With tea, my never-ending joy

A functional room can only buy a few packs of tea, each 50 grams. All of them are grade 3 and grade 4 tea. High-ranking officials with grade C cards can buy a few packs of grade 1 or grade 2 tea a month.

Grade 1 tea is Thanh Huong, Ba Dinh tea and grade 2 tea is Ngoc Son, Hong Dao tea. There was a time like 1973, we designed a project for the provincial diplomatic agency. Thanks to this work, our department was able to buy some Thanh Huong, Ba Dinh and Ngoc Son tea...

Với trà, niềm vui không bao giờ mất của tôi- Ảnh 1. — Author Nguyen Xuan Dinh

We cherished each packet of fragrant tea. The teapot was cleaned, the pot was rinsed with boiling water, the tea was put into the pot and the boiling water was poured in. When we took the tea out, we could already smell the fragrance, when we poured the boiling water in, the fragrance spread even stronger. Oh my, we lifted the teacup to our nose, slowly moved it back and forth to smell the fragrance before bringing it up to our lips to touch the tea and started to take a small sip.

The aroma, the astringent taste, then the sweetness of the tea spreads from the tip of the tongue to the throat of the drinker... Oh my, a feeling of lightness, serenity, happiness, and then nobility spreads within the person in those moments..;

Yet, it has been 30 years since Thanh Huong, Ba Dinh, Ngoc Son tea has been available, and later Thanh Tam tea has appeared freely in packages of only 10 grams. This is a top-class tea with tea leaves like short toothpicks, the color of the tea is moldy but delicious and fragrant beyond words. For the past 15 years, I have been using Tan Cuong Thai Nguyen tea as a daily substitute, but I still can't forget Thanh Tam, Thanh Huong, Ba Dinh, Ngoc Son teas from the state-owned tea factory in the North back then... Oh my... my love and joy for tea will never fade and will forever be full in the remaining years of my life.

(Entry to the writing contest "Impressions of Vietnamese coffee and tea" organized by Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper).

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