Jeju City tea house with hourglass-steeped iced leaf tea: Dobana

Today's post is a review of Dobana Tea House, a café near Jeju Airport!

Where is Dobana? 10 minutes by car from Jeju Airport

Dobana Tea House is on Seosa-ro in Jeju City, about 10 minutes by car from Jeju Airport~~ It's great to use while waiting for a flight time. I used it while waiting for a friend coming from the mainland.

Dobana opening hours and closing days

Every day 10:30am–9:00pm. There's no separate closed day, so no worries about showing up for nothing~

Parking at Dobana

The reason I recommend Dobana Tea House as a café near Jeju Airport is exactly the wide parking lot right in front of the store!! Downtown is always packed with cars and there's never anywhere decent to park, which is always a worry, but Dobana's lot is so big you don't need to worry at all. You can spend time comfortably here before an airport pickup~

Inside Dobana and the Dobanui Jeongwon tea rooms

Another reason I recommend Dobana Tea House is that even though it's a large café, it doesn't feel crowded~ The interior is very spacious and the seats are well spaced out, so you can really feel relaxed!

There's also a space called "Dobanui Jeongwon (도반의 정원)" that you can use if you make a reservation in advance! Each room is named after a season. The atmosphere is so good that it seems perfect to book for a meeting or when you want some private time.

I took a photo of an empty room inside Dobanui Jeongwon. Such a clean and pleasant space.

Dobana menu and prices: americano 4,500 won, leaf tea 5,000 won

Even though Dobana is a large café, the drink prices don't seem expensive at all. An Americano is just ₩4,500! Decaf is also available. The Matcha Oreum and Hojicha Oreum menus also seem like something Jeju travelers would enjoy trying~

Fitting for a place called Dobana Tea House, I ordered the leaf tea (₩5,000). Last time I visited I had Secret Garden, so this time I chose Dawn Light Fragrance.

Besides drinks, there's also a variety of delicious bakery items like salt bread.

There's a spot where you can smell the scents of the different tea leaves :)

Last time I fell for the refreshing, fragrant taste of Secret Garden, so today I came back again... haha

How to drink iced leaf tea with the hourglass and strainer

My order arrived. It was still hot out, so I ordered it iced. They give you a cup filled with finely crushed ice, an hourglass, a tea cup, and a strainer together. They explained the method for drinking it, so I followed along and tried it myself.

You flip the hourglass and wait for the tea to steep, then hold the strainer over the ice cup and pour the tea from the tea cup in little by little. As the ice melts, a pretty color of tea appears, which was fun and fascinating to watch. haha And best of all, Dawn Light Fragrance turned out to be exactly the kind of tea leaf scent I love.

I could clearly taste peppermint, lemon myrtle, and apple mint each coming through strongly — it was a flavor I'd never tried before. The name Dawn Light Fragrance really suited it well. I feel like drip coffee places often have detailed notes about the flavor and offer a range of different beans, but tea specialty shops are relatively rare in comparison. I used to enjoy drip coffee myself, but after deciding to cut back on caffeine I started drinking tea more often, and usually it's only offered as tea bags, which limits your choices. But at Dobana Tea House I felt like I could enjoy properly brewed tea, so I was very satisfied. Whenever I have to go to the airport, I think I'll definitely stop by again!!

They said they're giving away tea bags as part of a review event!

Why Dobana is good for staying a while: tea station and outlets

Dobana's tea station area also has a variety of tea cups on display, which was fun just to look at. At small cafés you often feel bad about staying too long, but Dobana is spacious and has outlets at every seat, so there's no need to worry about that.

This is really a café I'd recommend even if it wasn't sponsored!!