Cu Mong Peak. Photo: Tran Thanh Hung
According to Dai Nam Nhat Thong Chi, Cu Mong range has Ma Vu mountain, which produces tea, formerly called "Ma Vu green tea". The Chinese version of this book records "vu" as fog. The elders in Phu Yen call it Ma Vo, because from afar the mountain looks like a dancing horse. Vu is also read as vu. So is it Ma Vo (Ma Vu) or Ma Vu?
According to legend, when Nguyen Anh was being chased by the Tay Son army, he saw a type of tree that looked like a tea tree, so he ordered his troops to stop their horses (ma do, in the local language, means to stop the horses). Then he picked the leaves of that tree and boiled them to drink, the whole army was completely healthy and continued their journey. When he ascended the throne, the king remembered the old story and ordered the Song Cau patrol officer to advise the people to drink this tea, because it was good for their health. That tea forest was commonly known as King Gia Long's tea hill, and the people called that tea "che danh" (top tea).
Explanation by shape: called owl beak tea, because when dried, the tea leaves curve like an owl's beak. The people of the land of Nau have difficulty reading "owl beak" so it becomes "owl beak" (like wife = wife, vu = wife...).
Explained by the way of preservation: called tea in a basket. After picking, the tea is tied into a bundle like a basket, hung in the kitchen, and drunk gradually.
Ma Do tea experimental garden. Photo: Research team
Recognizing the value of this tea variety, in 2020, Phu Yen province approved the project "Research on application and development of Ma Do tea trees in Song Cau", assigned to La Hieng Center for Agricultural and Biological Sciences to implement.
Through survey, Ma Do belongs to the Camelliaceae tea family, grows a lot in Cu Mong pass, at an altitude of 500-700 m above sea level.
After three years of implementation, the team has successfully propagated and planted hundreds of trees in the garden, started harvesting and completed the production and processing process.
(Entry to the contest "Impressions of Vietnamese coffee and tea" under the program "Honoring Vietnamese coffee and tea" for the 2nd time, 2024 organized by Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper).
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