Thai Nguyen - one more time... tea

I say “one more time” because, before that, I also had a few articles about Thai tea published in the Tra Viet special issue and the Thai Nguyen Literature and Arts Magazine, two famous magazines. “Tra Viet” was famous because Thai Nguyen was probably the only place in the whole country that published a magazine about its hometown’s specialties. Other places also had many specialties such as Central Highlands Coffee (Gia Lai, Dak Lak), Western fruits, Cu Do from Nghe An, ocean tuna (Binh Dinh, old Phu Yen)..., no place had its own magazine. And the Thai Nguyen Literature and Arts Magazine was once in the top of the country’s Literature and Arts magazines before the merger in terms of professionalism, elegance and interest.

The green of the homeland (Photo: Do Anh Tuan).

And indeed, the impression of Thai Nguyen is still intact in me when this time, I was again traveling in a group of people who were all... tea connoisseurs. The owner was of course a tea connoisseur, but the dozen or so guests who accompanied me also talked about tea in great detail while sitting on the bus traveling from Hanoi to Thai Nguyen.

Among them, the most respected is journalist Vinh Quyen. This journalist, former Deputy General Director of National Assembly Television, is famous for preparing (or rather, recreating) delicious Hanoi dishes, both for eating and drinking. Her best drink is lotus tea. Once, a friend asked her to send me nearly a hundred lotus tea flowers, which almost made me have to buy an extra... refrigerator to store them. Then I thought of a solution, although it was very painful: I gave some to my friends.

Ah! The part about giving to friends is also full of twists and turns. I live in Pleiku, the land of coffee. Most of my friends there, when they come from other places and want to give them a gift, the simplest thing is... coffee. Sending gifts back home is the same. And vice versa, when someone from the North visits or sends gifts, it is mainly tea.

I can't, because I know, not everyone can drink, or likes to drink tea or coffee. You have to ask them, just intimately, if they drink coffee, then give them a gift, if not, replace it with something else. Because I also witnessed my friend's house, full of moldy tea. He doesn't drink it but often receives it as gifts. And tea that has been left for a long time will become moldy, at least it will lose its aroma. So you have to know the enjoyment habits of each region. In the North, it's tea, of course, in the South, it's coffee, very simple, except for... special cases, of course now special cases are decreasing a lot, special cases are becoming popular...

Then, Ms. Vinh Quyen, on the very first morning of "lost" in the world of tea, exclaimed and confessed: I have been making a lot of lotus-scented tea for a long time, but now I have witnessed such a large variety of tea, beautiful and endless. And it is also the first time I have seen and understood the names of "the four great famous teas of Thai Nguyen" with Tan Cuong, La Bang, Trai Cai and Khe Coc.

I had to take my time with tea and green tea. The North differentiated but not as carefully as the South, although the quality of tea in the South was far inferior to the North. I was born and lived in Thanh Hoa during the war, following my parents' agency to evacuate, and mostly staying at the houses of people in villages along the big rivers Ma, Chu..., lots of green tea. My mother had a standard tea package to serve guests, the type of three cents a package, most of which were moldy by the time they reached the drinkers. The uncles and aunts in my mother's agency all called it the nine cents and three tea, at first hearing it sounded like nine cents and three a package, but it was actually nine cents and three. My mother didn't drink it, and there were no guests to serve, no guests would be willing to cycle hundreds of kilometers to the evacuation site of the agency, and there was no means of communication like now, so my mother gave that tea to the uncles in the agency, they treasured it very much, only made it occasionally, and otherwise drank fresh tea. To remember, they all call it tea, both green tea and dried tea, that is, processed tea.

Hoang Nong Tea (Photo: Ngoc Hai).

The South clearly distinguishes between: Tea and tea. And the thing that I have just lived in, that I have been scented with, that I always smell the scent of young rice, is tea. And those lush green hills, though undulating in the valley, but still as far as the eye can see, are tea.

And it turns out that it has to come here to be clear, that is, that Thai Nguyen tea, it was transplanted from Phu Tho. I remember, last year, I was invited by Minister Le Minh Hoan, now Vice Chairman of the National Assembly, along with some writers to visit Thai Binh (rice) and Bac Giang (lychee). So I understand more clearly that lychee is now a famous specialty of Luc Ngan, Bac Giang is a product brought from Hai Duong, from the also famous Thanh Ha region. But now, when people mention lychee, they mention Bac Giang. So is this Thai tea. It came from Phu Tho and became famous in this land, becoming a word of mouth and now being spread on all media: Thai tea from Tuyen girls. As for Tuyen Quang girls, the talented writer Hoang Phu Ngoc Tuong, one of the best in Vietnam, had a masterpiece called "The land of beautiful girls", to the point that now when anyone mentions Tuyen Quang, they always include "the land of beautiful girls" even though Tuyen Quang only has 2 words, adding "the land of beautiful girls" makes it 5 words, and if you remove Tuyen Quang and just say "the land of beautiful girls", everyone still knows that when talking about Tuyen Quang, it still has 3 words, and in this time of saving, even the place names in our country are almost named after numbers, so that is a strange thing, a tribute to... a specialty.

