Mid-Autumn Festival and the Vietnamese Tea Culture - Ngoc Thanh Son Tea

Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festival of Vietnamese people on the full moon day of the Eighth Lunar month. On the bright moon night, Vietnamese people gather with family, friends, eat moon cakes and drink tea. This is a beautiful and meaningful tradition, reflecting the spirit of unity, reunion and gratitude of the Vietnamese people.

Enjoying tea and moon cakes is an art that combines perfectly between two different flavors: sweet and bitter. The two flavors of sweet and bitter are subtly blended to create harmony and balance. When eating a cake, we sip a cup of tea to prolong the sweetness and blend with the tea flavor. When drinking tea, we eat a piece of cake to soften and balance the bitterness.

Moon cakes and sticky rice moon cakes have round or square shapes, symbolizing completeness, satisfaction, like the earth and sky. The fillings of the cakes are diverse, such as green beans, mixed nuts, coconut… Inside the cake there is one or two egg yolks, like the bright moon in the Mid-Autumn night. The cake has a thin and crispy crust, usually coated with a layer of egg on top to create a shiny yellow color. The cake is decorated with patterns or letters that symbolize luck and fortune. The cake is always enjoyed with a pot of fragrant tea.

The art of making Vietnamese tea is not too complicated, just need a set of porcelain teapot and cups, hot water and tea leaves. Depending on the type of tea, there are different ways of brewing, but in general, it is necessary to keep the temperature and brewing time reasonable to create a cup of tea with aroma and taste. The art of enjoying Vietnamese tea is not picky about where to drink, it can be indoors or outdoors, as long as there is a peaceful and comfortable atmosphere. Drinking tea helps to soothe the mind, clear the mind in mindfulness.

Eating moon cakes, enjoying tea, watching the bright moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival is not only a beautiful cultural tradition of Vietnamese people, but also an opportunity for us to pause and feel the flavors, like the opposite sides of life: there are bitter - and sweet.

Ngoc Thanh Son Tea wishes you have a great Mid Autumn Festival with your loved ones!