West Lake Lotus Tea

During the lotus blooming season, people wake up at dawn, row boats out to the large lotus lake to pick lotus flowers to use in tea, or bring tea leaves directly to the lake to sprinkle and infuse into the flowers, aiming to capture the exquisite fragrance of West Lake lotus, creating a captivating tea that has been famous for hundreds of years and forms the soul of the Trang An lotus tea brand.

Enjoying West Lake lotus tea - a traditional tea ceremony drink of the ancient people of Thang An.

The lotus variety in West Lake is also very special, the Hundred-Petal Lotus, because only lotuses that grow in the muddy soil and climate of this region can create the distinctive aroma of West Lake lotus tea. People mainly use Tan Cang tea and Shan Tuyet tea ( from Thai Nguyen ) to infuse with West Lake lotus. These two ingredients are like a match made in heaven, together creating an exquisite beverage.

I still remember last year's lotus season, when I woke up at 4 a.m. to go to Mrs. Dan's house on To Ngoc Van Street, Tay Ho District, to ask if I could join her family in harvesting lotuses to infuse tea. Mrs. Dan's family has long been famous for their art of infusing tea with lotus.

To make a delicious cup of lotus tea, infused with the rich flavor of West Lake lotus, requires many steps and processes, from selecting the lotus flowers and soaking them to the method of soaking, whether using lotus rice or whole blossoms. I prefer drinking tea infused with whole blossoms because it has enough time to soak and is sealed within the blossom, resulting in a richer, more complete flavor, although of course, it requires a sufficiently long waiting period.

Enjoying the renowned West Lake lotus tea of ​​Thang An is a refined pleasure during leisure time. When enjoying lotus tea, it's incomplete without a piece of peanut candy, a few pieces of sticky rice cake, or, for a more luxurious experience, a packet of Vong village rice flakes… Sharing tea, savoring the candy and tea, and contemplating this exquisite beverage of a land with a thousand years of cultural heritage… that is the quintessential elegance of Thang An.

(*) This entry is for the "Impressions on Vietnamese Coffee and Tea" contest, part of the "Celebrating Vietnamese Coffee and Tea" program, 2nd edition, 2024, organized by Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/tra-sen-tay-ho-196240328203922114.htm