By drying tea manually, the family tea shop of Mr. Quach Hue (59 years old) has always been filled with customers for 70 years, even though it has never advertised.($1=24,000 VND)
In the afternoon of May, a customer came to buy, Mrs. Tran Dung (87 years old) carefully folded the paper into a funnel shape, put 200g of fragrant jasmine tea in the middle and then wrapped it. The package style of “banh ú”, wrapped in plastic so that the tea does not get moldy and retains its crispiness are the characteristics of Mrs. Dung’s tea shop.
In 1940, her husband emigrated from Chaozhou, China to Saigon, bringing with him the family’s traditional method of making tea. In Vietnam, he chose the raw material area of Bao Loc (Lam Dong).
The tea is marinated with jasmine flavor for 4-8 hours, depending on the weather. Going through 3 times of running fire, the dried tea will remove the strong smell, the original smell. Thanks to this, the drinker will feel the bar, the acrid taste of the tea.
Dung’s son, Mr. Quach Hue, is the second generation in the family to keep this traditional way of making tea. Every month, he will make tea once, the quantity is about 100kg.
The 59-year-old man said that his father was passionate about tea, from the first days of opening the shop until the moment he closed his eyes. Therefore, all items in the shop are always carefully preserved: Scales, teapots, aluminum crates, wooden shelves…
The finished tea is placed in an aluminum barrel that his family hired workers to make 70 years ago. Each box can hold from 5-6kg of tea. Keeping the tea in the barrel will limit the moldy condition, the flavor will be stored longer.
“Some people have come to bid to buy antiques, but my family doesn’t sell them but keeps them as souvenirs,” he said.
The tea shop on Phu Tho Street, District 11, has not posted ads for the past 70 years, has not appeared on social networks, but is always crowded with customers.
For the most part, they are loyal customers for many years. This area has many Chinese people living, he set aside a counter to sell cakes and sweets according to their wedding custom, served with tea.
Besides Vietnamese tea, Mr. Hue also brought back teas originating from China. In particular, O Dong Don Tung tea is expensive, about 10 million / kg, but there are still people asking to buy it. Mr. Hue said, they are tea culture lovers , tea connoisseurs and have a taste for tea.
Following his career for nearly 40 years, Mr. Hue never intended to quit his job, although this job was quite hard, he had to stay up late at night to brew tea. Every day, he and his mother get up at 5:30, carefully clean each wooden shelf, arrange paper bags, check the status of jasmine tea, oolong tea, pu-erh tea, brown tea …
“Because that was my father’s lifelong passion,” he said.
Photo: Internet (Vinlove.net)