Calling each other green tea

Right at the peak of the heat, my wife returned from the West Wing, bringing homegrown gifts of jackfruit, durian, perilla, MSG, green chili peppers, and a bunch of green tea.

She left her hometown to teach in Dak Lak in the late 1970s. Her garden is large, growing all kinds of plants, of course tea is not lacking. It is true that for Nghe An people, wherever they go, they lack everything, but they cannot lack green tea, also known as bitter tea.

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The wife said: "Remembering green tea from Nghe An again, right?" and then went to brew green tea, following the recipe that her mother-in-law taught her when she returned to her hometown. It was a thousand-year-old recipe from Nghe An: Break green tea into small pieces/ Remove damaged leaves/ Wash and crush/ Boil water for a long time/ Steep in a basket/ Beautiful green water. To have the aroma of tea that lasts all day, drink it all day long, and still be green and fragrant after drinking the whole pot, Nghe An people have a special secret that veteran journalist Phan Quang, former General Director of Voice of Vietnam , Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists Association, in an article several decades ago, called the art of brewing restored tea. That is, after pouring boiling water into the teapot or boiling it in a pot, add a little cold water and cover the lid. This art was very appreciated by Luc Vu, of the Tang Dynasty in China, when he wrote "The Classic of Tea", but according to the old journalist Phan Quang, the people of Nghe An in particular, and the people of Tu region in general, discovered this art of brewing tea hundreds of years before that.

After the tea is done, the wife pours the tea into a bowl and hands it to her husband. The tea is shimmering green and yellow, fragrant, and cools the more you drink it. It is strange that green tea, after just a few cups, all the heat and fatigue disappear. It is no coincidence that the people of Nghe An choose green tea as their daily drink.

I remember the old subsidy period, although poor, my mother's basket when she came back from the market was never without a bundle of tea. Nghe An markets, big or small, never lack green tea. There are many brands of green tea, but the best is still Gay tea from Anh Son, Nghe An . This tea is not smooth and cool, the leaves are small but thick and crunchy, the water is yellow-green, much more delicious than tea from other places.

In Nghe An, children drink green tea at a young age. Drinking it from a young age makes them addicted, going far away without a pot of green tea makes their mouths feel bland, they miss it, they want to come back soon. In my village, the old farmers, in the morning, carry their plows to the fields and do not forget to bring a kettle of water. After plowing a few dozen acres, they go up to the bank to get a pot of water, and just like that, they finish a whole field without realizing it. During the harvest season, the farmers are busy with work, just a bowl of green tea with a pot of pickled eggplant is enough to finish the meal. Eggplant and soup are like a man and a woman, the more rice and eggplant, the more they crave green tea.

Not only a daily drink, green tea is also a neighborhood sentiment. "At noon, in the summer sun, people call each other to drink green tea", several houses near each other set up a green tea association. Today this house, tomorrow that house, after lunch or dinner, call out, a moment later, people will come one after another. A pot of steaming green tea with a basket of boiled potatoes and peanuts, village and neighborhood gossip, and stories about the harvest are endless. Then children join the army, children go to university, also green tea is always in the air. In the old days, when people were poor, weddings were just a piece of betel and a cup of green tea, when they were richer, they had a candy and a cigarette, and yet their love was strong and lasting.

"Whoever returns, tell the source/ Send young jackfruit down, send flying fish up", now, every trip back and forth of the Eastern people working in the West of Dak Lak carries with them the sentiment of shrimp and fish up from below, fruits and vegetables down from above. My family also has green tea and honey.

Nghe An people's braised fish cannot lack molasses and green tea, because it makes the fish firmer and more delicious. Sea fish is up, green tea is down, your house and mine are both fragrant with molasses and green tea braised fish. As for honey: "If you want smooth and beautiful skin / Invite each other to mix bitter tea with honey" is an old remedy that my mother taught her daughter, then her daughter-in-law, extremely effective. In the past, when we were poor, we mainly mixed green tea with molasses, which was also good, but now that we have the means, we mix it with honey, which is even better. And Dak Lak honey is rare, so the gift my sister sent down included a bottle of Dak Lak forest honey...

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/du-lich/202508/goi-nhau-ram-ran-che-xanh-be41d1e/