Thai Nguyên Tea Competition: Golden sprout award winner

Not having planned on purchasing 10 kg of Che Tuyet San, Hugo and I were now sharing the cramped back seat with it. After Suoi Giang, our next destination was to be the Tân Huong Tea Cooperative in Thai Nguyên managed by Mrs. Hiêp.

Although, our jovial driver, Mr. Thành, decided on a surprise stop. He would turn a street corner, stop to ask for directions, then make a U-Turn. He did this several times in a row. We were starting to wonder where in the world we were going and when will we ever arrive to destination.

We were indeed pleasantly surprised. He brought us to visit a tea plantation in La Bang, owned by Mrs. Hai family. One of their teas won the Bup Vang Award (Golden Sprout Award) at the Thai Nguyên Tea Competition this year. She brought us three of her highest grade teas to sample. They were indeed interesting teas. Two of her three teas had this hint of tomatoes to them. As we were sharing our love of tea, we made her sample a Chinese green tea, the Anji Bai Cha. As she saw the leaves and tasted the infusion, she enthusiastically interrogated us on the transformation method of the Anji Bai Cha. She wanted to try to replicate its needle-like shape. It was a delight to see how her eyes lit up as we were telling her more about it. We promised to send her by email what we knew of its transformation process as soon as we got back home.

Since we already bought teas from Tân Huong Cooperative in Thai Nguyên, we settled for buying 500 g of each type of teas for our personal use. We then proceeded to visit her tea plantation.

Half the day had gone by as we unsuspectingly headed out to our final destination where another surprise awaited us.

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Minh-Tam in Tea, Travel Leave a comment

Che Tuyet San and the wild ancient tea trees

A four hour drive and six Gravol later, as we drove up a steep slope, we arrived in Suoi Giang. Suoi Giang being a rather small village, it didn’t take us long until we arrived at Nha Che Tu-Hai. Nha Che means tea production house in Vietnamese. As we walked into the spacious house, we were quickly greeted by Mrs. Hai and her husband, Mr. Tu.

Mrs. Hai family has been making tea for three generations. After some small talk over tea and learning about Vietnamese tea history (more about this in a later post), we got down to tasting the three types of teas that she produced from the tea leaves of wild ancient tea trees : Che Tuyet San (Imperial picking – bud with one following leaf), Che Tom (Fine picking – bud with two following leaves), and a third type that didn’t have a name (Classical picking – bud with three or four following leaves).

We found the Che Tom to be the most interesting, but there were only 4 kg left and could only be produced again in July. We decided to settle for its higher quality counterpart, the mythical Che Tuyet San which she still had 10 kg. We bought everything she had. The next time she would be able to produce this tea would be in December.

We could tell by its more tannic and “fiberish” notes that the tea trees were definitely old, many hundred years old. As it is distinctive of Vietnamese green tea, behind this initial astringent tone, appears a sweeter gentler flavor, akin to a hint of maple syrup, as the warm beverage reaches the throat.

As she started to package the 10 kg of tea for us, we left with her husband for a journey through the tea forest.

Fun fact: It was the first time that we had met. We didn’t have enough money to pay her for the 10 kg of this expensive Vietnamese tea. She said that we could leave with the tea now and give the payment to Mr. Cuong who introduced us to her once back in Hanoi. We offered to pay her part of the money right away and to give the rest to Mr. Cuong. She refused explaining that we still had a long journey ahead of us and believed that we would still need the liquid cash. Talk about thoughtfulness and trust!

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Minh-Tam in Tea, Travel 1 Comment

Mythical Vietnamese Tea

It’s now been a month since I exchanged my first words with Mr. Thanh, our driver in Vietnam. I was calling him from Canada to inform him of our visit in the up-coming month since we were going to be needing his services. At that point in time, I had to resort to broken Vietnamese. I was nervous, ashamed, and out of practice. Despite having never met or spoken with me before, he was very patient while I made him repeat himself numerous times asking him to explain every three words that I didn’t understand. He could have just hung up the phone.

Here I am, on the back seat of a silver Toyota, with 10 kg of tea separating me from Hugo Améraci, the founder of my favorite tea house in Montréal, the Camellia Sinensis. In the driver seat is our joyful and energetic Mr. Thanh driving away in the sinuous mountain roads of Northern Vietnam. Sitting next to him is Sabrina, a very perceptive young woman who has been working with Hugo for almost 4 years.

How did we end-up having to squeeze 10 kg of tea into whatever space was left in the car while the trunk was full from housing our three large pieces of luggage?, you might wonder.

Yesterday, in the early morning, we headed out in the early morning with the hopes to uncover the secret and put our hands on this mythical Vietnamese tea coined Che Tuyet San, literally Snowy Tea from the Mountains. I am calling this tea mythical because, as I wondered the streets of Hanoi in the attempt of discovering the various types of teas grown in the country, every so often, the name Che Tuyet would come up. People described it as being a tea made solely from young buds of wild ancient tea trees. It was said that it had a sweeter, but less astringent taste than that of the typical Vietnamese green tea. I asked everyone I knew and met where I could purchase this tea. No one knew… or rather, they said that it was a very rare tea and there was only a handful available in the faraway region where it was produced, hence extremely pricy. I was also told that it was not in season at the moment. It was said to be only produced in the winter months. Here I was, halfway across the world, learning about a tea that could not be seen, could not be found, and could not be produced at this time.

The first ray of hope was during an encounter with Mr. Cuong, Import-Export Manager of Vinatea, a government owned black tea producing company. He had seen AND tasted this tea. He even showed us pictures of the ancient tea treas. He confirmed that this tea is made in a region called Suoi Giang, 260 km from Hanoi at an altitude of 1371 meters. He drew us a map and gave us the phone number of a family who produced this tea. JACK POT!

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Minh-Tam in Tea, Travel 2 Comments