Growing tea creates eye-catching colored tea, the female director in Thai Nguyen successfully inherits the business

Tra Giang Organic Tea Processing Cooperative (Phuc Tan Commune, Pho Yen City, Thai Nguyen Province) was established in December 2023 with 7 participating members. Clip: Ha Thanh

Switching to tea production opens up new opportunities

Born and raised in the Phuc Tan tea region, Giang dropped out of school and went to work earlier than her peers after finishing 9th grade.

During that process, she had the opportunity to meet many talented and passionate people in the tea making profession, which helped the young girl open up new opportunities to delve into the field of tea production and processing as it is today.

"Before 2014, I was still working as a worker. Then, when I joined the Northern Agricultural Startup Club, I had the opportunity to meet and interact with talented and dedicated people. I still remember clearly what a professor said at that time: "The products of your hometown are very good, why don't you develop your hometown's products and use that as your strength?"

Because of that saying, in 2016 I decided to return to making tea, continuing my family's traditional profession," Pham Thi Giang - Director of Tra Giang Organic Tea Processing Cooperative (Phuc Tan Commune, Pho Yen City, Thai Nguyen Province) said about her current fate in making tea.

Pham Thi Giang, Director of Tra Giang Organic Tea Processing Cooperative, Phuc Tan Commune, Pho Yen City, Thai Nguyen Province, started making tea in 2016. Photo: Ha Thanh

Confessing further, the female Director born in 1994 said: Initially, when she started making tea, she took the trouble to learn from many places to improve her skills, gain knowledge and apply advanced techniques to produce the highest quality tea products..., because she thought that since she was a child, although she had picked and processed tea with her grandparents and parents, her skills were not high and she did not have much experience.

Growing organic tea, producing special black tea

By 2017, the young girl officially focused on growing tea to proactively source raw materials for production and processing.

In 2018, through the Northern Agricultural Startup Club, she was connected with Vietnam Organic Agriculture and gradually converted the way people in the region grow tea to organic to ensure safety for producers and users.

Director of Tra Giang Organic Tea Processing Cooperative Pham Thi Giang has helped people in the area convert their tea growing methods to organic ones to ensure safety for producers and consumers. Photo: Ha Thanh

Having previously had experience growing sprouts, Giang learned how to compost organic fertilizers to apply to tea growing. She shared: "Using organic fertilizers will help regenerate areas of land previously contaminated with chemicals, gradually improving the clean environment for farmers. At the same time, using organic fertilizers will help improve the quality of tea, making the tea taste rich, sweet, and deep when drunk."

After a period of production, with the advice of the Commune Farmers' Association, in December 2023, Pham Thi Giang decided to establish Tra Giang Organic Tea Processing Cooperative in Hamlet 5, Phuc Tan Commune, Pho Yen City, Thai Nguyen Province with 7 participating members.

The cooperative's raw material area is 5 hectares, of which 1 hectare is produced organically. Photo: Ha Thanh

Currently, the cooperative has a total tea area of ​​5 hectares, of which 1 hectare is being grown and cared for organically. Recently, the cooperative has signed a cooperation agreement with Vietnam Organic Agriculture to develop 10 hectares of organic tea in Phuc Tan commune.

To compete in the market with long-standing tea producers, the cooperative has set a goal that in addition to producing traditional tea products, the cooperative will differentiate itself by launching new product lines such as black tea. This product line is suitable for women and the elderly, who like to drink mild tea.

To create competitiveness in the market, Director of Tra Giang Organic Tea Processing Cooperative Pham Thi Giang, (Phuc Tan Commune, Pho Yen City, Thai Nguyen Province) has focused on producing black tea products. Photo: Ha Thanh

This product is very good for the digestive system, helps lose weight, good for people with diabetes and high blood fat... Moreover, it also helps the elderly sleep easily, reduce stress and fatigue.

The opportunity that brought the young female Director to produce this line of black tea products was through a product exchange with a Shan Tuyet black tea production unit in Ha Giang . She had the opportunity to enjoy this tea and found it to have a particularly impressive flavor.

At the same time, the old company where she worked had a Chinese leader who once gave her a small package of black tea to try. That was the reason why she was determined to make the black tea product as it is today.

"To produce quality black tea products, the most important thing is still choosing the tea variety and focusing on the organic tea care process.

