FREE SHIPPING ON ORDERS OVER $80
Ta Xua, tea in the cloud paradise
When asked about the origin of the ancient Shan Tuyet tea trees in the Ta Xua highland commune or neighboring communes of Bac Yen district, Son La, the oldest people in the Hmong ethnic minority villages all shook their heads and said "chi pau" (in Hmong, I don't know). They only know that since their grandfathers and fathers, when they grew up, they saw ancient Shan Tuyet tea trees in the villages and this is also one of the famous crops for its flavor, which has helped many Hmong households here escape poverty.
The capital of Shan Tuyet tea
Ta Xua commune is located at an altitude of nearly 1,800 m above sea level. The climate here is cool all year round, with temperatures ranging from 18 degrees Celsius to 20 degrees Celsius in the summer, and in the winter, there is often fog and a characteristic cold. Therefore, the H'Mong people here all affirm that it is this unique climate that has created the quality of the hundreds of years old ancient tea leaves with the very special flavor and color of the tea leaves that cannot be found anywhere else.
According to statistics, the whole Ta Xua commune has about 300 hectares of shan tuyet tea trees, of which about 40 hectares of ancient shan tuyet tea trees with nearly 3,000 trees concentrated in Be village are between 100 and 300 years old. The remaining more than 250 hectares of tea under 100 years old are planted in Ta Xua and Chung Chinh villages.
Taking us to visit the ancient shan tuyet tea trees in Be village area, comrade Do Van Tuyen, Secretary of Ta Xua commune Party Committee, said: In the past, H'Mong people often picked fresh tea buds to roast to drink and give to distinguished guests. Later, tea began to become a commodity when many people sought to buy it because of its delicious quality and special aroma.
Tea trees have become one of the crops that bring economic efficiency on each area of land. However, although ancient tea products are known and sought after by many people, not many people can buy them because this specialty tea has a small yield. Meanwhile, most of the fresh tea buds from ancient Shan Tuyet tea trees in Ta Xua commune have been purchased by a company to process to meet the needs of domestic customers, serving export to the Chinese market and countries in the EU.
In addition to the care or quality ingredients taken from ancient Shan Tuyet tea areas to create delicious tea leaves, the tea roasting process in Ta Xua tea area is also very focused on, in which the most prominent is the manual tea roasting method of the H'Mong people here. Shan Tuyet tea buds are picked from ancient tea trees that are kept in the frost all year round, when continuously stirred by bare hands on pans that are constantly on fire below, they will have a very special highland flavor that cannot be found anywhere else.
Comrade Mua A Khu, H'Mong ethnic group, Vice Chairman of Ta Xua Commune People's Committee, one of the households that still preserves the traditional tea roasting profession by hand, shared: Only later when the value of tea trees was seen and many customers came to buy, did people know to roast tea and bring it to the district town or commune center to sell.
Next is the pioneering of households in researching and applying new production techniques to enhance indigenous tea trees, so that Ta Xua tea products are known to many people and from there the economic value from tea trees in households has been raised, tea growers have a more stable income than corn and upland rice on infertile sloping land. However, if using a tea kneading machine or a rotating iron stove, the tea leaves will be crushed and damaged.
Therefore, it is only possible to manually roast the tea in a thick cast iron pan and do it carefully to produce a batch of dry tea, when brewed, the water will have a green color and a fragrant aroma typical of the mountains and forests. If you want delicious tea, the most suitable time to pick tea is early in the morning when the night dew is still on the tea leaves, otherwise you have to wait until 3pm or later. The tea roasting process also needs to keep the temperature stable for the cast iron pan so that the dry tea will be fragrant. When the wood stove is lit to heat the pan, the experienced tea roaster will use his or her hand to check the temperature and when it feels hot enough, then add fresh tea leaves.
After roasting the tea, the kneading step is also very important. If kneaded lightly, the water will take longer to fade when brewed and the tea flavor will be stronger. If kneaded strongly, a lot of tea bran will come out, and the tea will be more diluted quickly. After that, the tea is put back into the cast iron pan and stir-fried by hand until the tea stalks are crispy...
Bac Yen district is focusing on continuing to direct specialized departments and offices and Ta Xua commune to provide technical guidance on care and harvesting to improve product quality, promote and mobilize people to expand the tea growing area, striving to plant 50 hectares of new Shan Tuyet tea by 2025, increasing the commune's tea area to 420 hectares. At the same time, cooperate with businesses to preserve and conserve the ancient tea area, in order to enhance the Ta Xua tea brand, contributing to improving the lives of people in the highlands of Bac Yen from tea trees.
SHARE