Thai tea, it is now a brand, not only domestically. Two years ago when I went to Taiwan, some senior writers (living in Hanoi, so addicted to tea) gave instructions from afar, from home: Try Taiwanese Oolong tea, then buy some to drink. I replied, do you guys drink it? No, we are used to drinking Thai tea. Oh, then I do too.

I am also living in the land of tea. When the country was still divided, the South had two famous tea regions, one was Bao Loc (Lam Dong) with B'lao tea, and the other was Gia Lai tea region with two brands: Bau Can tea, Bien Ho tea. B'lao tea was extremely famous. I remember, right after the unification day, in early 1976, I went back to my hometown in Hue, all the relatives planted B'lao tea to welcome my three children, at that time no one drank tea. But it had to be B'lao tea to welcome my uncle from the North.

These tea regions were all discovered and planted by the French. In 1981, when I graduated from university and went to work in Gia Lai, Bau Can tea was still distributed according to food stamps. There were several types, 1, 2, 3, etc.

But then, when trade was established, that is, after the time when even carrying a few ounces of Thai tea required a paper and was checked, goods were freely circulated, Thai Nguyen tea flooded the South, and the tea brands B'lao, Bau Can, Bien Ho... gradually disappeared.

I still remember that afternoon nearly twenty years ago in Saigon. A senior writer from Hanoi came in, the first thing he said when checking in was: Oh no. I was surprised: What happened? I forgot to bring... tea. There are tea bags in the room, and I also brought Bau Can tea. No, I only have Thai Nguyen, and only that kind. Now you go buy it. I have the dealer's address here.

Remember this detail again, that many places display signs selling “Thai tea” but whether it is Thai or not is another story. Most recently, while we were in Thai Nguyen, Thai Nguyen police cracked a case of fake Thai Nguyen tea. A couple faked 9.2 tons of Thai tea but it is not certain that it was... original.

Now most provinces have large Thai Nguyen tea agents serving addicts, but the truth is, drinking Thai tea here is not... as pure as the tea sent directly by friends.

Speaking of tea being sent, everyone said it was delicious because... they didn't have to pay. It's possible, but that's for stingy people, who drink it when they have it, and when they don't, they drink water or guava leaf tea. But those who know tea, are addicted to tea, have not reached the level of the story of Mr. Nguyen Viet, roughly speaking, there was a beggar who went begging, but when he met two famous tea connoisseurs drinking tea, he asked for... tea. The old men gave him a cup, he didn't drink it but asked to make it for himself. Then he carefully took out a teapot from the beggar's wicker bag, and at first sight the two old men were shocked because it was very old and full of tea, the type of teapot of "the" tea super group. Then he carefully made it, carefully drank it, carefully laughed... until he finished, before leaving, he bowed to the two old men, thanked them and said: Your tea is very delicious, but unfortunately there's a husk mixed in it. The two old men were offended and cursed the beggar for eating porridge and kicking the bowl, for "not knowing the taste of food". The next day, while making tea and reading poetry, an old man accidentally knocked over the teapot, and while he was picking up each tea bean to put in the pot, he suddenly saw a piece of husk... and then he knew how to distinguish between young shrimp tea and young tea, between hook tea and bud tea, and so on and so forth.

I remember the story of tea discrimination. That time, also about twenty years ago, I went to the editorial office of Thai Nguyen Literature and Arts Magazine to visit a colleague. This magazine, in addition to having quite good content and being hospitable, also had... beautiful people, from Editor-in-Chief Nguyen Thuy Quynh (at that time she had not yet become President of the Literature and Arts Association), to the editorial secretary Nguyen Thi Thu Huyen... all of whom were equivalent to beauty queens. Quynh made tea for me and then called her friends to her room to receive the guest (me). Nguyen Thi Thu Huyen came over to drink the first sip of tea and said: Is this your tea from last week? Quynh said, it's been ten days. Let me go to my room to get the tea, my tea is only... three days old. I widened my eyes and immediately performed a very solemn ritual: I knelt down and bowed to my two younger sisters because they were so knowledgeable about tea.

VietGAP tea area (Photo: Viet Hung).

Also distinguishing tea, there are two literary friends who regularly provide me with Thai tea, the poet Huu Viet in Hanoi. This man has a tea set in his room that looks very hot, every morning he makes tea like a ritual, even if he only drinks alone. This man only drinks Dinh tea, and he often sends Dinh tea to me, because he is afraid that I will drink other tea... spoil my taste. He has a private shop on Hang Dieu street, I think, that specializes in providing Dinh tea for him to drink and... send to me. Another man is a multi-talented person in the land of tea, Associate Professor, Doctor Nguyen Duc Hanh. This man has recently changed from criticizing theories, examining evidence to writing poems and stories, all of which are very successful, very good. He also has the... pleasure of sending me tea, also because he is afraid that I will spoil my... taste. He boasts that his tea is tea from a student's garden, very clean and delicious.

And so, from my female colleagues at Thai Nguyen Literature Magazine, then to poets and writers Huu Viet and Nguyen Duc Hanh, I became a "slave" of Thai tea.

So you can understand my joyful mood when I return to the tea land, one more time tea...

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/van-nghe-thai-nguyen/but-ky-phong-su/202507/thai-nguyen-them-mot-lan-che-fd92296/