Vietnamese people do not practice tea with the rigid rituals of Japanese tea ceremony, nor with the intricate layers of techniques found in Chinese Gongfu tea. However, Vietnamese tea has its own distinct, subtle, and enduring customs, embedded more in daily conduct than in written texts.
Here, tea is not something to be performed. Tea is a pretext for people to sit down together.
The Cup of Tea That Starts a Story
When guests arrive, the host's first act is to place a kettle on the stove. The phrase "please have a cup of water, sir/ma'am" doesn't refer to water, but to time: it invites one to sit down, to slow down their conversation.
The teapot is placed in the center of the table, and the host pours. Younger individuals pour for older ones, offering the cup with both hands. The cup is filled about seven-tenths full — filling it to the brim is considered a gesture to see guests off.
No one urges another to drink. The hot cup of tea compels people to wait, and while waiting, conversations unfold.
Tea in Rituals
In engagement and wedding ceremonies, the cup of tea serves as a formal address between two families. The young couple offers tea to both sets of parents as a wordless gesture of gratitude.
On the ancestral altar, a cup of tea is placed beside an incense stick. Offering tea to the departed is an invitation for them to return and reunite on death anniversaries and Tet holidays.
At village communal houses, during festivals, the teapot is also the first thing prepared, even before the feast.
Street Tea Stalls, Sidewalk Tea
Alongside the tea in homes are the cups of iced tea, vối tea, and green tea at street stalls at the alley's entrance. Cheap, quick, unpretentious — yet truly embodying the spirit: a place where strangers sit side by side and chat.
It is this layer of popular tea that ensures the habit of tea drinking never ceases in Vietnamese life, even during the most challenging periods.
Scented Tea — A Unique Vietnamese Trait
Vietnamese people have a tradition of scenting tea with flowers: lotus, jasmine, ixora, aglaia, pomelo. West Lake lotus tea is the pinnacle of this art — hundreds of lotus blossoms are needed to scent just one kilogram of tea, infused multiple times, re-drying after each infusion.
This is the most distinct difference compared to neighboring tea cultures: Vietnamese people not only seek fragrance within the tea leaves but also borrow the aroma of blooming seasonal flowers.
Tea Today
Younger generations are returning to tea in a different way: a small gaiwan on a work desk, an afternoon spent trying a new batch of tea with friends, a box of tea as a gift instead of alcohol.
The form changes, but the essence remains the same — to pause for a moment, and be fully present with the cup of tea in front of you and the person across from you.