reputable fermented tea in Korea.
Fermented tea is no better than green tea in terms of functionality, but it has great fragrance and taste, which serve to give it a solid fan base. Jangwon now has set itself the goal of developing a reputable Korean fermented tea that has good recognition among tea connoisseurs. And, as a means to this end, over the past three years we have put considerable effort into developing fermented tea. At the moment, we are looking forward to seeing the result of the quality evaluation of our recent test product.
Another goal is to develop specific tea tree species that are unique to Jangwon. Though most species are native to Korea, there are some exotic species as well. In the past ten years, Jangwon has worked on developing species and, as a result, Jangwon No.1 and Jangwon No.2 species have each received patents. We expect that people will soon be able to taste tea made of species unique to Jangwon.

Q. What vision does Jangwon have? What strategy does Jangwon have to this end?
Jangwon has a twin-vision: becoming a Global Top Organic Tea Company and making premium tea recognized as being in the world's top five varieties. The goal of Jangwon is to make great tea products that are recognized as one of the world's top five teas. This year, Jangwon pursues three strategies: increasing sales through enhancing global competitiveness, ensuring quality, price and competitiveness through innovation programs and sustainable management with preemptive risk management.
Jangwon will continue to cultivate Tea Garden, which embodies the spirit of AMOREPACIFIC Group, in order to make great tea products, while also researching and developing new kinds of tea so as to take the lead in popularizing Korean tea culture.

Q. A lot must have changed since you first joined Jangwon.
I was actually a little nonplussed when I was told that I was being transferred to Jangwon and had to work on Jeju Island. You see, there was no proper research infrastructure at that time. A building covered with a slate roof was used as the main office and house for employees. And I was in fact the only one back then who was responsible for technical support in the Business Support Team.
One researcher joined me by the time the research center was constructed and together we saw the beginning of the research center. When the number of researchers increased to three, our research center was registered with the Korea Research Foundation as the SULLOC Tea Species Research Center. Jangwon is the only one of its kind in the Korean tea market to have a registered private research center. Even national research institutions regularly ask us for technical advice because they lack the requisite expert knowledge. We now have six researchers packed with technical knowledge and expertise. Such is the strength of Jangwon in organic cultivation that researchers from Japan and China frequently come to study our technologies.
Jeju Island has seen a lot of changes as well. In the early 2000s, there were not as many tourists as today. Though we worried whether customers would visit OSULLOC Tea House when construction began, OSULLOC Tea House is now a bona-fide tourist destination in its own right with a large number of tourists (around 1.5 million people each year). There was nothing around our Tea House back then save farmland, but we successfully helped to spur the development of various tourist attractions. This shows how much SULLOC Tea Garden has grown and gained presence.