Every sip of lotus tea encapsulates all the essences of the natural landscapes of Tây Hồ.
The arrival of lotus season in Quảng An Ward, Tây Hồ every year ushers in a flurry of activities for local tea dryers. Venerated by many as “the best tea of the ancient eras,” Tây Hồ’s lotus tea is not just flavorful, it also represents the essences of heaven and earth, and the dedication of Quảng An residents over the past centuries.
Tây Hồ’s lotus is of the Bách Diệp cultivar.
The cultivar that Quảng An tea artisans use to perfume the leaves is Bách Diệp lotus. The flower is a rare local breed characterized by its numerous petals in a bright shade of pink — “bách diệp” means a thousand leaves. The outer petals are broad and graceful, and their sizes get smaller closer to the core. The land near Hồ Tây is blessed with the ideal climate to produce lotus blossoms that are exquisite and capable of producing ample lotus rice (flower anthers).
Starting from 4am every morning when the flowers have barely bloomed, Quảng An artisans sail their boats into the lake to pick lotus blossoms, their oars slicing in between verdant swaying leaves. Their fingers pluck the stalks with care and then arrange the flowers into piles on the boats. Male members of the family are often in charge of harvesting flowers. The harvest ends around the time when the earliest sun rays hit the water's surface. Bundles of hoa sen are transported back to their home workshops to be processed.
Flower harvest must be done early in the morning to minimize scent loss.
Lotus buds collected from before sunrise are the most fragrant.
Phương Huy, a tea maker in Quảng An, told me: “We have to pick the flowers as early as possible when the sun hasn’t shown up, because the flowers haven’t fully bloomed yet and can retain their scent. The longer they are exposed to the sun, the more the scent will fade.” After the flowers are harvested, workers will extract lotus rice grains to infuse with tea leaves.
I arrived at the village on Đặng Thai Mai Street in Tây Hồ at 7am. It was very obvious which households were traditional tea artisans. During that time of the year, their homes are inundated by thousands of lotus blossoms. The entire family gathers in a common space to de-petal the flowers, package tea leaves, and harvest lotus rice.
Lotus tea artisan Phương Huy.
Pink petals take over tea-making families in the morning.
As the flowering season of lotus is very short, Quảng An is only busy with tea operations for around three months of the year. How many lotus blossoms are harvested also depends on the day and month. Commonly, the beginning of the season in May will yield fewer flowers than in mid-season (June, July).
After walking along Đặng Thai Mai’s many lotus ponds, I stopped by the homestead of Ngô Văn Xiêm and Lưu Thị Hiền, both famous tea artisans in the area. Their household is among the handful of families still producing lotus tea this way in Hanoi. Xiêm shared: “I don’t remember when this tea-making trade became a thing here, but even when I was a little boy, I grew up with lotus. Every May comes a busy time when we pluck lotus, remove lotus rice, and scent our tea.” Over the years, his fondness for the family trade swells. He’s always toiled over how to maintain the aroma of tea in the household, as to him, lotus tea is not just a beverage, it’s a cultural space with enduring longevity. Xiêm has passed down the family trade to his children — the fifth generation of tea makers.
Ngô Văn Xiêm, one of a handful of Tây Hồ residents who continue to make traditional tea today.
From a humble but elegant treat for visitors in one’s home, Tây Hồ’s lotus tea has earned a reputation as one of Vietnam’s most valuable teas. While dismantling the petals from a lotus flower, Xiêm explained to me: “It takes 100 flowers to produce 100 grams of lotus rice. So to scent one kilogram of tea leaves, 1,000–1,500 flowers are needed. There are many steps involved in making a batch of high-quality tea. That’s why Tây Hồ’s lotus tea is so expensive.”
Lotus blossoms from the pond are dismantled carefully.
During the height of the harvest season, Xiêm’s family could pick up to 10,000 lotus flowers per day. Arriving from the lake, the flowers are de-petalled and the lotus rice grains are extracted and filtered to select the purest grains. The work must be done in the morning to prevent aroma loss, so even the petal removal involves several workers. One person plucks out the outer petals while another removes the inner petals to leave behind only the pistil. Finally, the final person painstakingly picks out the rice and shakes off the dirt. “Lotus rice removal might look simple, but it’s actually quite finicky,” Xiêm commented while showing me the steps. “A tea maker can’t hurry. This is a test of patience and meticulousness.”
"Lotus rice" refers to the white-colored anthers in the middle of the flower.
It takes 100 flowers to scent 100 grams of tea, so a kilogram of lotus tea might require up to 1,000–1,500 flowers.
Next, grains of lotus rice are used to infuse tea, a type of high-quality leaves grown in Thái Nguyên, dried completely, and packed with tiny lotus petals for preliminary scenting before the rice enters the picture. The final product goes through seven rounds of scenting, each spanning three days and followed by one round of one-night drying. From the moment the lotus flowers are harvested, 21 days of scenting, infusion, and drying are needed to arrive at the final lotus tea. “Tea scenting needs someone with years of experience,” Xiêm shared. Currently he’s the only person in the family who’s qualified to do this step.
Besides tea leaves scented with lotus rice, there's also a "lite" version (ướp xổi) in which the leaves are poured into the lotus bud and wrapped tightly using lotus leaves.
As this method doesn't require long infusion sessions, the lotus fragrance is not as strong.
Because of this level of complexity in the making and scenting of Tây Hồ lotus tea, drinkers should practice care and respect when offered lotus tea. To make lotus tea, naked, unglazed earthen pots are often used, in addition to small ceramic cups. “To enjoy lotus tea, you must be patient too, because hot-headed drinkers can’t fully relish the flavor of the tea,” he cautioned. A sip of Tây Hồ lotus tea yields complex notes of flavors, from the floral fragrance to the tannic, bitter notes of the tea to a faintly sweet aftertaste that lingers on your palate. More than that, what's special about lotus tea is that even before taking that sip, just bring the tea cup close to your nostrils, and you can already smell the tender aroma of lotus buds — an evocation of the sky, earth, water of Hồ Tây and swaths of blooming lotus unfurling right before your eyes.
Driking lotus tea means drinking in the essences of summer and flavors of nature in Tây Hồ.
