Thai Nguyen Tea in the heart of Vietnamese people

Compared to be an intimate song of life, tea is always mentioned wherever someone talks about Thai Nguyen. When making preparations to go to the pagoda, Vietnamese people never forget a pot of tea with the feeling to respectfully present Buddha what they treasure. Tea chosen to buy is hook-shaped tea planted in Thai Nguyen area, which stinks of strong fragrance. When this kind of tea has just been made, the pot lid is taken off, any scholar hesitates do not want to go.

If Chinese people are proud of their famous tea growing areas in places namely Ho Nam, Ho Bac, Chiet Giang, etc., Vietnamese people also pride on tea growing areas in Lam Dong, Yen Bai, Phu Tho, etc. However, the best and most famous is Thai Nguyen tea. Currently, the whole province has more than 17,660 ha of tea, over 16,300 ha of which was harvested, with stable productivity of 107 quintals/ha, yield of tea with fresh leaves reaches 174,772 tons/year, equal to nearly 35,000 tons of tea with dry leaves. Thai Nguyen tea has at present three production forms which are manual processing of green tea, industrial processing and high-tech processing. Now, Thai Nguyen tea still serves domestic consumers, therefore the amount of tea for export is not in great deal; annually, about 6,600 tons of tea with dry leaves are exported in average to countries and territories including Pakistan, Taiwan, China, Russia, Britain and Japan. With Vietnamese people, pleasure of drinking tea deeply penetrates into people’s flesh and blood, so at far-away places, whenever friends meet each other, a tea pot is indispensable to start the ball rolling. In which, Thai Nguyen green tea is of high quality only. Any tea grown in Minh Lap (Dong Hy), Phuc Thuan (Pho Yen), La Bang (Dai Tu) or tea dried at communes of Tan Cuong tea growing area (Thai Nguyen Province) is called the same name of “Thai tea”.

Because suiting to the soil, irrigated from Cau river, Cong river and held back the sun of late afternoon by Than Lan mountain range (Tam Dao), Thai Nguyen tea tree is grown in good conditions, creating high content of Vietnamese clay, especially the sweetness with flavor of green rice so pervasive and seductive. As a result, Thai Nguyen tea is compared to the best things by all people throughout the country. There is an orally transmitted statement that “good like Thai Nguyen tea, beautiful like Tuyen Quang women”. Beautiful mountainous girls of Tuyen Quang Province are slender, graceful with national long dress flying in the secular life. Thai Nguyen tea is charming with the flavor of the forest and mountain, acridity of the sun, the sweetness of human affection and gratitude, therefore anyone who is a connoisseur of cuisine likes Thai Nguyen tea. Being Vietnamese people, who are snowed under work, but no matter how busy they are, every family has teapot to offer the dead when Tet holiday comes. Or for congratulation someone’s parents on advancing in years, marriage proposal, wedding or visit to the benefactor’s house, Thai Nguyen teapot makes person who gives a gift or present more street-wise.

Thai Nguyen tea quietly comes into conception of Vietnamese people. Following the cycling wheel of ship, Thai Nguyen tea comes to consumers in South region, Highland region, and sea zones together with fishing vessels going out to sea. Thai Nguyen teapot appears in the tale spoken by guards at border areas. Be far in the island, surrounded by sea, Thai Nguyen teapot makes soldiers feel warmer. To satisfy nostalgia to the native land, Thai Nguyen tea crosses numberless nautical miles to be with overseas Vietnamese. Far in Europe, a hot cup of tea is filled with sentiments toward to the homeland. Tea exists not only in Thai Nguyen Province, but also in many other areas over the world. About 40 countries and territories worldwide export tea, mainly products of green tea, black tea and there must be hundreds of patterns. Each kind of tea has its own flavor, but different peoples in the world have various ways of drinking tea dominated by different cultural basis of individual peoples and countries. For example, Japanese people have chanoyu, or Chinese people have Kinh tea. Russian people are simpler, who drink tea to keep their bodies warm only. Moroccan people (Africa) drink tea to keep guests. American people drink tea aromatized with kinds of flowers, etc. At the meanwhile, as for Vietnamese people, tea acts as a heart-to-heart friend. Tea is used in a banquet particular to important affair of the country, drunk alone by someone to think about worldly matters, or sipped by a free person along the street, etc.

Enjoying tea at leisure, being lavish with praise, when highly inspired, the tea drinker thinks that the elderly formerly drinks tea, quotes from Kieu, saying by themselves: our country is endowed with long river and large sea, many areas have tea tree to feed people, but “Within the span of hundred years of human existence”, not few Vietnamese people usually want to make friends with Genuine Thai Nguyen teapot.