Vietnamese Zentea: Art, Culture and Tea Enjoyment Style

Vietnamese tea ceremony or zentea does not have a long history like Chinese tea culture or a standard of rules like the Japanese tea ceremony, but it has its own unique characteristics. The unique factor of the Vietnamese zentea comes from its simplicity, from the way of making tea to the flavor of the tea, all have their own mark. In the article below, QuanTea will help you understand more interesting things about Vietnamese zentea.

1. Overview of Vietnamese tea culture

The unique characteristics of Vietnamese tea culture are clearly shown through the types of tea used and the style of drinking tea. In particular, although more or less influenced by Chinese tea art, Vietnamese tea still has its own distinct identity.

1.1 Origin of Vietnamese tea culture

Thousands of years ago, a story related to tea leaves was passed down among the people. It is said that during a visit to the South, King Shennong mistakenly drank a type of leaf boiled in boiling water. After drinking, the king felt very excited, comfortable, and especially missed the sweet and astringent taste of this type of water. After that, the king called the leaves used to boil the water "tea leaves" and widely propagated and used tea plants among the people.

In addition, history also passed down another story; It is believed that the zentea culture is one of the things that China, during its colonial period, passed on to Vietnam and forced the people to learn from it. However, through fighting against Chinese domination, the heroic years of building and defending the country, our ancestors considered tea drinking a unique cultural feature of Vietnam and possessed many unique characteristics that formed the art of the Vietnamese tea ceremony.

At present, the pleasure of drinking tea is preserved and developed by Vietnamese people as a beautiful tradition. Along with that, there are many types of tea grown in Lam Dong, Thai Nguyen, Ha Giang, Yen Bai, Hoa Binh, Son La, etc.

1.2 Popular types of tea in Vietnam

In our country, there are 3 popular types of tea: fresh tea, dried tea, and scented tea. Of which, fresh tea is fresh tea buds and leaves picked from trees, brought home, washed, and steeped in warm water to enjoy. Dry tea is fresh tea buds harvested, dried, then kneaded and roasted until dry.

Finally, tea is infused with many fragrant flowers, then packaged for later use. The most famous scented teas are frangipani tea, jasmine tea, lotus tea, and five-spice tea.

1.3 Vietnamese tea drinking style

Vietnamese tea drinking style focuses on 5 factors:

1. 'Nhat Thuy' is the water used to make tea, usually water taken from deep wells, from natural streams, or rainwater collected from the sky. In order not to lose the unique flavor of the tea leaves, the water will be boiled until it bubbles over charcoal.

2.  'Nhi Tra' is the type of tea chosen for brewing. The five criteria that a good tea needs to meet are color, taste, spirit, energy, and purity. The most important factor here is spirit, because it shows the appeal of tea to the tea drinker.

3. 'Tam Boi' refers to the teacup, usually a buffalo eye cup or a jackfruit seed cup. The cup needs to be rinsed with boiling water to clean and heat before pouring tea.

4. 'Tu Binh' is a teapot used to brew tea. Currently, there are many different types of pots to meet the needs of drinking tea alone, drinking in pairs, or drinking in groups. If you want the tea to bloom evenly and have the most rich flavor, before brewing the tea, you need to rinse the tea with a little boiling water, then pour it out,, and then start steeping the tea.

5. 'Ngu Quan Anh' refers to tea friends. Accordingly, the ancients often sat drinking tea on the upper mats of poets, to enjoy tea and chat together

1.4. Characteristics of Vietnamese tea culture

Vietnamese tea culture has a simple, familiar, and traditional character of village culture. The image of Vietnamese tea drinking appears with a simple image, everyone chatting and discussing under the banyan tree, on the porch.

The simplicity in Vietnamese tea drinking connects honest and simple people. But Vietnamese tea still has its characteristics, simple but not sketchy.

A well-rounded cup of tea must take into account many factors, such as tea quality, water quality, teapot, through the hands of the tea maker to create the most well-rounded cup of tea.

2. Tea making tools

• Teapot: Must be of good quality with high heat retention to help maintain the full, delicious flavor of tea. Some popular types of teapots are purple clay teapots, ceramic teapots, Bat Trang teapots, etc.

• Tea cups/glasses: Usually have Tong cups and Quan cups. Tong cups are large cups used to pour tea into Quan cups (small cups) to evenly flavor, filter out tea residue, reduce heat, and preserve the characteristic color of tea.

• Tea trays come in many different materials, designs, colors, and sizes to help make the tea table more polished and elegant.

• Tea jars help preserve tea from mold and make it more hygienic.

• The tea tong is set to take the right amount of tea out of the jar and ensure hygiene.

• Other tea tools include tea filters, kettles, teapots, etc.

3. The art of making Vietnamese tea includes 5 steps

The art of making tea most clearly reflects the Vietnamese tea culture. If you want delicious, flavorful tea, you need to know how to make tea according to Vietnamese standards with the following 5 steps:

Step 1: Heat the teapot and cups
First, you need to heat the teapot and cups before making tea. This step will help clean the teapot and cups, and the tea flavor will last longer after brewing.

Step 2: Measure the tea
Measure 8g of dry tea into a 300ml teapot, then pour hot water gently and slowly.

Step 3: Wake up the tea
Wake up, the tea is pouring all the in the previous step out. This method helps the tea to be cleaner, removing the inherent bitterness of the tea.

Step 4: Steeping Tea
In this step, we need to continue pouring hot water gently into the teapot. Then, close the lid of the teapot and let the tea steep for about 20 to 25 seconds.

Step 5: Pouring Tea
Pour the tea evenly into the cups and start enjoying the delicious flavor of the tea.

4. What are the elements of the art of Vietnamese tea drinking?

In addition to the way of making tea, tea drinking is also a separate art in Vietnamese tea culture. The art of tea drinking has many interesting points, including the elements of time and space for enjoying tea.

4.1 The art of Vietnamese tea offering

Before enjoying a cup of tea, we also need to learn how to offer tea. The correct way to offer tea is to have the middle finger support the bottom of the cup while the thumb and index finger support the mouth of the cup. This action, when offering tea, is likened to "three dragons holding jade", showing the respect and reverence of the person offering tea to the person enjoying tea.

Special note, the tea drinker must also respond by lifting the tea cup with both hands, while bowing his head to receive the tea cup. When drinking tea, one should drink slowly, taking small sips. Thus, the tea drinker will fully feel the faint aroma in the mouth, followed by a slight astringency on the tip of the tongue and a lingering sweet aftertaste.

4.2 Appropriate time to enjoy tea

The zentea can be seen as a bridge connecting people together. This clearly shows the cultural value of Vietnam, which is to promote people. The most appropriate time to drink tea is when there are guests. This way of doing things shows the respect of the host for the guests visiting the house.

4.3 Ideal space to enjoy tea

A suitable space to enjoy tea is usually the living room or a quiet, airy garden area. Here, the host and guests can chat together and discuss life.

In addition, tea shops under the shade of banyan trees or water wharves are also spaces for enjoying tea with a strong ancient character that has been imprinted in the minds of Vietnamese people. Simplicity, rusticity, humanity, and human values ​​are also the characteristics of the art of the Vietnamese tea ceremony.

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