Going to the mountain to enjoy tea…
Each person chooses their own way on the road to spring travel, I personally chose to experience spring tea in the highland of Muong. The hostess, Nung ethnic group in Nam Lu commune (Muong Khuong district), her name is Vang Thi Xuan, led us to the garden to pick tea leaves. Her family's tea trees have been planted for more than 30 years with tender young buds picked in the rainy spring weather, in the sweet cold below 10 degrees Celsius, dried in a cast iron pan in the traditional manual style. The first batch of tea in the new year was fragrant and sweet.
Ms. Vang Thi Xuan collects spring tea.
Sitting by the warm fire, listening to stories about the tea trees grown on the highland, their tea processing, just drinking a cup of tea after a few hours of experiencing the stages of making traditional tea. The way to enjoy spring tea of the Nung people here is very interesting. The tea buds are picked, put in a cast iron pan, then squeezed out by hand to reduce the acrid taste, then put in a cast iron pan to dry again, and keep going for an hour, when the tea is completely dried, smell fragnance, then drinking tea.
That's how the people of the highlands are, they plant tea trees all around their house, make and drink by themselves, even, they even make tea to store in the kitchen attic, to use gradually throughout the year. According to them, spring tea is watery, flavorful and delicious. It seems that in the weather of spring, tea buds have been marinated in all four seasons. Ms. Vang Thi Xuan said: We usually pick tea when the mountains and forests have not yet run out of dew, because according to the elderly, this is the time of enough harmony to capture the essence of heaven and earth. Some people use fresh leaves to boil water, but most people pick young buds to dry, preserve and drink all year round.
Finished manually dried Snowshan tea.
It's worth traveling the long way to the Nung village to enjoy the aroma and flavor of the tender spring tea buds prepared by your hand, to caress, to fall in love, to sit by the elderly's warm fire, passing by a cup of hot tea. Holding a cup of tea in front of your nose to enjoy the aroma, then taking a sip with your lips to enjoy… The tea is yellow like honey, rich in flavor. The story by the teapot keeps telling about the presence of precious tea trees in this land.
Snowshan tea in Nam Lu has been planted for a long time, the old people in the village said that they had grown up with these tea trees already. The Nung people love tea tree, because they assume that tea brings health and money, an indispensable drink every day after meals. The tea trees grow rooted to the great thousand forests, drinking the falling dew, soaking up the sun, extracting nutrients from the mountain soil, and the water springs in the crevices to produce unique and delicious tea buds, sweet and fragrant, unmistakable scent, creating a premium drink in the highlands of the border.
Honestly, in the middle of the cold weather, enjoying a cup of spring tea, making me on the way home remember forever the moments when I could relax my soul beside the traditional Snowshan teapot in Nam Lu.…
