Tag: Hatvala
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Vietnamese Green Teas from Ha Giang
A few years ago, I tried “Snow Shan” green tea from Vietnam . . . And I hated it. Okay, maybe “hate” is too strong of a word; “touchy” would be better. It was really difficult to brew. If I went out-of-bounds on the steeping parameters, the leaves imparted a bitter and astringent brew, not…
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Vietnamese Oolongs Made from Wild Assamica
Vietnam has an unfortunate reputation in tea circles. Not entirely undeserved. Like countries such as Thailand, one of the ways they’ve tried to establish a tea growing/producing identity is by emulating the practices of others. Their greatest influences—naturally—are their neighbors. In this case, China and Taiwan. From China, they aped the style of Yunnan shou…
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Sheng Puerh-Style Teas from Vietnam
Over a year-and-a-half ago, I wrote an article discussing the nature of sheng cha. It didn’t go over well. I used a Vietnamese sheng puerh-style tea from Son La province as a part of my thesis, and it also helped spark further discussion about how prevalent the process was in Northern Vietnam. Short answer: not…
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White Teas from Vietnam
In the fall of 2015, I found myself reading a tea blog (instead of writing one). Fellow tea geek Amanda Freeman used to keep one of the more prolific tea blogs in the community, and—at times—I suffered from a bit of professional jealousy. Often, she’d run into weird and strange teas before I did. And…