Ancient tea tree trunk at Doc Che - photo taken on September 1, 2025

Shan Hue Tea

Thus, in less than a month of implementing the direction of the Hue City People's Committee, the Hue Department of Agriculture and Environment has performed its duties and responsibilities very well. From the initial information, it has been determined that Hue has Shan tea; as for the quality, we must continue to send samples for analysis. As the person who connects the story, I am extremely happy with this initial result.

There is no doubt that practice and science have proven that in the mountainous areas upstream of the Huong River there is wild Shan tea - a premium product that we have only recently known thanks to the reputation of Ha Giang Shan Tuyet tea.

Mu Nu is a place located at the upstream of Huu Trach stream of Huong river. Hai Nhanh river is located at the upstream of Ta Trach stream. During the war, because it was not destroyed by bombs and toxic chemicals, the primeval forests still exist.

I once heard the story of “Mrs. Nu’s sweet soup” in the humorous situations of journalist Ngo Kha and his comrades on the battlefield, and later shared it with Mr. Ho Viet Le, former Director of the Department of Trade. Mr. Le confirmed to me with the words he told in the book “Mother’s Tears” that, here, when “the 1966 Binh Ngo New Year was near, the brothers in the unit went together to cut down tea trees in the Mu Nu area (a place name of the old Huong Nguyen commune famous for having a lot of tea to drink) and lit a fire to cook at night. The tea was condensed into a paste, a batch of about 3kg. When drinking, just take out a small amount like a corn kernel and put it in a pot of boiling water, if ginger is added, it will have a cup of tea with a delicious flavor”.

I passed on the exact story of Mr. Ho Viet Le to Mr. Le Ngoc Tuan, Head of the Hue Forest Protection Department, for verification. About a week later, I received good news: in Mu Nu, the forest rangers on patrol discovered two places with wild tea. The tea trees growing here have a trunk circumference of more than 31cm and a height of 6m.

Interesting discovery

For me, the discovery and confirmation of wild tea in Mu Nu is undeniable. It proves that the Truong Son Dong range stretching from North to South through Hue already has wild Shan tea. This was proven when the first ancient wild tea tree was found in the Doc Che area within the Phong Dien Nature Reserve.

Please note that the discovery of wild tea in these two areas took place in less than ten days, from August 25 to September 4, 2025. All were carried out by the Hue Forest Protection Department after the City People's Committee assigned "the Department of Agriculture and Environment to preside over and coordinate with relevant units to research, survey, collect and analyze samples of wild tea according to information from articles by author Pham Huu Thu published in Hue Today Newspaper" at the request of former Provincial Party Secretary Ho Xuan Man.

To bring great joy to Hue, I am just the person who connects the aspirations of one person with the memories of many people, and the opportunity is just a coincidence from the passing story of cultural-historical researcher Pham Duc Thanh Dung, when he and Professor Nguyen Quoc Vong and his wife went to A Luoi on a recent occasion.

Professor Nguyen Quoc Vong is from Phuoc Yen village, Quang Dien commune. After graduating from Saigon University of Agriculture and Forestry in 1969, he studied in Japan and in 1977 received a doctorate in agronomy from the University of Tokyo. After working in Japan for a short time, after getting married, he and his wife settled in Australia in 1980 until now.

He became a research fellow at the Gosford Horticultural Institute and a member of the RIRDC Advisory Council for the Australian Federal Government; and was a visiting professor at Western Sydney University and a visiting professor at RMIT University. In Vietnam, he taught at Can Tho University, Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry and Hanoi University and since 2007 has been a senior advisor to the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences; and has also been a consultant to many international organizations.

Thanks to participating in 2 projects funded by AFD - French Government Development Agency and ADB - Asian Development Bank, he had the opportunity to approach and conduct in-depth research on "Vietnamese Forest Shan Tea" and initially came to the conclusion: "Shan Tuyet tea has a high medicinal quality index (catechin, tannin, amino acid and caffeine), much better than other types of green tea and black tea in and outside the country.

As a person who is knowledgeable about the value of Vietnamese Shan tea trees, every time he meets his friends, Professor Vong expresses his desire to transplant the Shan Ha Giang tea variety to plant in Hue. However, we all think that it is impossible for two reasons: first, Professor Vong is old, while if the transplant is successful, it will take at least 50 years for the tea tree to become an ancient tree.

I circled the two words Hong Van because I knew that during the war there was a place called Doc Che here, so I immediately found the former Provincial Party Secretary Ho Xuan Man to tell the story.

As the person who led the 9th Regiment of former General Secretary Le Kha Phieu from Hue to Laos after the Spring 68 campaign and many times led the way for the late Party Secretary of Group 6 Vu Thang and the late Secretary of Phong Dien District Party Committee (formerly) Le Sau to meetings in the Military Region, thanks to crossing the slope of over a thousand meters high many times, Mr. Ho Xuan Man was as familiar with Doc Che as a liaison. He said, at the end of 1991, when he was the Secretary of the District Party Committee, because the Office had just been separated, the landscape was still very shabby, so he and his colleagues returned to Doc Che with the hope of finding ancient camellia trees to dig up and renovate. But when they directly tested them with their taste buds, all of them confirmed that the blooming tree that everyone initially thought was camellia turned out to be a wild tea variety.

