Preserving the 'bitter at first, sweet aftertaste' spirit of Tan Cuong tea

THAI NGUYEN Instead of chasing output with hybrid tea varieties, farmers in Tan Cuong commune, Thai Nguyen city still faithfully preserve and develop native midland tea varieties.

Tea growing area of ​​Tien Yen Cooperative (Tan Cuong commune, Thai Nguyen city). Photo: Quang Linh.

The soul of Tan Cuong tea

When talking about Thai Nguyen tea, we must think of Tan Cuong tea brand. So what has created the soul of Tan Cuong brand, helping the tea buds here become famous far and wide for a century?

According to long-time tea growers in Thai Nguyen City, the place name Tan Cuong began to appear in the Resistance Capital in 1922. It originated from Mr. Doi Nam (real name Vu Van Hiet) who helped people reclaim and open up land and then brought tea seeds from Phu Ho tea farm in Phu Tho town (Phu Tho) to plant.

Thanks to the mild climate, suitable soil conditions, and the long-term planting and care techniques of the people, Tan Cuong tea has a distinct and delicious flavor, winning first prize at the 1935 Fair. It can be said that the small-leaf midland tea variety has created the soul of the Tan Cuong tea brand.

Nowadays, while many other tea regions are switching to growing high-yield hybrid tea varieties, Tan Cuong still preserves traditional midland tea farms, with a "bitter at first, sweet aftertaste" flavor that no other hybrid tea variety has. Tien Yen Tea and Community Tourism Cooperative (Tien Yen Cooperative) in Hong Thai II hamlet, Tan Cuong commune (Thai Nguyen city) is one of the tea production facilities that still preserves the traditional flavor of midland tea varieties.

Mr. Bui Trong Dai, Director of Tien Yen Cooperative and son of artisan Bui Xuan Tien, said that the Cooperative currently has over 1 hectare of small-leaf midland tea. To have delicious tea depends on many factors, it must be favored by nature, the soil quality and humidity here are very suitable for this tea variety. Since being taught the profession, Mr. Dai has accumulated many valuable experiences in growing and processing tea.

Towards organic tea

Faced with increasingly fierce market competition and the desire to reach international standards, Mr. Dai has changed his production mindset and spread it widely to the people here.

Grasping the trend of consuming safe products, Tien Yen Cooperative has completely converted to VietGAP farming and is gradually meeting the criteria in the set of organic product standards.

Ms. Duong Thi Thu (left) and Ms. Nguyen Thi Hue (right), members of Tien Yen Cooperative, are very confident in sticking with tea plants because of the safe, organic production process. Photo: Quang Linh.

To expand the organic tea growing area, the Cooperative has coordinated with the Thai Nguyen Provincial Agricultural Extension Center and businesses to support input materials for member households, and annually organizes training courses on food hygiene and safety for participating households and receives product consumption.

Currently, all production activities of the Cooperative are carried out in a closed process from tea planting, fertilization, harvesting to yeast removal, drying, and producing finished products.

To increase product value in the market, Tien Yen Cooperative has invested in gas drying machines, applied science and technology in growing and caring for tea, so the Cooperative's products have met VietGAP and UTZ standards.

Coming to Tien Yen Cooperative, the smiles of tea pickers stand out among the lush green tea hills. Ms. Duong Thi Thu, a member of Tien Yen Cooperative, shared that this is a smile of peace of mind. “Our Cooperative’s tea hills are not sprayed with chemicals, so we are very assured about our health. As the first people to come into contact with them, if chemicals are used, I and other tea pickers will be the first to suffer the consequences.

The second peace of mind is that consumers get to use safe products. When making tea, we always put our heart into every action,” Ms. Thu confided.

Along with investing and improving product quality, Tien Yen Cooperative also regularly innovates product packaging to meet customer tastes, especially for gift products.

Brand building associated with community development

With its lush green tea hills, Tan Cuong was chosen by Thai Nguyen province as a key area for community tourism development. Grasping this spirit, Tien Yen Cooperative has invested in developing community ecotourism, attracting a large number of customers to visit, experience and enjoy tea at the Cooperative.

Mr. Bui Trong Dai, Director of Tien Yen Cooperative (center) introduces Tan Cuong tea specialty to tourists. Photo: Quang Linh.

The cooperative builds landscapes and a system of small concrete roads of nearly 1,000m in the tea hill area for tourists to visit and take photos. Along with that, it creates many products associated with tea culture such as handbags, hats, costumes, etc.

The Cooperative has deployed services for tourists such as: Tea picking experience including hats, conical hats, tea baskets and ethnic costumes; tea processing experience with tea artisans...

Seeing a group of tourists visiting Tien Yen Cooperative, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hue immediately helped them take photos. “We both work and travel. At first, everyone was shy, but as more and more visitors came, people got used to it. People were happy to see that, because they were doing their job and promoting the culture of the land of the most famous tea,” Ms. Hue said excitedly.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh, Vice Chairman of Thai Nguyen Provincial People's Committee, emphasized that Thai Nguyen province identifies tea as a key crop and tea as a key product. Therefore, the Thai Nguyen Provincial Party Committee has issued Resolution No. 10-NQ/TU on agricultural development in Thai Nguyen province for the period 2019 - 2025, with a vision to 2030.

Accordingly, the People's Committee of Thai Nguyen province has issued and implemented detailed projects and plans for sustainable tea development, enhancing the added value and brand of Thai Nguyen tea products.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh, Vice Chairman of Thai Nguyen Provincial People's Committee. Photo: Quang Linh.

To protect the tea growing area, the People's Committee of Thai Nguyen province directed districts and cities to review the planning, not to plan other projects in the protected area, to develop the local tea growing area, except for key projects of the province and important national projects...

The first famous tea region has determined that tea is a key crop, closely associated with traditional culture and local people, with the famous tea brand Tan Cuong tea. In August 2021, the People's Council of Thai Nguyen City approved the Project to preserve and develop the Tan Cuong specialty tea region for the period 2021 - 2025.

Accordingly, the Project aims to preserve Tan Cuong specialty tea areas, form concentrated tea production areas, protect existing tea areas and expand the area to 1,700 hectares by 2025, with a fresh tea bud yield of 155 quintals/hectare; output of 25,000 tons; and income value per hectare of tea growing land reaching over 1 billion VND.

Building midland tea gardens to serve seedling production to proactively produce tea varieties; focusing on land accumulation, converting rice fields interspersed with tea land, colored land, and ineffective forest land to midland tea plantations in the direction of increasing value.

Regarding processing, Thai Nguyen has a mechanism to encourage production households, enterprises and cooperatives to focus on deep processing and diversify products. Along with that, improve product quality and design; focus on building a safe VietGAP, organic fresh tea bud material area, meeting domestic and international food safety standards, associated with effective management and development of the brand value of "Thai Nguyen Tea".

Source: https://nongsanviet.nongnghiep.vn/giu-hon-cot-tien-chat-hau-ngot-cua-che-tan-cuong-d398979.html