The tea varieties chosen by Ms. Giang are midland tea and F1 green hybrid tea because these are the tea varieties that will retain the original flavor of the tea when processed into finished products.

For the F1 hybrid tea line, which is suitable for the climate and soil of Tan Cuong and Phuc Tan regions, has a rich sweet taste and the aroma of young rice, so it can satisfy all customers, even the most demanding ones," said Pham Thi Giang, Director of Tra Giang Organic Tea Processing Cooperative.

Tea buds used to produce black tea must be at least 42 days old before being harvested. Photo: Ha Thanh

At first, when coming to this product, Giang also encountered many difficulties, especially in approaching customers, because this is a new product line, not popular in the market.

Moreover, to make this black tea product, she also experienced many failures. Therefore, when she successfully processed it, she brought the tea to invite two businesses specializing in exporting black tea to try and received satisfaction from both of these units.

Enhancing tea brand, creating jobs for many people

In the near future, there will be a unit signing a product consumption contract with the Cooperative, so the Director of Tra Giang Organic Tea Processing Cooperative hopes to replicate this model throughout the commune to enhance the brand value of this product, creating jobs for many women who are working for companies with stable income from making tea locally.

The reason the female Director of Tra Giang Organic Tea Production Cooperative chose to mainly produce this type of tea is because although the yeast-killing process takes 25-30 hours to make this type of tea, the production is not difficult because it does not require continuous roasting.

For black tea, although the roasting process takes longer than regular green tea, it does not require drying completely, but only until the tea reaches about 97% dryness, ensuring that when finished roasting, the tea still has enough content to ferment.

In particular, for this type of tea, there is no need to pick young tea, but old tea can still be picked. However, the time to pick tea to produce black tea will be longer (over 42 days) instead of 32 - 35 days like traditional green tea.

Therefore, the nutrient content will be more concentrated in the tea buds, so this tea will have a stronger flavor when drunk and can be brewed up to 11 times.

When brewed, black tea has a light pink color and a fragrant, sweet aftertaste. Photo: Ha Thanh

The most important thing in the yeast killing process is that the black tea will develop its aroma within the first 3 months. The aroma of the tea depends on the temperature control during the yeast killing process. After 3 months of production, the longer it is left, the more the yeast is killed and the more fragrant the tea is, the better it tastes and the stronger the flavor.

Currently, for black tea products, the Cooperative has 3 types: honey-flavored black tea, green rice-flavored black tea, rose-flavored black tea and apple-flavored black tea. The products are sold by the Cooperative at 500,000 VND/kg, 800,000 VND/kg and 1.2 million VND/kg, respectively.

Currently, the market for the cooperative's black tea products is mainly in Ho Chi Minh City. Because it is a new product, the cooperative has not yet produced large quantities, but is in the process of gradually perfecting the product design and packaging, along with finding more suitable customers.

Because it has just started operating, the cooperative's products are in the process of perfecting their designs and packaging. Photo: Ha Thanh

In 2024, the Cooperative plans to build the OCOP brand for three products: black tea, shrimp tea and organic tea. As a newly established unit, the Cooperative hopes to receive support from all levels and sectors in terms of investment capital so that the Cooperative can maintain production and develop better and better, creating jobs for many local workers.

In addition to producing black tea, the cooperative also produces high-end tea lines such as shrimp tea and nail tea, one of the products that the cooperative plans to register as OCOP in 2024. Photo: Ha Thanh

Mr. Tran Van Duy - Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Phuc Tan Commune said that Phuc Tan is a mountainous commune with a long-standing tea production profession. Recently, with the support of local departments, Ms. Giang's family has established Tra Giang Organic Tea Processing Cooperative.

Before Tra Giang Cooperative was established, the locality had no unit to consume tea products for the local people. After the Cooperative started operating, it cooperated with the local people to consume tea products locally.

This is a suitable direction to help create a brand and increase the value of local tea products. During its operation, the cooperative is focusing on producing black tea products and moving towards registering OCOP products. This is also the desire of the local government as well as the Commune Farmers' Association.

Source: https://danviet.vn/trong-che-tao-ra-loai-tra-mau-sac-bat-mat-ba-giam-doc-o-thai-nguyen-ke-nghiep-thanh-cong-20240301233750768.htm