Author: Geoff Hopkins
Son La Gallery
On The Road
Rive Fields
Mountain Village
A Stroll In The Tea
Tea Bushes in Moc Chau
Milk With Your Tea?
Withering
Firing
Tea Farm
Tea Fields
A Friendly Wave
Harvesting in Moc Chau
Different Types of Tea
A Handful of Tea Leaves
For the casual observer it is safe to assume that all types of tea are produced from a common source material, the leaves of the camellia sinensis plant family – although there are some minor variations to this if my understanding of current taxonomy beliefs is correct. The differences experienced between tea types being due to the either the standard of leaf harvesting or processing methods.
Teas are most often classified into 6 broad types: Green, Black, Oolong, Yellow and Dark. Probably the most significant difference between types is the degree to which leaves are allowed to oxidise during processing (as this is where the greatest chemical changes occur), but it does not tell the whole story. In simple ‘elevator pitch’ terms (but not necessarily technically correct) green tea is un-oxidised, oolong tea is semi-oxidised and black tea is fully oxidised. White, dark and yellow teas can be regarded as variations or extensions of these three types.
There are some who have very fixed views on whether individual teas belong to a particular category type or not often based on their own prejudice or expectations. There are most definitely overlaps at the boundaries between each type. Personally, I see it more as a guide to what you might expect and have never come across any prescriptive rules stating that a particular tea must be processed in a particular way. I look at it in the same way as a movie being assigned to a specific genre. If you went to see an Action movie and it had a touch of Romance then who cares. But if you went to see a Sci-Fi and it turned out to be a Musical then something has gone very wrong. I believe it is best to remain open-minded provided there is not an intention to misrepresent or mislead. A tea should be judged on your overall experience rather than in comparison to a checklist of features.
Tea Leaf Styles
Before continuing we will pause to consider some of the terminology used in tea circles, specifically in relation to ‘oxidation’. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that occurs when harvested leaves come into contact with oxygen. The more of the leaf structure that is exposed to oxygen the greater the degree of oxidation. Oxidation can be prevented or stopped by heating the leaves at the desired time; a process known as kill-green, firing or denaturing. In the early days of tea processing it was believed that this process was, in fact, fermentation and even now the words ‘oxidation’ and ‘fermentation’ are used interchangeably. To add more confusion is the fact that a more accurate description of the process should be ‘enzymatic browning’ rather than oxidation but as oxidation is the most commonly understood I will continue to use it here.
A final complexity is with dark teas which are typically referred to as post-fermented. For these teas further chemical changes take place at the end of processing as a result of microbial action. While fermented or post-fermented teas are the generally accepted ways of describing such teas it would be more accurate to describe it as microbial ripening
We will consider the detail and intricacies of Tea Processing at another time and for now content ourselves with a very brief introduction and overview to each type:
Green Tea (genre: Drama) – a short physical wither after which leaves are fired within a few hours of harvesting to deactivate the enzymes that cause oxidation and the chemical changes that this produces. Firing can take the form of steaming, baking or frying. The leaves are then generally rolled and dried but maintain much of their green colour. Tea flavours are typically grassy, vegetal or floral.
Black Tea (genre: Action) – subject to a prolonged controlled physical and chemical wither prior to a hard rolling (maceration) that breaks down the leaf cell walls to facilitate oxidation. Once oxidation is complete the tea is dried, graded and sorted. Black teas are often brisk, full bodied with flavours tending typically towards malty and chocolate. In China, black tea is referred to as red tea which is a better approximation to the colour of the brewed tea.
Oolong Tea (genre: Adventure) – undergo physical and chemical withering before being shaken/ bruised at the edges to promote oxidation. The degree of oxidation in Oolongs can vary greatly and are typically quoted as being between 20% – 80%, which is often an estimate in any case. The complexity and variety of flavours in Oolongs is vast and is further developed by the practice of roasting or ageing the finished tea.
White Tea (genre: Romance) – mainly just withered and dried although it is sometimes lightly rolled for shape. Usually described as minimally processed, this is only true in terms of process steps rather than the time and degree of attention required. Oxidation occurs during extended wither but is controlled through drying rather than firing. Frequently but not always made from leaf buds only while the inclusion of young leaves delivers stronger flavour.
