Tea drinking-a long standing culture of Vietnam

Having been cultivating and enjoying tea leaves for thousands of years, tea drinking has been an essential part in Vietnamese culture.

Ladies from an ethnic group in Vietnam harvesting tea leaves from an ancient tea tree

In Vietnam culture, tea is a must-have part in traditional activities as wedding and ritual ceremonies. In the past, people liked to drink hot tea only but together with the changes of current world, teadrinking culture now has many varies.

Jasmine tea-a kind of famous traditional tea of Vietnam

Traditional tea enjoy

Somewhere between 13th and 15th century, tea was believed to carry philosophical values. Reading while sipping hot tea was a common image of the contemporary Confucians. Also, tea art, which includes the way of making tea, serving tea and enjoying tea has been considered as a way of education and a standard of character evaluation. In the past, it used to be believed that ones having ability to make and pour tea in a right manners were well-educated.

Confucians enjoy tea in the past

Tea in culture

After thousands year of being familiar to Vietnamese, gradually, tea becomes an essential part in daily life of them. Tea could be caught in the most important celebration of a human. The day parents of a child’s celebrate his first month of life, adults gather, sipping tea and make toasts to the child. When the child grows up and get married, tea is all the day in his wedding, and when he returns to the Earth, alive people send off him the last path in the world also with the presence of tea.

Tea is a highlight of important ceremonies in Vietnamese culture

Tea in daily life nowadays

Today, the world is flat and Vietnam did “import” drinking culture of many places in the world, the young drink less tea, they prefer new drinks instead. However, tea never loses its position in the life of Vietnamese people.

Looking around on any street of Vietnam, you can easily catch a vendor selling tea. The cheap iced tea served on streets in the summer helps low-income classes defeat the heat of summer, also tea, but hot, in the winter helps them escape from the cold. Some glasses of tea on some sidewalk with a plate of sunflower seeds are all Vietnamese people need for a chat lasting even for hours.

Iced tea served on sidewalk

The young, they now invent many kinds of tea that match the modern taste, of all the most popular should be lime tea (Trà Chanh in Vietnamese), a combination of green tea, lime juice, sugar and ice is quite tempting for a chill-out. You can see that “Trà Chanh” stalls have mushroomed in every corner.

Youngsters hang out at “Trà Chanh” stalls

A bit more luxurious, there are nice-decor tea shops where people could enjoy tea and listening to the traditional music of Vietnam. The tea shops are doing their good job in preserving the traditional way of enjoying tea and the ritual values of tea drinking.