A very interesting and energizing black tea from Thái Nguyên province.
 
Green tea from Thái Nguyên is by far the most popular type of tea in Vietnam. If you drink tea at any random place in Hanoi, there is a 99% chance it will be Thái Nguyên green.
 
Thái Nguyên has a long history of producing green tea but many producers have been experimenting with other styles in recent years.
 
Our friend has been working on black tea processing for the past couple years with varying degrees of success. We weren’t very impressed by prior batches as they all tasted too much like green tea. This year he changed his picking and processing style and we feel this batch is worthy of sharing.
 
This is a tea produced from seed grown native Vietnamese Camellia Sinensis varietal trees planted in 1985 in Tân Cường, Thái Nguyên. Our friend’s processing has elements of Fujianese processing as it is dried with direct heat in a kill green machine compared to teas dried in a hot-air drying machine.
 
The dry tea is a beautiful silver-black color and releases an intense caramel fragrance with the signature “Cốm” young rice fragrance that Thái Nguyên is famous for. It brews up quickly into a golden soup. Heavily sweet with notes of caramel and a refreshing light astringency. A pleasant cooling effect in the throat begins after a couple cups.
 
This tea has a strong caffeine buzz typical of many teas from this area and makes for a great breakfast tea. I like to drink a few cups of this one followed by a few cups of an old tree wild origin black tea for the ultimate morning tea experience.
 
This is a plantation grown tea grown in a conventional way but we are confident it is free of chemicals as our friend has a long term relationship with the farmers.
 
I like to brew this one at 80-95 degrees for medium- long steeps. It can get astringent if brewed too strongly.
 
Season: Autumn 2024
Picking Standard: 1 bud, 1-2 leaves
Region: Tân Cương, Thái Nguyên
Elevation: 100m