Yellow Tea (genre Sci-Fi) – a variation of green tea, yellow tea undergoes an additional step of moist heaping or smothering under cover after firing and before rolling. The resulting tea is more mellow and without the grassy aroma of green tea. It is the least common of tea types.
Dark Tea (genre: Epic) – aka post-fermented tea of which the most famous is Pu’erh tea. Dark tea will usually start life as a simple green-like tea but allowed to ferment (microbial ripening) as a post processing activity. A more recent development has seen accelerated ripening employed by heaping fired leaves under covers to promote microbe activity. This is referred to as ‘cooked’ Pu’erh while the more traditional method (i.e. without accelerated ripening) is known as ‘raw’ Pu’erh. Earthy and woody flavours are typically associated with post-fermented teas.
Flavoured Tea (genre: Musical) – not really a type of tea but an increasing trend is flavoured teas. Tea leaves have a great capacity for absorbing flavour and there are a wide range of available, from the more traditional floral scents (e.g. jasmine) to more exotic and contemporary flavours. Many purists turn up their noses at scented teas but they can be delightful. The majority of modern flavoured teas, however, are artificially scented.
Blending Tea With Flowers
Here in Vietnam all types of tea are produced albeit in different quantities and qualities. The exception is any yellow tea as described above although you will come across those who say they are making trà vàng (literally yellow tea), particularly in the wild tea growing areas. This, though, is a very basic green tea (no smothering involved) that frequently goes across the border to China for further processing as dark tea.
Oolong tea production is a more recent phenomenon in Vietnam often in collaboration with Taiwanese businesses while dark tea production has long been undertaken but is having something of a renaissance due to increased worldwide interest.
Jasmine and lotus teas from Vietnam have become quite well known in overseas markets.
Yen Bai Gallery
Wild Boar Mud Bath
Wild Tea Leaves
Walk Among The Trees
Chicken Stroll
Bug
Family Outing
Tea Farm On The Road To Suoi Giang
Tea Harvest, Suoi Giang
Tea Tree Avenue
Misty Morning
Cinnamon
Phinh Ho Trek
Tea Tree Trunk
Plucking In Suoi Giang
Ha Giang Gallery
Sifting Tea
Lung Phin
Thon Tha – Tay Village
Hand Made Tea Experiment
Tung San
Butterfly Convetion
Ma Pi Leng Pass
Dong Van Market
Quan Ba
Waterfall
Cao Bo
Where Tea Can Grow
All of the environmental factors – geography, topography, soil and climate – that affect the characteristics of an agricultural product are collectively known as terroir. Wine snobbery has created a sense of pretentiousness around terroir but there is, unfortunately, no alternative term and terroir plays a fundamental role in determining a tea’s character, as it is for many other agriculture products such as coffee, chocolate and tobacco.
Tea has proved to be a versatile and adaptable plant that will grow in a variety of conditions although it is arguably best suited to those that match its native habitat. Camellia sinensis is a subtropical plant; the subtropics are considered to lie between the tropics (23 degrees) and approximately 40 degrees from the equator. Within these latitudes tea requires a humid subtropical climate where rainfall concentrated in the warmer months rather than dry summer months associated with a Mediterranean climate. Subtropical climates can also be found within the tropics at higher altitudes.
Tea will grow in temperatures above 13C with the ideal range for photosynthesis between 16C and 28C. It prefers small fluctuations in daily temperature and can withstand a frost but not a prolonged or heavy freezing. Typical rainfall in tea growing areas should be 1500 mm – 2500 mm (59 – 98 inches) but can be much higher. Heavier rains will promote quicker growth and affect the chemical content of the leaf. Teas from the dryer months tend to the most sought after for optimum flavour.
Tea can be grown at altitudes from sea-level to 2,500 metres (8,200 feet). A rule of thumb classifies 0 – 600 metres as low grown, 600 – 1100 metres as mid grown and 1100 – 2500 metres as high grown. Tea plants need sunlight but not too much direct sun; at lower altitudes shade trees are often planted to create shade and in some places plants are kept shaded in the weeks before harvest to increase the levels of chlorophyll in the leaf. In higher altitudes with cooler temperatures and frequent mists the need to shade is less urgent.
