Omija Smoothie

After exploring the Hanok Village, we decided it was time to relax and grab some desserts! Our Korean friend took us to 인사동 반짝반짝 빛나는 in Insadong. I don’t believe it has an English name, but it’s a Korean traditional tea room on the second floor of a building. The inside is decorated with many of the pottery that are handmade next door. Pretty neat! Their popular menu items are the smoothies. I wasn’t too sure what it was at first, but it ended up to sort of be like a sorbet icy. We started off the Omija Smoothie, which was a light pink colour. Omija is also known as five flavour tea and is made from the fruit herb. It’s essentially like a iced smoothie, but in a thick form. Super refreshing and helped quench our thirst. The flavour was a mix of sweet and sour.

Citron Smoothie

Next, we also got the Citron Smoothie. I believe it was really yuzu. It was topped with citron peels that had been candied. Again, the hint of sweet and sour made the smoothie very refreshing. This was probably my favourite flavour!

Sweet Pumpkin Smoothie

The third smoothie was the Sweet Pumpkin Smoothie. This one didn’t feel as icy and refreshing, but rather a bit more filling. It was mainly sweet with a strong pumpkin flavour.

Other than the smoothies, we also tried some traditional Korean snacks. This one was similar to a mochi and was dusted with roasted soybean powder. Chewy and quite interesting and unique! It came with two dipping sauces – one was a citron sauce, while the other was crushed peanuts with honey.

Ginger Sweets

We also had the Ginger Sweets, which are also known as Yugwa or Yumilgwa. These were just as good as the ones at Mok Hyang. Very light but still remained the chewy texture.

Jujube Tea

Lastly, to finish off, we had the Jujube Tea. It came in a pot and smelt really good! Jujube is a Korean date and is slightly sweet. A great way to end our dessert meal!

I highly recommend checking this tea room out. It even had guestbooks where you can write a message or mark down that you’ve visited. We too, drew a little picture to remember that we were here! I wonder if it will still be there when I visit again.