By Emily from Wander-Lush
As a fervent espresso drinker, I usually search out bean-related experiences after I journey. However the stunning cultural values and rituals surrounding tea all the time pique my curiosity.
One in every of my favorite tea journey experiences befell in Vietnam. Vietnam has a thriving tea business and is within the high 15 largest exporters of tea leaves on this planet. Lengthy earlier than the French arrived in Indochina, bringing their espresso bushels with them, Vietnam was historically a tea-drinking nation. Many tea-focused ceremonies are nonetheless practiced in rural villages and cities alike right now.
After I was residing in Vietnam, I made a decision to get off the beaten track go to the tea plantations within the small metropolis of Thai Nguyen, simply north of Hanoi. The nation’s tea rising capital, Thai Nguyen doesn’t appeal to very many vacationers – so I discovered myself the one international customer there that weekend. My homestay host accompanied me to one of many metropolis’s most outstanding tea fields, the place I obtained an opportunity to observe the pickers at work.
Dressed of their conventional non la conical hats, they moved extremely quick and with knowledgeable dexterity, plucking the younger tea leaves and throwing them into recycled rice baggage. They had been beneficiant sufficient to present me a go and pose for a photograph with them in the course of the sector.
Afterwards, I used to be handled to a inexperienced tea tasting. Seeing how a lot vitality and fervour goes into selecting tea gave me an entire new appreciation for this humble beverage.