Tea plants do not require dormancy during parts of the year but there appears to be a strong correlation with plants that are dormant during the dryer months and the highest quality of teas produced. Dormancy is triggered by lower temperatures (below 13C) and shorter day length (less than 11.25 hours) and generally occurs at circa 18 degrees from the equator.
Tea favours a fertile, well drained and slightly acidic soil. Roots are intolerant of waterlogged soil which is why tea is often found growing on sloping hillsides or when it is not large trenches are dug between rows. Some of the most sought after (and expensive) teas in the world are grown in mineral rich rocky soils which results in lower yields but unique flavours.
As with all things meteorological there are uncertainties and micro-climates that defy the rules and the presence of mountain ranges can create a rain shadow (such as that found in Sri Lanka) or large bodies of water can create high humidity where it might not otherwise exist and generate a modifying effect that allows tea to be grown successfully; a great example of this is the coastal Rize Province in Turkey.
Tea is now grown in over 40 countries around the world with an annual production of over 5 million metric tonnes. The largest tea producing countries in terms of volume are China, India, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Turkey and Indonesia. The last three are difficult to separate and often vary according to whose statistics are being used. Taiwan production is usually included with China for the purposes of published data but would not feature in the top ten on its own with its focus on quality rather than quantity. Likewise, Japan is famous for quality tea production but falls someway behind on quantity.
The above charts are based on the latest information published (2014) by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. China and India continue to dominate producing 2,100 and 1,210 metric tonnes respectively. More up to date information is available from other sources but is not as comprehensive as the FAO data.
Although volume production is generally confined to parts of Asia, Africa and South America small specialist farms are appearing all over the world with some notable developments reported in places such as the USA, New Zealand, Germany and the United Kingdom.
In Vietnam tea was originally native to the northernmost areas that form the border with China but is now grown in over half of the countries provinces. The Northwest and Northeast of the country have the greatest concentration of tea cultivation although there is also significant production in parts of the Central Highlands (which is also the home for much of Vietnam’s coffee production.)
Areas of wild tea trees can still be found in Dien Bien, Son La, Lai Chau, Lao Cai, Yen Bai and Ha Giang provinces while the heart of commercial tea production is in Thai Nguyen province, just north of Hanoi. The prize for most productive province, however, goes to Lam Dong in the Central Highlands where the area around Bao Loc is particularly notable.
A Brief History Of Tea.
Chua Trinh
The most common story that you will come across for the discovery of tea is the one about Emperor Shen Nong who happened to be sitting besides some boiling water when a tea leaf fell from a bush or tree into the pot which he then drank with great pleasure. Although many treat this a just another delightful Chinese myths there are, worryingly, still others that report it as an historical fact. There are doubts as to whether Shen Nong even existed and he may well have been a composite character that represented many other individuals. As well as tea, he is credited with the invention of the hoe, plough, axe, wells and irrigation among others. Legend has it that Shen Nong had a transparent stomach and would use this to research the affects of various plants on the body. Whenever he had ingested a poisonous one he would drink tea as a powerful antidote.
An equally unlikely tale from Japan suggests the Bodhidharma (a Buddhist monk) discovered tea after he had been sitting in meditation in China for seven years before becoming so tired that he fell asleep. Angry at his inability to stay awake he sliced off his eyelids to prevent it happening again and threw them to the ground; where they grew into tea trees. After picking some leaves and chewing them he felt energised and concluded that the tea was a perfect accompaniment to meditation.
More probable is that using tea leaves by eating or in a drink was a slow evolution. There is evidence from around the world that early people would have collected leaves from the forest for a variety of medicinal and other purposes. It was a stroke of luck for those living in that particular area of Asia that their leaf was a very special one. Some recent research has unearthed evidence of tea being used over 6,000 years ago in China’s Zhejiang province. Some say that this is proof of 6,000 years of tea culture but I’m not so certain as to whether it is possible to conclude whether tea leaves were being cultivated or simply harvested at the time.
