The annual spring tea festival opened in the northern mountainousprovince of Thai Nguyen – a locality famous for good tea inVietnam, on February 10.

The annual festival aimsto honour growers and promote traditional tea products, particularlythose made in Tan Cuong commune, which are said to be the best in thecountry.

It began with a procession of thecommune’s most beautiful and oldest tea tree, followed by ademonstration of the local tea ceremony.

The highlightof the festival was a contest of processing tea leaves for farmersfrom eight villages of Tan Cuong commune.

Ngo Thi Maufrom Hong Thai 1 village said her village began preparing for thecontest one month ago, caring for the trees in order to grow good teabuds which will give the best taste.

After plucking,the fresh tea buds are rolled and dried over small fire until dry.According to local farmers, it takes three hours to make one kilo ofdried tea the traditional way i.e by hand, and the quality of dried teadepends much on the skills in rolling as well as in stirring the teaover the fire and the heat.

Many tea-drinking loverswere excited to have the chance to see how their favourite tea is madeand to taste the tea right after it is processed.

This is the seventh year tea grown in Tan Cuong has been granted geographical indication (GI), making it one of five products havingtheir GI protected.

Thai Nguyen province hasdesignated tea production as one of its key sectors, which is expectedto help promote the locality’s economic growth in the coming time.

Thanks to favourable natural and weather conditions, Thai Nguyen teaproducts are popular nationwide and are also exported to foreignmarkets. The province accounts for one third of the country’s total teaexport value.-VNA