Calling each other green tea

It was almost autumn but in the east of the province, the sun was still hot, the south wind had not let up, it blew all day, the weather was hot and stuffy, people were soaking wet.

Right at the peak of the heat, my wife came back from the West Wing, bringing homegrown gifts: jackfruit, durian, perilla, MSG, green chili and a bunch of green tea.

She left her hometown to teach in Dak Lak in the late 1970s. Her garden is large, growing all kinds of plants, of course tea is not lacking. It is true that for Nghe people, wherever they go, they lack everything, but not green tea, also known as bitter tea, it is impossible.

Illustration photo

The wife said: "Do you miss Nghe An green tea again?" and then went to brew green tea, following the recipe that her mother-in-law taught her when she returned to her hometown. It was a thousand-year-old recipe from Nghe An: Break the green tea into small pieces/ Remove the rotten leaves/ Wash and crush them/ Boil the water for a long time/ Steep it in a basket/ The green tea has a beautiful color. To have the aroma and long-lasting green tea flavor, to drink all day, to drink the whole pot and still have the green and fragrant taste, Nghe An people have a special secret that veteran journalist Phan Quang, former General Director of the Voice of Vietnam , Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists Association, in an article several decades ago, called the art of brewing restored tea. That is, after pouring boiling water into the teapot or boiling it in a pot, add a little cold water and cover the lid. This art was very appreciated by Luc Vu, of the Tang Dynasty in China, when he wrote "The Classic of Tea", but according to old journalist Phan Quang, the people of Nghe An in particular, and the people of Tu region in general, discovered this art of brewing tea hundreds of years before that.

After the tea is done, the wife pours the tea into a bowl and gives it to her husband. The tea is shimmering green-yellow, fragrant, and cools the more you drink it. Strangely enough, green tea, after just a few cups, all the heat and fatigue disappears. It is no coincidence that the people of Nghe An choose green tea as their daily drink.

Remembering the old subsidy period, poor as it was, there was never a lack of tea in the basket my mother brought home from the market. Nghe An markets, big or small, never lacked green tea. There were many brands of green tea, but the best was still Gay tea from Anh Son, Nghe An . This tea was not smooth and cool, the leaves were small but thick and crunchy, the water was yellow-green, and much more delicious than tea from other places.

In Nghe An, children of a few years old already drink green tea. Drinking it from a young age makes them addicted. Going far away without a pot of green tea makes their mouths feel bland, they miss it, and want to come back soon. In my village, the old farmers, in the morning, carry their plows to the fields without forgetting to bring a kettle of water. After plowing a few dozen fields, they go up to the bank to get a pot of water, and just like that, they finish a whole field without realizing it. During the harvest season, the farmers are busy with work, just a bowl of green tea with a pot of pickled eggplant is enough to finish the meal. Eggplant and soup are like a man and a woman, the more rice and eggplant, the more they crave green tea.

Not only a daily drink, green tea is also a neighborhood sentiment. "At noon, in the hot summer sun, people call each other to drink green tea", several houses near each other set up a green tea association. Today, this house, tomorrow that house, after lunch or dinner, they call out, and a moment later, people come one after another. A pot of steaming green tea with a basket of boiled potatoes and peanuts, village and neighborhood gossip, and stories about the harvest are endless. Then children join the army, children go to university, and green tea is also a buzz. In the past, when people were poor, weddings were just a piece of betel and a cup of green tea, but when they were richer, they had a candy and a cigarette, and yet their love was lasting.

"Whoever returns, tell the source/ Send young jackfruit down, send flying fish up", now, every trip back and forth of the Eastern people working in the West of Dak Lak carries with them the sentiment of shrimp and fish up from below, fruits and vegetables down from above. My family also has green tea and honey.

Nghe people's braised fish cannot lack molasses and green tea, because it makes the fish firmer and more delicious. Sea fish is up, green tea is down, your house and mine both smell of molasses and green tea braised fish. As for honey: "If you want smooth and beautiful skin / Let's mix green tea with honey" is an old remedy that my mother taught her daughter, then her daughter-in-law, it's extremely effective. In the past, when we were poor, we mainly mixed green tea with molasses, which was also good, but now that we have the means, we mix it with honey, which is even better. And Dak Lak honey is rare, so the gift my sister sent down included a bottle of Dak Lak wild honey...

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/du-lich/202508/goi-nhau-ram-ran-che-xanh-be41d1e/