Bitter tea or Che Khom in local language is the valuable, rarely and precious, special plant of Cao Bang province.
Two thousand years ago, quintessence of the sky and earth is
crystalized in the leaf of Cao Bang bitter tea. The bitter tea is
growing naturally in forest. The grown up plant can be 30 meters high.
Its diameter can be up to over one meter. According to scientists,
there are 16 kinds of acid aminoes that help to promote metabolism
process and have closely relations to nutrition structure of our body.
Apart from drinking purpose, bitter tea also has pharmaceutical value
such as cure for sunstroke, anatoxin, drunk release, digestion
stimulation, blood pressure regulation, anti-aged process, etc. Long
time ago, bitter tea was offered to King by Chinese.
Since the
Cao Bang Bitter Tea Co. , has put into operation, bitter tea’s demand
has been increased province-wide and nation-wide as users know its
value. Bitter tea becomes a key economic plant, and a high valuable
product, which not only serves Cao Bang ethnic people, but also is a
speciality of Viet Nam . Cao Bang government has released an
orientation for development and research of bitter tea for meeting the
market’s demand.
Bitter tea Co. , is the only company to
produce bitter tea of Cao Bang province awarded 5 prizes and notable
certificates. In 2004, Cao Bang bitter tea won gold medal in Foodstuff
Safety Fair organized in Ha Noi in April 2004 and a certificate issued
by National Committee on International Economic Cooperation for
developing the product and its trade name, taking part in international
economic integration. Cao Bang bitter tea is the one out of 155
products, trade names awarded Yellow Star in Viet nation prize by Viet
Nam Young Businessmen Organization in Ha Noi on 1st September 2004 and
out of 778 trade names and products, that were recommended in the whole
nation.
Visitor comes to Cao Bang nowadays can’t forget to
purchase some boxes of bitter tea for relatives. Cao Bang people are
proud of the special violet of bitter tea boxes. Bitter tea has been
penetrated in every shop, valley, in subconscious of every family, and
foreigner. If you have a chance to enjoy a cup of bitter tea, you would
never forget the bitter, strong, and sweet taste of this special tea of
Cao Bang.
