Relax with "The finest tea"

I'm sure that domestic and international tourists visiting Thai Nguyen, after touring the tea-growing regions and enjoying tea, will recognize a profound cultural beauty of the tea-producing people: their calmness, patience, and sophistication. The stories they tell tourists about tea cultivation and processing sound gentle, yet they contain the meticulous effort and dedication required to hone their skills to become "golden hands" in the province's tea-making competitions.

The entire province now has approximately 200 tea products that meet OCOP standards, ranging from 3 to 5 stars.

Someone showed us their hands, saying, "These are 'Golden Hands'." To achieve this title, tea artisans spend almost their entire lives turning and rubbing the tea leaves over the fire. Their hands act like thermometers, sensing the heat to adjust the fire in the furnace accordingly. Patiently turning and rubbing the fresh green tea buds gradually dries them down like grains of sticky rice, making them crisp and refined.

A vast expanse of land in Thai Nguyen province is covered with tea plantations that bloom year-round. While the gateway to Hanoi , a central region of the Viet Bac area, boasts lush green tea with small leaves, the area considered the heart of the Viet Bac region, the source of the Cau River, is home to the ancient Shan Tuyet tea, whose trees are so large that a person couldn't encircle them, requiring ladders to climb during harvesting – a scene straight out of a fairy tale.

Mother Nature has painted a vast, colorful, and endlessly beautiful landscape in Thai Nguyen province, with long, towering mountain ranges, rivers, streams, lakes, and fertile fields providing food and vegetables.

The highlight of this magnificent landscape is the vibrant tea plantations, captivating with their scenery and aroma, and the poetic essence of tea offered to humanity. The scenery and people of Thai Nguyen tea region remind me of the tea-growing areas of Moc Chau, Suoi Giang, Cau Dat… These places share the same landscape, but Thai Nguyen remains the place that produces the finest, most exquisite tea. Especially noteworthy are the centuries-old Shan Tuyet tea trees in the "cold land" of Thai Nguyen.

Due to its diverse topography, each tea-growing region in Thai Nguyen creates its own unique landscape. While each tea plantation is divided into many small plots, and within each plot, the tea plants are arranged in rows for easy movement and harvesting, the Shan Tuyet tea clusters in the "mountains" are different. Because they grow naturally, they don't form rows or have regular spacing. However, each plant is robust, large enough for a person to embrace, producing larger buds covered in a layer of white downy hairs.

The tea grown here is vastly different from the teas grown in the "Four Famous Tea Regions" – the communes of Tan Cuong, La Bang, Trai Cai in Dong Hy district, and Khe Coc in Vo Tranh commune. Only after witnessing firsthand how the farmers harvest and process the tea did we realize: the hands of tea farmers are very different from those of farmers who wield hoes and sickles. They are resilient, persistent, yet gentle and decisive.

Regarding the tea village, many people in Thai Nguyen still remember that 90 years ago (1935), Mr. Vu Van Hiet brought Canh Hac tea to the Hanoi Trade Fair. At the Exhibition area, his Canh Hac tea was honored with first prize. Canh Hac tea is a type of tea made from one bud and two leaves, which are roasted until they shrivel up. When mixed with boiling water, they expand, resembling a flock of cranes spreading their wings to fly, carrying an irresistible flavor for tea connoisseurs. Since then, people have referred to Thai Nguyen as "the finest tea."

Thai Nguyen tea has become a renowned brand. Thai Nguyen tea products have also become more closely integrated into the daily lives of people across the country. Therefore, anyone who has the opportunity to visit Thai Nguyen often seeks out the specialty tea-growing regions to explore, and then enthusiastically buys tea as gifts for loved ones.

Tea-growing regions have therefore become destinations for tourists who enjoy being close to nature. Moreover, when visiting tea-growing areas, one can enjoy authentic Thai Nguyen tea with a refreshing feeling, without fear of being cheated.

One piece of good news for farmers in the "Land of the Most Famous Tea" is that the province is aiming to turn tea into a billion-dollar crop. Currently, the province has nearly 25,000 hectares of tea plantations, of which more than 23,000 hectares are in production. Notably, Thai Nguyen, the "Land of the Most Famous Tea," will now have Shan Tuyet tea, grown at an altitude of over 1,200 meters above sea level, and Kim Hoa tea, known as the "Queen of Teas."

Tourists experience the tea drying process at La Bang Tea Cooperative, La Bang commune.

Thai Nguyen tea region is proud to have high-quality products, chosen by consumers both domestically and internationally for personal use and as valuable gifts. In particular, the knowledge of growing and processing Tan Cuong tea has been recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage.

It has been a long journey for Thai Nguyen to build a brand for its tea, and to date, the province has approximately 200 products that meet OCOP standards from 3 to 5 stars. Some tea products have been certified by Solidaridad and Unilever as meeting the international UTZ Certified standard, ensuring they meet the requirements for integration and circulation in the international market.

Notable examples include the "Shrimp Bud Tea" from Ha Thai Tea Company in An Khanh commune, which was awarded the Silver Prize by the US and Canadian Tea Association in 2016, and the "Dinh Vuong Pham" tea from Tan Cuong Hoang Binh Tea Joint Stock Company in Dai Phuc commune, which received the Special Prize at the 2017 North American Specialty Tea Competition.

For imaginative travelers, the Thai Nguyen tea region is also a source of artistic creativity; a place to "heal" the brokenness of the heart. Especially in the early morning, at dawn, when the golden sunlight, thin as a giant veil, falls gently on the mountain slopes, one can glimpse the figure of a mountain girl in a conical hat, her hands nimbly gathering the green tea buds. And in the evening, as the sun still peeks over the Tam Dao mountain range, the hurried sunset seems to want to let go of the day's weariness.

These once impoverished tea-growing regions have been transformed into "paradises" with stunning landscapes, featuring lush green mountains and crystal-clear waters. Tourists can experience tea harvesting and processing, enjoy tea-based cuisine , and listen to legends of romantic love stories.

From Tan Cang, Dai Phuc, La Bang to the ancient Shan Tuyet tea growing areas in Dong Phuc, Yen Binh…, all of them captivate visitors. These are the lands where farmers have created the renowned "First-Class Tea" brand of Thai Nguyen.

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/van-hoa/202508/nhan-tan-voi-de-nhat-danh-tra-56c1ac3/