Wild tea tree trunk in Mu Nu - photo taken on September 3, 2025

Early quality testing

It took more than thirty years later, from the information I collected published in Hue Newspaper today, following the direction of the Hue City People's Committee, the Department of Agriculture and Environment, the Hue Forest Protection Department proceeded to collect evidence. After nearly half a month of implementation, the result was surprising: Hue now has Shan tea.

The person who informed me, “You have an ancient tea tree!” was Mr. Le Ngoc Tuan, Head of the Hue Forest Protection Department. Following Mr. Le Ngoc Tuan’s introduction, I directly talked with forest ranger Ho Van Kiem at the A Luoi Regional Forest Protection Department.

Mr. Ho Van Kiem said that, following the request of the Branch Chief, he and his colleague, Ho Van Mom, patrolled and took those pictures right at "Doc Che" - the area bordering A Luoi 1 commune and Phong Dien ward today.

Interestingly, at an altitude of 1,069 meters, this ancient tea tree is approximately 5 meters high, and because it grows along Highway 71, it is easy to find. Going deeper, there will certainly be taller and larger trees. As expected, after going deeper, on September 1, 2025, the A Luoi Regional Forest Protection Department discovered a second ancient wild tea tree. This tree is larger than the first tree, not counting the root, its circumference is up to nearly 35cm. Expanding the area, on September 4, 2025, the A Luoi Regional Forest Protection Department discovered wild tea in Hong Kim. The image shows that the circumference of the trunk of the ancient wild tea tree here is up to nearly 44cm.

There is no doubt that in the A Luoi mountains and forests, up to now, the Forest Rangers have found wild tea at least in the mountains of Hong Van and Hong Kim communes, now A Luoi 1 commune. Meanwhile, in the upper reaches of the Huu Trach River, the Forest Rangers have discovered two places in Mu Nu where there is wild tea. Through measurements, the brothers said that the wild tea here is 6m high, the circumference of the tree trunk is measured at more than 31cm. The head of the Hue Forest Rangers Department also said that after collecting, the samples are being sent for testing.

After discovering that they had drunk it, Forest Ranger Ho Van Kiem confirmed: They had cooked it and drunk it! Compared to garden tea, forest tea has a lighter color but a more bitter taste.

Strong or light depends on chlorophyll. Bitter or astringent taste depends on the compounds of the tea. While the Shan Ha Giang tea tree grows at an altitude of approximately 600m and has become a famous tea, the Shan Hue forest tea tree grows at an altitude of more than 1,000m, which will surely bring higher expectations. More astringent! That is wonderful! But to know whether that astringent taste contains medicinal indexes that make the value of Shan Hue tea high or low, we have to wait for the results of quality analysis.

As for Professor Nguyen Quoc Vong, the ancient roots of Shan Hue tea that he had just found were evidence that helped him to relieve his long-standing concerns. He was not only happy to know that the Hue City government had joined in, but also happy to know that Hue had seen the photos that had just been taken in Hong Van, Hong Kim (old) communes and in Mu Nu - the upper source of Huu Trach river that his friend - Pham Duc Thanh Dung had just transferred.

Now, Hue forest Shan tea is available. With his enthusiasm, Professor Nguyen Quoc Vong suggested that the Hue City government should organize the harvesting of leaves in the spring and then process them into green tea. Then, the samples are analyzed for quality indexes - Quality Index, including Catechin and Epigallocatechin gallate compound (EGCG); Tannin and Theaflavin (TFs); Caffeine and Amino Acids... These are substances with many valuable medicinal properties, because recent research results show that forest Shan tea has the ability to help with anti-oxidation, anti-atherosclerosis, lower blood pressure, lower blood lipids, support the treatment of diabetes, prevent cardiovascular diseases... which are very necessary for the field of human health care support.

From the new analysis results, standard tea is compared with the quality of Thai Nguyen green tea, Shan Ta Xua Son La green tea, Chinese green tea, Japanese green tea... The recommendation of Professor Nguyen Quoc Vong is very suitable with the plan that the Department of Agriculture and Environment is asking for opinions from the People's Committee of Hue City to implement.

When the quality of Shan tea from Mu Nu forest and Hai Nhanh river in Hue is determined, the true value of Hue cuisine will be enhanced through the hands of Hue artisans.

What's better than waking up in the morning and enjoying a cup of Shan Hue tea scented with white lotus from Tinh Tam Lake!

Article and photos: PHAM HUU THU

Source: https://huengaynay.vn/kinh-te/vang-xanh-cua-hue-158004.html