“There are nights when the entire moon is apparent, and the golden delicate radiates like a warmth forest. The standard tea timber lit up magically, their warmth, sweet fragrance mixed with considerably little little bit of night time time incense… We would prefer to seize that magical second by means of the tea which holds in it a way of thriller, one factor shrouded throughout the darkness.” – Nguyen Viet Hung.
Interview and story by John Bickel
Hien Minh, a Hanoi-based tea café and retailer, simply currently obtained a gold medal throughout the AVPA Teas of the World contest for its forest-origin black tea entry. The home homeowners, Mr. Nguyen Viet Hung and his partner, Vu Yen, are devoted to defending, nurturing, and hand-processing high-quality Vietnamese tea from historic tea timber.
Congratulations on incomes a gold medal throughout the AVPA Teas of the World contest. What led you to submit your teas for evaluation? Why do you feel this recognition will doubtless be helpful?
We like this new creation from this spring season, 2022, so we’re fully happy to grasp how the worldwide judges contact upon and contemplate it. This recognition will help define one path of the world tea sample. It’s somewhat important to us to grasp how worldwide buddies warmly welcome our tea together with native acceptance.
What makes this tea distinctive and specific, along with the place it was grown and processed?
This tea was constructed from historic tea timber (over 100 years earlier) that had been naturally rising throughout the Ha Giang mountains. The tea supplies was picked from the first flush throughout the spring season and was processed like an outstanding crimson tea kind. After selecting, the tea sprouts had been withered throughout the shade for about three days after which “massaged” fully by hand, many situations, with leisure between the processing steps. The heat from our fingers and the tender bruises from the therapeutic therapeutic massage made the sprouts slowly oxidize and rework. Then, dry and return the tea to a vase about seven situations between processing steps to finish the tea.
There are nights when the entire moon is apparent, and the golden delicate radiates like a warmth forest. The standard tea timber lit up magically, the good and comfortable, sweet fragrance and considerably little little bit of night time time incense. The encircling home appeared to thicken every time the moon slipped by means of the clouds and flared up full of satisfaction. We would prefer to seize that magical second by means of the tea, which holds a way of thriller, one factor shrouded throughout the darkness. Equally, this crimson tea has loads to search out hidden inside its sophisticated flavors and aromas.
Vietnam is transitioning from commodity teas to additional refined single-origins identical to the teas you present. Will you share your concepts about tea cultivation, sustainability, environmental stewardship, and enhancements in manufacturing methods and sorts?
Additional tea artisans have simply currently focused on making high-quality teas throughout the Vietnamese market. This could help the world know additional about Vietnamese tea and tea custom. The lives of folks that planted and cared for the tea timber would moreover turn into greater and further sustainable when the tea timber have additional price. The Snow Shan choice, notably the standard tea timber up extreme mountains throughout the nation’s North, produce a high-lighted variety of specialty teas with good potential. This moreover brings challenges and inspiration to exploring and making a singular model for teas for all tea makers.
Extreme-Prime quality Tea Manufacturing
These options are solely a starting point for his or her perspective on tea and their technique to serving to develop and share tea custom in Vietnam. Mr. Nguyen Viet Hung and his partner, Vu Yen, have operated a retailer and café in Hanoi for the earlier seven years.
A big turning degree for them was being awarded first place for tea preparation in a 2016 native Tea Grasp’s rivals. In that event, their lotus inexperienced tea was prepared. A signature of the Vietnamese tea enterprise, one Hien Minh specializes in producing.
Mr and Mrs Viet Hung moreover private and performance a small manufacturing coronary heart throughout the mountains of the Ha Giang tea-producing space. It’s a small operation that sources good-quality native supplies from producers. Most processing steps are achieved by hand, in distinction with additional commonplace and higher-volume machine manufacturing.
The processing for his or her lotus tea contains sourcing 30 to 40 kg of flowers per season from 5 lotus ponds, all to offer a restricted quantity of tea. They make and promote standard inexperienced tea, along with crimson (black) and white (silver needle) variations, using 2000 flowers to offer every kg of lotus tea.
Moreover they produce sheng and shu pu’er (or “pu’er-style” tea, counting on how one makes use of phrases), crimson (black) tea, inexperienced tea, and oolongs, even an “oriental magnificence” style. In spite of everything, the variations relate to totally different sorts produced in different places, which they alter and interpret based mostly totally on what works best with supplies produced domestically, and tied to domestically evolving tea sorts.
Rising & Sharing Vietnamese Tea Custom
They take a sensible and pure technique to tea manufacturing, presentation, and personal consumption. Hung outlined that Vietnamese custom included older ceremonial tea brewing practices, royal and monastic meditative varieties, and daily practices. It is significantly identical to Chinese language language Gong Fu ceremonial brewing. Many people of their native enterprise have moreover been rising and evolving native formal practices over the earlier decade or longer.
Their technique embraces simplicity, engagement with nature, give consideration to inside experience, and emphasis on socially sharing the tea experience by ingesting tea with others. This doesn’t include copying or growing on Chinese language language or totally different worldwide tea traditions; being present and aware by the experience is emphasised in its place. Buddhism and Taoism aren’t direct inputs, nonetheless based mostly totally on have an effect on from an uncle involved with tea manufacturing and Zen look at and practices (Hoang Anh Suong, an creator on religion and philosophy), they’ve come to mix these themes.
This emphasis on simplicity is part of standard Vietnamese tea consumption observe. To this point, latest, unprocessed tea leaves had been brewed in large clay vessels and prepared with out the utilization of limited-duration infusion situations. In updated varieties, this might relate to an prolonged brewing time technique with processed inexperienced tea, each moderated in depth by limiting tea supplies or drunk sturdy.
The Evolution of Tea Customized
It offers as a lot as a complicated story about layers of tea customized evolving collectively, emphasizing simplicity, native custom, and pure enchancment. Extra moderen aspects relate to rising new tea sorts and experimentation with rising older teas. That exploration is a bit in progress, nonetheless previous rising older sheng and shu, they’ve found that transition outcomes is perhaps constructive with a wide range of additional oxidized oolongs and fewer absolutely oxidized crimson (black) teas.
Additional of their story is knowledgeable by means of particulars about varieties and background on their site and weblog, and in a Youtube channel that demonstrates tea brewing practices and manufacturing areas and processes.
