Located on the border between Yen Bai and Son La provinces, Ta Xua has many high mountains next to deep ravines. The highest peak is 2,865m, ranking 10th among the highest mountains in Vietnam. Bac Yen people call Ta Xua the gate of heaven, where heaven and earth meet, covered with white clouds all year round. This place is also blessed by nature with ancient Shan Tuyet tea trees. According to local people, it is not known when the tea trees were first established, but their age cannot be calculated in years but in human lifetimes.

Tea trees have been closely associated with the daily life and culture of the H'Mong ethnic group in the Ta Xua highlands for hundreds of years, and the tea roasting profession was born from that time. With the development of science and technology, the tea production process is now much simpler than before thanks to the support of machines. However, many H'Mong ethnic families still preserve the traditional way of roasting tea by hand, both preserving and developing the culture of the ethnic group and providing a stable income for the family. People here use their own hands to continuously stir fresh tea buds on a smoky fire for more than 2 hours until each tea strand is dry, crispy and breakable.

Each H'Mong family on the top of Ta Xua has its own secret recipe for making tea, which has been passed down from generation to generation. The method of harvesting and producing Shan Tuyet tea by hand on cast iron pans is still preserved here, bringing high-value tea products. According to the experience of local people, Shan Tuyet tea can only be harvested about 3 times a year. The most suitable time to pick tea is early in the morning; noon and late afternoon are the time to roast tea. Because the tea must be roasted in a cast iron pan on a wood stove, fresh tea leaves will be put on each small tray, each tray weighing a maximum of 2kg. In particular, the H'Mong people will roast the tea immediately after harvesting, they believe that doing so will produce a good quality tea flavor.

After harvesting, the first step is to wither the tea, then knead the tea to release its aroma. After kneading, put the tea in a pan to dry until the tea stalks are crispy. This step will be less hot because you need to reduce the heat gradually and the dried tea will absorb less heat, but you must stir gently to avoid crushing the tea.

From the traditional manual method, the Shan Tuyet tea buds will be continuously stirred with bare hands, on a pan of steaming fire. For the H'Mong people, to have delicious tea, the temperature of the cast iron pan must always be kept stable. When heating the pan with a wood stove, checking the temperature by hand is very important; you need to feel a certain heat before pouring in the fresh tea leaves. Along with that is the challenge of patience.

All stages of tea roasting are important, but according to many people's experience, the withering stage is the most important. Each batch of tea only needs about 2 kg to be stirred evenly and the longer the roasting time, the better the tea, usually a total time of about 2 hours per batch.

Hand-roasted tea is often better than machine-roasted tea in terms of aroma and brighter color, of course the price is also much higher, can be brewed to the 4th-5th water but the color and flavor are the same as the first water; fragrant as if with a little honey, faintly smelling of forest firewood smoke, at first the taste is astringent in the mouth then the sweetness spreads, hard to confuse with other types of tea. Many people wonder why they have to use their hands to roast tea. The locals explain that: The person roasting tea must roast by hand to know the heat of the tea, roast and knead the tea by hand very skillfully so that the tea buds curl up, covered with a layer of white powder, rolling the pure and noble aroma of the clouds, mountains and winds.

Shan Tuyet tea belongs to the group of Vietnamese heritage trees, a specialty tea with large gray-white buds, the tea leaves are covered with a layer of fine, white hairs, so people call it snow tea. The drink made from this tea has a mild aroma, the water is golden yellow like the color of honey, delighting visitors from near and far even if they only enjoy it once.

For a long time, Ta Xua dried tea buds have been famous throughout the province and beyond, with an average selling price of 800,000 VND/kg, thanks to which, the lives of tea growers in Ta Xua have improved significantly.

Nowadays, tea trees are not only a tree with high economic value, but also bring double benefits in helping the locality develop experiential tourism. Tourists coming to Ta Xua are surprised and excited to explore the ancient tea trees, experience the traditional tea drying process by hand of the Mong ethnic people; choose to buy Ta Xua tea specialties to enjoy and give as gifts to relatives.

According to statistics, by 2023, Ta Xua commune will have nearly 200 hectares of tea trees, including about 1,600 ancient Shan Tuyet tea trees. The ancient tea trees are delivered to each household and instructed to take care of them completely naturally, without spraying or using chemical fertilizers to fertilize the trees, but only clearing the ground cover around the base, creating ventilation for the trees to photosynthesize and harvest properly. Thanks to that, the trees are restored, green, high yield and quality, bringing significant income to the people here.

Le Nhan