Whatever the origins of tea for recreational purposes it was the Chinese who went on to develop it, through various stages, to the drink that we know and love today. Although there are a few references to tea to be found in old scripts the first detailed writing on tea was produced by Lu Yu in his celebrated work, the Classic of Tea published in the second half of the 8th century. At the time of writing the method for making tea was very different from today. The leaves were steamed, crushed in a mortar, made into a cake, and boiled together with rice, ginger, salt, orange peel, spices, milk, and even onions. On second thoughts maybe we are coming around full circle on the evidence of the exotic flavoured blends that are now available.
The Classic of Tea consists of three volumes and ten chapters which cover the nature of the tea-plant, gathering and collecting leaves, tea equipment, method of making tea (he encouraged the elimination of all other ingredients apart from salt), choice of water and the famous tea gardens of China. According to Lu Yu the best quality of the leaves must have “creases like the leathern boot of Tartar horsemen, curl like the dewlap of a mighty bullock, unfold like a mist rising out of a ravine, gleam like a lake touched by a zephyr, and be wet and soft like fine earth newly swept by rain.” Something to bear in mind when you are next in supermarket!
In the 10th century whipped tea came into fashion and created a second school of tea. Leaves were ground to fine powder using a small stone mill, and the preparation was whipped in hot water by a bamboo whisk. At this stage salt was discarded forever.
Powdered tea remained the range for several hundred years until in the mid 14th century taste changed once again and the infused tea leaf method we use today become the norm. Of course, powdered tea lives on with the popular Japanese matcha. The conversion to infused leaf coincided with tea becoming available to all rather than being the preserve of nobility, monks and scholars. It would also not be long before Europeans got in on the act.
Tea seeds had been taken from China by Buddhist monks to both Japan and Korea in the 9th and 10th centuries and cultivation began in both countries soon afterwards.
The first contact with for Europeans were Portuguese traders at the end of 16th century and by the early 17th century they and, more especially, the Dutch were importing tea to their respective countries and became popular with the upper classes and at royal courts. Tea was first sold in London in 1657 (imported from the Netherlands) but by 1664 the British East India Company was importing its own tea from China. In Britain, it was the restoration of Charles II to the throne and his marriage to Catherine of Braganza, a Portuguese princess, that had the greatest impact on the tea trade. Part of the dowry that Charles received on marrying Catherine, apart from some chests of tea, was the port of Bombay (Mumbai) which became pivotal to British trade in the far east through the East India Company, with significant implications in both India and China.
During this period tea became very popular in Britain and spotting an opportunity it was subjected to heavy excise duties which resulted in both the growth of brutal smuggling gangs and ultimately to the American War of Independence. Tea had been introduced to America by the Dutch and remained a popular drink up until the Boston Tea Party in 1773, one of the events leading up to the revolution. Following independence coffee became the drink of choice in the United States.
As the demand for tea continued to grow supply was still closely guarded by China with cultivation and production expanding to more provinces including the introduction of tea plants to Taiwan in 1697. The demand for tea (as well as silk and porcelain) from China was placing an enormous strain on the finances of the East India Company as they had to pay for everything in silver. To overcome this one-way flow of silver the Company initiated a scheme to sell opium from its plantations in India, through middlemen, to the Chinese. In response to this reverse flow of silver and the increasing number of opium addicts the Chinese authorities attempts to stop the trade ended with them seizing supplies and closing foreign concessions in Canton. And so began the first of the Opium Wars in 1839 which had several legacies including the cession of Hong Kong and opening up China to foreign merchants.
Despite it’s military success against China Britain needed a longer term alternative for the supply of tea and India seemed the obvious choice. In 1823 it had been discovered that indigenous tea plants were growing in northern Assam various initiatives were set up to establish a tea industry in India. The most famous of these were the travels of Robert Fortune whose life is excellently documented in the book For All The Tea In China by Sarah Rose. Fortune was employed by the East India Company as an industrial spy to go undercover in China and find out all he could about tea growing and production. He returned with a booty of seeds, cuttings but more importantly the know-how of what to do with the leaves once they had grown. Fortune’s efforts were an important catalyst for the Indian tea industry and in the latter part of the 19th century tea production was expanding quickly in both Assam and Darjeeling.
Elsewhere, the Dutch had introduced tea to Java, Indonesia in 1826 and the British started plantations in Sri Lanka (1867) and Kenya (1903).
