The scent of Bao Loc tea

Strangely, it has become a habit that every time I am about to pass through Bao Loc city, Lam Dong , I open the car window to enjoy the gentle scent of B'Lao tea, to capture the sight of the green oolong tea fields stretching out one after another. Standing in the open, romantic and vibrant space of the young city of Bao Loc, I naturally recall the changes in the "tea industry" in this mountainous region.

Nature has endowed the ancient B'Lao plateau and today's Bao Loc city with a climate and soil very suitable for growing tea trees and the tea industry. The scent of heaven, the crystallization of the earth's pistils and the love of the people of the mountain town have created the brand "B'Lao Tea". I have been to Bao Loc many times and have been captivated by the gentle scent of young rice, new milk, jasmine, wolfberry, lotus... when passing through the B'Lao tea street. Now the scent of tea is not as strong as before, but it is enough to captivate the footsteps of many travelers.

I still call it B'Lao more than Bao Loc, because I am fascinated by the scent of tea and the quiet, elegant space of this urban area. Through many historical periods, B'Lao has changed. And Bao Loc today is like a teenage mountain girl. Every morning when I wake up, the warmth of a cup of green tea is infused with the scent of wolfberry and jasmine, fragrant and fragrant in the pure morning, making the traveler's heart flutter.

In the space of enjoying tea with the melodious instrumental music, Mr. Tran Dai Binh, owner of Thien Thanh tea, Chairman of Lam Dong Tea Association shared: “This land is very suitable for enjoying tea, with peace and self-healing of the soul. Tea is a product, but not really a product, because in enjoying tea there are stories about culture, about the land. Bao Loc is the land of tea, it must start with tea, but without passion, without love for tea, it cannot be done”.

Mr. Binh is the second generation to continue his parents' tea business. The famous Thien Thanh tea brand has been established for more than two-thirds of a century in Bao Loc. At that time, in this land, about ten big famous tea brands "appeared", while small ones operated quietly; each famous tea brand chose a "mascot" or number to name itself. "When it was first established, Thien Thanh - "success by nature" used the symbol "Fairy" as the representative image of the product, later changed to "golden deer". This image reminds us of the wild but rich Bao Loc land of the past. Now, our generation continues the mission of spreading the brand "Ba Lao Tea", to be proud: "This is Vietnamese tea", Mr. Binh said boldly.

In the south, when talking about tea, people immediately mention the highlands of Bao Loc. For nearly a century, tea trees have quietly with time, infiltrating the lives of each person, each family, every corner of the garden, every street. Following the flow of history, the tea industry in Bao Loc has also gone through ups and downs and fading away. However, the tea industry still clings to the lives of the residents here.

“The Queen of Fragrant Tea” Do Thi Ngoc Sam, owner of the famous Do Huu tea, once told me: Tea land, precious land. It would be a waste not to pursue the tea profession! Mrs. Sam came from Hue to Bao Loc to start a business in 1950. Now she has passed away, but this land always remembers her contributions, as the one who laid the foundation for the Bao Loc fragrant tea industry.

In 1956, Do Huu famous tea officially appeared on the market with the white dove symbol. It is a symbol of the wish for peace that is famous to this day.

In the 30s of the last century, from the Cau Dat - Da Lat tea area at an altitude of more than a thousand meters, tea trees spread down to Di Linh and Bao Loc following the newly opened route of the Da Lat - Saigon road. Tea trees began to take root in B'Lao, with plantations of owners from the West, such as Pônpe, Sôven, Laruy, Felit B'Lao, B'Lao Sierré plantations... followed by the birth of family tea farms and gardens, such as Nam Mau, Huynh Hoa, Ngo Van and the name Le Minh Xanh was given to the slope right at the entrance to Bao Loc town until today... Since then, this basalt land has formed a class of residents associated with the "tea industry".

“When you come back, tell your parents/ When you marry me, please bring Van Huong tea cakes.” This song was once popular in Bao Loc to remind people of the famous Van Huong tea. This famous tea was formed in the 60s of the last century, and later changed to Lan Huong. Currently, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hue (65 years old) is the second generation to succeed the business. She said that her childhood was associated with the early morning dew following her father to the endless tea hills in Bao Loc plateau, and then the tea industry followed her. “Now Lan Huong continues to preserve and develop the values of natural flower scented tea products (tea scented with natural flowers) and in the future will expand products made from tea ingredients,” Ms. Hue said.

Unlike the traditional manual tea processing, "tea pot" in the past, today the technology of tea scenting has been raised to a new level, many tea establishments and businesses have invested in modern equipment to expand the market, spreading the scent of Bao Loc tea far and wide every day. The owner of Lan Huong famous tea said that to have a tea street like a movie set, with famous tea names today in Bao Loc, is a process of loyalty to the scent of the land and love of people. Mrs. Hue affirmed: This land lives well with tea! Her family is cherishing the idea of opening a class to teach the tea craft. She said: "This has been a long-standing passion, how to make Bao Loc tea firmly reach out to the large market".

After 1975, in Lam Dong, the tea area developed strongly in state-owned enterprises, farms and tea plantations of many families. By 1997, new high-yield tea varieties appeared, such as LD97, TB11, TB14 produced by asexual methods, with advantages in productivity and quality; productivity reached from 20 to 25 tons/ha. By 2000, there were more high-quality varieties such as Kim Tuyen, Tu Quy, Thuy Ngoc, Oolong. That was the origin of the brand "Tra B'Lao" which is currently granted to more than 30 enterprises, tea production and processing facilities in Bao Loc city and Bao Lam district. The brand "Tra B'Lao" has been protected in China and is promoting registration for protection in the Singapore market.

In Bao Loc city, there are currently 70 enterprises and about 90 tea production, processing and trading establishments; the annual production output of all kinds of tea is more than 23 thousand tons. From the highlands, "B'Lao Tea" has spread to many domestic and international markets, with an annual export value of about 15 million USD. Dr. Pham S, Vice Chairman of Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee, Vice Chairman of Vietnam Tea Science and Technology Association, the inventor of LD97 tea variety more than 25 years ago, said: "Lam Dong was once known as the "tea capital" of Vietnam. Currently, it is the province with the largest tea concentration in the country, accounting for 25% of the area and 27% of the output".

Bao Loc City has organized the Tea Culture Festival many times, so that famous teas of the past, such as Do Huu, Quoc Thai, Bao Tin, Tram Anh, Hoa Sen... and many famous tea successors today, such as Lan Huong, Thien Thanh, Thien Huong, Tam Chau, Phuong Nam... can evoke the consciousness of "literary people" traveling up and down the mountain town. Tea connoisseurs in the basalt land believe that Bao Loc tea has its own flavor, which has conquered the "taste" of tea drinking of the "Southern" people, with fresh tea buds that are squeezed to reduce bitterness, dried, then scented and packaged. Bao Loc scented tea is mainly wolfberry, jasmine, lotus, herbs... with a refined, pleasant taste. "When coming to Bao Loc, enjoying a cup of Bao Loc tea in a deep space, visitors will feel the culture of the land and people of Bao Loc mountain town", Chairman of Lam Dong Tea Association Tran Dai Binh shared.

In the afternoon, the winter wind blows through the basalt land with the lingering scent of tea, from somewhere a song rings out: “I love Bao Loc city, the homeland of tea/ shimmering silk color… The scent of tea is immense/ dreamy mountain town/ your silk dress flutters in the afternoon…” making the traveler hesitate in his steps.

Source: https://baodaknong.vn/huong-tra-xu-b-lao-237726.html