Lotus tea an age –old tradition

Although Suong was his father’s youngest child, they shared everything with each other, forma passion for tea production, literature and poetry, to the normalities of daily life. Their bond is special, one of father and son and also of close friends. Suong’s father often shared with him his dream to revitalize the Vietnamese culture of tea drinking.

“I was born into a family which specialized in tea selling for four generations. During the late nineteenth century, my paternal grandmother opened a famous tea shop named Linh Duoc Tea, located on Hang Bo street,” Suong said. “The shop was passed down to my father, who was skilled at introducing Vietnamese tea to Vietnamese people. My father currently 84 years old and has devoted his whole life to the culture of Vietnamese tea drinking.”

“He would often say that he was very sad because he feared no-one in our family would continue the traditional tea selling trade. At that time, I was working for a foreign company and I even had plans to go to the US to work. To be honest, I sympathized with my father, but I did not intend to give up my career to follow his passion. However, on my father’s birthday in 2001, when he, his friends and I were drinking tea, my father, his eyes filled with tears, repeated his wishes. I told him that I would continue the tradition and since that day I have devoted my time and passion to keeping the art of Vietnamese tea drinking alive”.

The art of infusing

Famous as a Vietnamese tea expert, Suong holds a deep understanding of the Vietnamese tea drinking art, as well as the art of infusing the tea, with lotus tea being his speciality.

“Embracing Vietnamese tea culture requires people to enjoy a special kind of tea from Hanoi, namely lotus tea. The tea marries perfectly with the delicate and subtle flavors of Hanoi cuisine, which in turn bring out the flavor of the lotus tea. Many Japanese and Chinese tea experts admire Hanoians’ skill and sophistication in lotus tea infusing.”

According to Suong, ancient Hanoians marinated lotus tea using a simple method. Every afternoon, they would row by boat to a lotus lake, putting a little tea into each lotus flower. During the night, after absorbing the fragrance and the essence of the heavenly flower, the tea was ready for use.

However, lotus tea infused in this way lasted only a few days and quickly lost its scent. Thus, the ancient people found another method whereby they were able to preserver the tea for longer. Making the finest lotus tea is challenging. Two of the most important elements are of course the tea and lotus flowers, the other being Suong’s personal secret. Tea must be collected from tea trees growing in high mountainous regions of Vietnam.

“Though my research, I found that tea leaves growing at 1,900 metres above sea level in the northern province of Son La made the best lotus tea.”

“The choice of lotus flower is also extremely important, as it directly impacts the scent and flavor of the tea. Vietnam has many large lotus fields in the provinces of Ha Nam, Haiphong, Thua Thien-Hue, and Dong Thap amongst others. However, I choose to use only the West Lake lotus to infuse my tea due to its characteristic scent.”

According to Suong, lotus tea in fusion is a complicated process. Lotus flowers must be picked when they have just bloomed. Then, the maker must carefully remove the stamens of the lotus as these are used to impart the scent to the tea. This step requires extreme care in order not to crush the lotus stamens. It takes from 1,200-1,400 lotus flowers to make just one kilo of lotus tea.

Next, the tea will be mixed with the lotus stamens to infuse. The maker will spread one tea layer, follower by one lotus stamen layer. Finally, the tea will be covered with paper to infuse it. The tea must be infused between five and seven times repeatedly in order that the lotus fragrance and flavor can be absorbed deeply into the tea. Before each reinfusion, the tea must be dried, and the maker must sift out the used lotus stamen and spread a new layer.

The tea maker must dry the tea in a special way so that the finished tea is not only dry, but also retains the full scent of the lotus. “The water in the perfect lotus teapot will have the colour of honey and the subtle fragrance of lotus.”

Hanoi’s lotus fields

Since ancient times, tea drinking has been a pleasure of writers and artists. In the past, lotus tea was high grade and only brought out on special occasions or when important guests were present.

Suong worries about how much longer he will able to continue in his work, as the lotus growing area in West Lake  lotus continues to decrease, reducing the supply of the flower. Furthermore, the lotus sellers can make more profit by keeping the lotus flowers in the lake and charging people for a photo service.

“The price of West Lake lotus tea is expensive due to the complexity of the infusion process and the shortage of available lotus flowers. Now it is difficult to buy even one hundred lotus flowers a day, let alne thousands of flowers as was possible some years before. Often I am asked to pay hundreds of millions of VND to buy an entire lotus crop from West Lake,” Suong said.

Furthermore, these days peoples’ busy lives mean they have less time to indulge in traditional tea drinking rituals. People tend to use commercially made tea bags such as Lipton, Dilmah, or Qualitea. The main customers are actually non-Vietnamese or Vietnamese people living overseas who often buy in bulk as they appreciate the pure and sophisticated fragrance and taste.

“I am currently one of a few people keeping the lotus tea tradition alive. I decided to open Hien tra Truong Xuan to share my passion with Vietnamese tea lovers and to introduce Vietnamese tea, especially lotus tea, to foreign people. It is a place for tea lovers to meet and learn about Vietnamese tea drinking culture, with lotus tea being our speciality.”