Everyone drinks tea, but how many people understand Vietnamese tea culture?

Guests attending the discussion on Vietnamese Tea Civilization in Economic and Tourism Development - Photo: HOANG LE

The discussion took place in Ho Chi Minh City on August 26. During the 3-hour session, the guests raised many issues surrounding Vietnamese tea: from its origin, economy, and especially from a cultural and tourism perspective.

At times, the atmosphere of the discussion heated up with debates when opinions on Vietnamese tea were different. However, in general, these opinions were all aimed at the goal of how to elevate the thousand-year-old culture of Vietnamese tea.

Vietnam is the cradle of world tea.

Researcher Trinh Quang Dung once again presented many details in the book Vietnamese Tea Civilization that he wrote to affirm that Vietnam is the first cradle of the world's tea tree.

Making Vietnamese tea - Photo: HOANG LE

Regarding the precious ancient tea tree, Mr. Pham Vu Khanh, representative of a tea company in the northern mountainous region, provided information that Vietnam accounts for 2/3 of the world's tea tree area, with a total area of ​​20,000 hectares of ancient tea forests, which can harvest hundreds of thousands of tons.

This is a good premise to promote the export of ancient tea, bringing high economic efficiency. And more than just an economic perspective, Vietnamese tea also bears a strong cultural imprint.

“Why is Chinese tea so expensive, the taste of the tea does not suit Vietnamese taste but somehow everyone who comes to the tea shop buys it as a gift.

“Tourists buy tea, which means they buy the culture of their country,” said Ms. Nguyen Thi Tham, director of the tea company.

She recalled: “If China has tea kung fu, Japan has tea ceremony. So what is Vietnamese tea? I spent two years looking for the answer.

In the end, I think there is no need for a specific name because it is a thousand-year-old habit of the Vietnamese people. Maybe people cannot see it, but everyone feels it in their hearts."

Ms. Tham continued to give an example: “Our company once opened a free tea shop with the aim of seeing what the capital people thought about Vietnamese tea. I thought the majority of customers would be older people. But the reality was completely the opposite.

Young people are the main customers. I realize that Vietnamese tea culture already exists in you but you forget it. When you bring it up again, they will remember. That is the seed of culture. As long as you are Vietnamese, you will know about Vietnamese tea.”

Vietnamese tea is not yet interested

Tea culture is the quintessence of the nation, how to spread that culture to everyone?

Mr. Trinh Quang Dung happily said: "At first, the organizers proposed to have more mineral water to serve everyone.

I suggest that we should completely replace bottled water with tea. Drinking tea is classy. Scientific analysis also proves that drinking tea is good for health, so why don't we drink it?

According to Mr. Dung, in addition to the quality of the tea being better, attention must be paid to the tea utensils.

“There needs to be a strategy to compete with imported tea sets by drinking Vietnamese tea with Vietnamese tea sets.

Tea sets must bear the mark of Vietnamese cultural history.

Regarding tourism development, we can build modern homestays on large and beautiful tea hills. I have seen this image in many provinces and cities,” he suggested.

Mr. Dung said that in 2022, when he went to China, he saw a 200m long banner that read: 21st century - the century of Chinese tea.

In other countries, people promote their tea like that, while in Vietnam's agricultural development planning, tea is not given an important position, ranked after rice, corn, and potatoes, which is a pity.

“Let’s do some math, 1kg of rice can be sold for 20,000 VND. Meanwhile, 1kg of tea can be sold for millions of VND, even precious ancient tea can be priced at tens of millions of VND/kg.

Yet tea trees still do not receive proper attention," he said frankly.

Vietnamese tea civilization in economic and tourism development is the first seminar in a series of seminars on tea organized by the Vietnam Culinary Culture Association in collaboration with tea businesses.

The seminar had the participation of speaker, researcher Trinh Quang Dung - author of the book Vietnamese Tea Civilization ; Professor Nguyen Duy Thinh - former head of the Food Technology Department of Hanoi University of Science and Technology, a long-time expert in consulting on equipment installation in the tea industry; Ms. Nguyen Thi Tham - Director of Tay Bac Tea and Specialty Company Limited.

It is expected that there will be four new seminars taking place, exploring different aspects of tea such as spreading Vietnamese tea culture abroad, the uses of tea, tea and European cakes, and tea ceremony.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/ai-cung-uong-tra-nhung-may-ai-hieu-van-hoa-tra-viet-20240826205743406.htm