Vietnam

Even though Vietnam has one of the eldest tea cultures in Asia, tea has only been produced there since the beginning of the 80s in terms of bulk tea and only a while ago, specialities started being noted as such on the European market. While largely green teas have been produced for more than 2000 years in the Northern Vietnamese highlands at altitudes of up to 1,500 m, Southern Vietnam produces mainly orthodox black tea “trà man” in the lowlands around Lam Dong and Thai Nguyen.

Teas, which were blended with fl oral ingredients in the origin, largely known as “scented teas”, are called by the term “trà u’ó’p hu’o’ng” in Vietnamese. Mainly jasmine and lotus teas “trà sen” are offered. In the North, we still mostly fi nd traditional structures. “Small holders”, which are family-run plantations with own tea fi elds, but without own production facilities deliver the freshly plucked leaves to a factory. There, they receive a payment based on the quantity and quality of the leaves. In Central and Southern Vietnam, the tea plantations and factories are mostly in the same hands, following the example of the tea gardens of India and Ceylon.