Book Description

The story of tea in Vietnam is as enigmatic as the country itself. A land where tea plants grew spontaneously, where drinking tea was a national obsession, but where no serious attempts were made to take advantage of these natural phenomena. While tea in Vietnam today is dominated by large scale commodity production, it is the burgeoning artisan processing scene and specialty tea products which come under the spotlight in Vietnam Tea Tales. But it is more than a quest to discover interesting teas. It is a journey through the highways, byways, forests, and villages to the remotest corners of Vietnam’s mountainous borderlands. It is about tea-makers from different ethnicities who call the mountains their home, and the long-standing friendships that have been built with them. Not least, it is an appreciation of wild grown, majestic, ancient tea trees and the biodiversity rich environments in which they grow. In Vietnam Tea Tales, the authors unravel the mysteries of the past and draw on their personal experiences from a decade or more of tea sourcing to explore the development of the present-day tea landscape. From pre-historic origins, the story of tea in Vietnam has been shaped by Chinese domination, feudal dynasties, European colonisation, and a long struggle for independence. The modern tea industry only emerging after escaping the constraints of Confucian thought, haphazard colonial attempts to replicate British and Dutch success, and decades of war, isolation and turmoil. Vietnam Tea Tales will satisfy the curiosity of anyone interested in learning about tea from Vietnam or knowing more about the world of tea in general. So, switch on the kettle and read on ….