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| A corner of La Bang tea area. |
Thai Nguyen tea has long been famous for its delicious aroma and is listed as "The number one famous tea". Around the tea table, drinking tea together, enjoying the taste of heaven and earth makes people open their hearts.
At that time, tea farmers often started with the story of Mr. Vu Van Hiet, who led a group of farmers including dozens of people from Tan Cuong, carrying rice balls and raincoats, across Tam Dao mountain to Phu Tho province to buy tea seeds to plant. In 1935, he brought Canh Hac tea to the Hanoi Trade Fair, at the Exhibition area, his Canh Hac tea was honored with the First Prize.
Canh Hac tea is a type of tea that is harvested with 1 bud and 2 leaves, and is dried up after being roasted. When it comes into contact with boiling water, it expands like a flock of cranes spreading their wings to fly, bringing an irresistible flavor to tea connoisseurs. Since then, people have called Thai Nguyen "The number one famous tea".
Now, after 90 years, the proverb about Thai Nguyen tea has become more and more alive. Not only in the country, people from many countries around the world when coming to Vietnam to work or travel, when returning often brag to relatives and friends about having been to the land of "The first famous tea" of Vietnam to drink genuine Thai Nguyen tea.
Ms. Do Thi Hiep, Director of Tan Huong Tea Cooperative, Dai Phuc Commune, said: The Cooperative was established in 2000. After many efforts, in 2011, the Cooperative's tea products were certified by Solidaridad and Unilever to meet UTZ Certified international standards. Since then, the Cooperative has persisted in maintaining its title and product quality.
The UTZ Certified certification has made Tan Huong tea the first Vietnamese tea product to meet all the conditions to integrate and circulate in the international market. A product that meets strict standards in agricultural production, all stages of production follow a closed chain, from planting, caring, harvesting, preserving, processing, and packaging.
Product quality creates a strong brand. Thai Nguyen tea people are proud of that and agree to produce tea in an organic way. Food safety and hygiene are important; consumer health is put first, the closed chain from production to consumption of products makes Thai Nguyen tea products more prestigious. Currently, the whole province has about 200 tea products meeting OCOP standards from 3 to 5 stars.
The economic efficiency is the driving force that urges farmers to pay more attention to the tea economy. Mr. Mai Viet Ai, Go Phao hamlet, Tan Cuong commune, said: In order to prevent tea products from being sold illegally, in recent years, farmers and tea agents in the province have had a close connection. There is a high level of agreement between the parties in production and product consumption, aiming to provide the market with high-quality products.
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| Tourists visit Tan Cuong Tea Cultural Space, which preserves many documents and artifacts about Vietnamese tea. |
Over a pot of tea, the story took us to the tea regions in the upper reaches of the Cau River. With hundreds of years old Shan Tuyet tea fields and patches of Kim Hoa tea, the tea that is popularly known as the “Queen of Teas” has been a friend to the ethnic minorities in the highlands for generations.
Like the Trung Du tea areas in Tan Cuong, Dai Phuc, and La Bang communes, the ancient Shan Tuyet tea areas in Dong Phuc and Yen Binh communes have long been preserved by farmers in the region, expanding their areas, investing in value chain development, building brands, and turning tea into an important economic crop to help farmers sustainably reduce poverty and become rich legitimately.
Currently, many cooperatives have been joining farmers to build a worthy brand for Shan Tuyet tea, with many diverse and quality products that are well received by the market. Many cooperatives and enterprises in the province have Shan Tuyet tea products that have been granted OCOP certificates by the provincial authorities, such as Tat Va and Thai Lao agricultural cooperatives in Yen Binh commune; Hong Ha cooperative in Dong Phuc commune; Ngoc Thang Agricultural Development and Medicinal Processing Company Limited in Cho Don commune.
On the mountainside, where there are ancient Shan Tuyet tea forests, the weather is always much lower than the land at the foot of the mountain. Shan Tuyet tea products are completely different from Trung Du tea and other types of tea. The easy-to-recognize point is that when Shan Tuyet tea is fragrant, it looks like it is covered with a layer of silvery white. If it is one-bud, two-leaf tea, when brewed, it has a light yellow color, the tea leaves open up and look like Canh Hac tea of Mr. Hiet from Tan Cuong tea land, who brought it back to Hanoi to auction.
Along with the varieties of midland tea, hybrid tea and shan tuyet tea, Thai Nguyen province also has Kim Hoa Tra, a special type of tea that is popularly known as the “Queen of teas”. Mr. Ban Van Mui, Ban Mun village, Bach Thong commune, is one of the active farmers who has painstakingly gone into the forest to collect seeds to plant in his garden. Up to now, his family has more than 600 trees.
Mr. Mui shared: Tea seeds planted in the ground will take root and sprout. Kim Hoa Camellia has yellow flowers, so it is also called yellow tea and the flowers are harvested from December of the previous year to the end of March of the following year, while the leaves are harvested year-round.
Mr. Mui is one of dozens of families in Cho Don and Bach Thong communes who have a prosperous life thanks to the yellow tea tree. Mr. Ly Dinh Van, Head of Ban Mun village, said: Currently, the "Queen of Tea" has brought many households an additional income of more than 100 million VND/year.
Mr. Ly Van Long's family is a typical example. It is known that "Queen of Tea" has been expanded by the people in Bach Thong and Cho Don communes to about 20 hectares. Currently, "Queen of Tea" of Nghia Ta Agricultural and Forestry Cooperative has achieved 3-star OCOP. Meanwhile, the product "Queen of Tea" of BK Foods High-Tech Cooperative has achieved 4-star OCOP.
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| Thai Nguyen tea is chosen by many tourists as a gift. |
Proudly, Thai Nguyen tea is not only exported to major markets around the world, but also won many prestigious awards. For example, the Tom Non tea product of Ha Thai Tea Company, An Khanh Commune was awarded the Silver Prize by the American and Canadian Tea Association in 2016. The "Dinh Vuong Pham" tea product of Tan Cuong Hoang Binh Tea Joint Stock Company, Dai Phuc Commune, was awarded the Special Prize when participating in the North American International Specialty Tea Competition in 2017.
Thai Nguyen Tea Land is proud to have high quality products, chosen by domestic and foreign consumers for use and as valuable gifts. In particular, the knowledge of growing and processing Tan Cuong tea is recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage. From now on, Thai Nguyen's "First Famous Tea" has added Shan Tuyet tea products harvested from high mountains, and Kim Hoa tea - a type of tea known as the "Queen of Teas".
The return of the two lands has given Thai Nguyen tea wings, opening up opportunities to reach larger markets. Not only expanding the raw material area, but also increasing brand value, bringing the “First Famous Tea” deeper into the global value chain.
Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/kinh-te/202507/chap-them-canh-cho-che-thai-nguyen-31307cc/
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