In Vietnam, tea culture was largely influenced by that which had developed in China. For almost one thousand years up until the middle of the 10th century China ruled large parts of northern Vietnam. It was a period that saw a strong Chinese desire for cultural assimilation on one side and fierce Vietnamese resistance to foreign domination on the other. The Vietnamese eventually regained independence but legacies of religion, language, traditions, culture and a love for tea remained.
Despite the presence of tea as an indigenous plant and that it had spread throughout the mountainous north by the migration of ethnic minority groups (such as H’Mong and Dao) there was no significant domestic tea industry (note: a few historic texts do reference tea cultivation in parts Vietnam in the 18th century) until after the French occupation and during the ensuing colonial period. The first tea gardens were established in 1890 at Tinh Cuong, Phu Tho province in the north and Duc Pho, Quang Nam province in the south. In the early part of 20th century, research centres were established at Phu Tho, Pleiko in the central highlands and Bao Loc in the western highlands. Development was rapid in the years leading up to the Second World War but the industry was effectively destroyed by decades of successive conflict from the Japanese invasion in 1940 to the end of all hostilities in 1975.
Lao Cai Gallery
White Buffalo
Chicken in a Basket
H’Mong Ladies
Bac Ha Market
Bac Ha Market
Ethnic Minority Village
Wild Tea Trees Near Bac Ha
Purple Leaves, Muong Khuong
Purple Leaves, Bac Ha
Tea Harvest, Muong Khuong
Ethnic Minority Children Pose
What Is Tea? The Basics.
Tea Bud and Leaves
At the most basic level the answer to the question “What is Tea?” is a simple one. It is leaves harvested from a specific type of bush where most of the water has been removed without anything else being added. That the skills and techniques in achieving this are so many and varied are what makes it such a fascinating subject and the range of teas available so many and varied.
The term tea (at least in English) also has a certain ambiguity to it and if, in the future, you were to summon your virtual assistant to “bring me some tea” the outcome could well be unpredictable. For a start, tea is used not only to describe the dried leaves but also the drink made by steeping those leaves in water. An added complication is that in some circumstances, say in ordering a peppermint tea, there would be no actual dried tea leaves involved – unless that is it happened to be a green tea blended with peppermint. Many other leaves, roots and flowers are steeped in water to produce a drink and although these should more correctly be referred to as tisanes, common usage is most likely to describe these as tea.
If you were to subscribe to a news feed with the keyword of ‘tea’ then the most popular topic coming your way would concern places near you where you might find an attractive afternoon tea. Originally a British invention this has now made its way around the world and although tea is usually served at these events the main attractions are the variety of cakes and sandwiches that will accompany it. Even more confusing is that in some parts of the UK people refer to their evening meal as tea (or high tea) which may include a hot meal, pudding, bread and butter but not necessarily any tea. I trust that has cleared things up.
Wild Tea Tree
In the very long many thousand year history of tea and the way that we now usually make tea (i.e. steeping dried leaves in water) is a relative recent innovation (only in the last 600 years or so). If this were trendy, like coffee, we might well call this third wave. Go right back to the very early origins of tea as a folk medicine and the leaves would have been used fresh from the tree and indeed some people still make tea in this way today. Drying or processing tea was a means to preserve it and transport it to distant lands.
All cultures would have used leaves, roots and flowers at one time either as herbal remedies or possibly for recreational drinking. As an example the English botanist Nicholas Culpepper identified over 400 medicinal herbs in his 17th century publication The Complete Herbal (original published as The English Physitian in 1652 and available to download or read for free from here if you are interested). Despite his research into the medicinal use of herbs, Culpepper died at just 37 years old.
That out of all the potential different brews tea rose to become a worldwide favourite is testament to the special properties of this remarkable leaf. In the same way grapes became the preferred fermented fruit in the making of wine (due to the ideal balance of sugar, acidity, water content, skin surface etc.) tea claimed the throne in the non-alcoholic world as a result of the incredible complexity and uniqueness of its leaf content. A tea leaf contains many thousands of chemical compounds but more about this another time. Differences in processing techniques and sequences cause these compounds to interact in ways that result in the different styles and types of tea now available.
