Busan tea café with melon oolong and a 10-tea sampler: Suwolgyeonghwa

A little while back, my mom and I had a date in Gwangalli~! After that we drove over to Songjeong, and to walk it off we hit up IKEA, took a beach stroll, and then finally visited Suwolgyeonghwa, a Songjeong café in Busan I'd wanted to check out for ages! Spoiler up front: it was really, really good.

Suwolgyeonghwa hours, parking and the climb to the 4th floor

Suwolgyeonghwa is an ocean-view tea café on the 4th floor of a building at 188 Songjeong-jungang-ro 6beon-gil, Haeundae-gu, Busan, open daily 11:00–23:00. Parking is available on the building's 1st floor (it's double parking, though). We lucked into a spot right away, but if it's full there's also a paid parking lot right in front.

Suwolgyeonghwa / Daily 11:00–23:00 / Parking available

Facing the building from the parking lot, turn right and there's a stairwell that takes you up. It's the 4th floor with no elevator, so brace yourself for the climb,,

At the entrance you'll spot the moon lighting everyone photographs, and you've arrived! There's even wave sound playing haha

Inside Suwolgyeonghwa: Songjeong Beach through the window wall

This is the inside of Suwolgyeonghwa. It's an ocean-view café with the whole Songjeong sea in sight, and true to a tea house, the interior blended traditional and modern really well. My mom loved how pretty it was inside, which made me oddly proud lol. Looking closely, you could tell a lot of care went into every little prop and piece. Maybe that's why the crowd was a mix of older folks and people my age too haha

How to pick a tea at Suwolgyeonghwa by smelling it first

Sat down, time to pick from the menu!

Suwolgyeonghwa is a tea house — tea is the main event here, so the menu had a huge range of teas. Of course there are coffee options too!

My hardcore-coffee mom obviously went Americano, and since I love tea, I browsed around trying to pick one out. If you ask, the staff will explain each tea in detail, so don't hesitate to ask the owner for help if you're stuck.

By the counter there's a spot set up so you can smell each tea before choosing. I sniffed my way through them one by one and finally settled on Melongmance! (Spoiler: best choice ever.) Honestly there were 10 teas total and I loved them all so much I ended up buying a bunch with my own money — I'll show you that later! I also ordered the signature tea-food set.

Melongmance oolong 8,500 won and the Dalbodeure Box 13,000 won

And here's the spread. Tea with a sea view — pure luxury right there.

• Americano (hot) ₩6,500
• Melongmance (iced) ₩8,500
• Dalbodeure Box ₩13,000

The Dalbodeure Box is a set of five tea foods reinterpreted in Korean style, and they walked us through eating from least sweet to sweetest.

This is the Melongmance I ordered — they placed the steeped leaves on top separately so you could smell them. It's a scented oolong with melon and floral notes, and since I'm a big fan of scented oolongs like peach oolong or osmanthus oolong, I knew this was the one.

Yes, it hit my taste exactly right. The moment you take a sip, this sweet aroma fills your mouth, and it was just so, so good. Honestly it was fragrant and sweet enough that you almost didn't need the tea food (not that it tastes sweet, mind you).

Injeolmi, sulbbang, monaka, financier: how do the tea snacks taste?

The desserts were seriously delicious too, of course.

Sharing neatly with my mom: injeolmi (sweet rice cake coated in bean flour), sulbbang (rice wine steamed bun), monaka (wafer sandwich filled with sweet bean paste), and financier. My favorites were the injeolmi and sulbbang haha

It was even nicer that they included explanation cards with everything. I saw they also have monaka ice cream, which I'd love to try next time. Honestly, both the tea and the desserts were so good, and the owner was so kind, that I was just happy the whole time,,

Suwolgyeonghwa's 10-tea sampler for 17,000 won

So when tea is this good, what do you do? You buy some. The packaging is so pretty too,,

Head further inside and there's a spot set up for buying tea, where you can find all 10 of Suwolgyeonghwa's teas. Out of those, I got the sampler that comes with one of each of the 10 kinds.

The price is ₩17,000! I'm planning to try one at a time and buy a full box of whichever ones I love (they also have a Smart Store online).

Such a happy day. The place is pretty, the tea and desserts are delicious, and there's an ocean view, so if you're looking for a café in Songjeong, definitely give this one a visit.