We now know that all types of tea (green, black, white, oolong, yellow, dark) are made from the leaves of the same plant. It would be possible to make any style of tea from any harvested leaves although the results and quality might well vary.
Farmed Tea
To keep things simple, for now, it would be ‘almost’ correct to say that all tea is made from the same plant species: Camellia sinensis and that there are two main varieties used for the majority of commercial tea production. These are Camellia sinensis var sinensis and Camellia sinensis var assamica – although other varieties (and other Camellia species) are also put forward as sources of tea leaves. The taxonomy of plants isn’t as clear cut (or scientific) as one might think and much of the classification is based on observation rather than anything else. Much more knowledgeable people than me have argued this topic for many years and we shall probably come back to it in more detail at another time.
As tea production developed into a huge industry, researchers and planters developed new cultivars (short for cultivated varieties) either to improve pest and disease resistance or in search of particular characteristics that would find their way into the finished tea. Many of these cultivars would hybrids of the sinensis and assamica varieties.
Tea was originally a wild plant native to parts of Asia. To quote from the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew on the plants geographical distribution:
The origin of tea is not clear. Camellia sinensis var. sinensis is probably native to western Yunnan, while C. sinensis var. assamica is native to the warmer parts of Assam (India), Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and southern China. ‘Wild’ tea plants can be found growing in forests, but these may be relics of past cultivation.
Left to own devices the tea plant will grow into a small tree of 10 metres or taller. In a farm environment it is typically kept pruned back as a shrub with a height of around one metre to aid harvesting.
If the tea plant was indigenous to a fairly broad geographic area, one in which political boundaries have shifted frequently over the time, the development of tea as a recreational beverage and as an industry rests entirely in Chinese culture. Although there is some evidence of tea cultivation as far back as 6,000 years ago the drying and shipping of tea most likely dates back to the 4th or 5th centuries. A sure sign that it was a significant industry is that taxes on it were introduced in China by the end of the 9th century.
Today commercial tea production has spread to over 40 countries and totalled 5,300 metric tonnes by 2015.
Tea Hunting & Sourcing
Who Are We?
Hatvala is a wholly Vietnam based company located in Ho Chi Minh City that has been in the business of direct sourcing specialty teas since 2011. Our mission is to discover character teas that are produced responsibly and fairly with regard to the environment and the people involved.
Our sourcing is an ongoing undertaking that involves traveling and meeting with tea makers across the country on a regular basis. Not only do we source teas but we work with our partners to both improve quality of existing products and to develop new ones. Several of our best-selling teas are the results of such collaboration. Being based in country we are able to explore the most remote locations without any pressure to pick new teas if they do not meet our rigid selection criteria – a luxury that is often not open to overseas buyers on a tight schedule.
Although it was not planned when we started our business to unearth the best of Vietnamese tea the profile of our teas is that most are the result of small batch production and many are produced from the leaves of wild tea trees. There are some notable exceptions and our selection criteria continues to focus on the character of the tea, how it is produced and how well we feel we can work with the tea maker in a relationship of mutual trust and co-operation. Each factor is equally important in ensuring that we are able to deliver a consistent, ethical, high quality and dependable product to our customers around the world.
How We Can Help?
We feel that our major value added as your trusted supplier of Vietnam teas are:
- We have spent many years travelling thousands of kilometres and sampling countless different teas to bring together a range of exceptional, yet affordable, teas into a single collection;
- We can offer teas from very small artisan producers that otherwise would never be available on the international stage;
- We are more than just a trading company and are committed to cooperating with tea-makers to improve the range, quality and consistency of their products;
- We provide an additional quality gate on all products sold by ensuring complete consistency and performing an additional sifting/ sorting to remove stalks or other unwanted material;
- We are intimately knowledgeable about our products and are happy to answer any questions that we can;
- We will always do our best to deliver a level of customer service that is consistent with international expectations.
As well as our retail business we can also offer wholesale terms and already supply teas to overseas online retailers and tea shops. We also supply within Vietnam to a number of hotels, restaurants and cafes. If you are interested in wholesale opportunities please send us message through the contact form.
Vietnam Tea Blog 