meet...
vàn, founder of nuage sauvage and trà art
Discover Vietnamese forest teas at his Paris workshop.
Vàn at the top of a mountain in ha-giang
Can you introduce yourself and Nuage Sauvage?
My name is Van, which means Wild Cloud in Vietnamese.
Nuage Sauvage is first and foremost my name, but it’s also my brand of wild tea that grows at altitude, where every leaf touches the clouds.
In 2017, I left my job in industrial production. I wanted to do something else, so I travelled a lot in Vietnam to reconnect with my origins. There I discovered a tea forest, and this was the first time in my life that I had seen tea in the forest, in the wild, with huge trees between five and ten metres high. It was also the first time I’d tasted an authentic forest tea, and it was a real delight.
That year, I met some small producers and decided to get involved in a project with a local cooperative.
Have you always had a passion for tea?
Not at all, I used to drink tea as a beverage, but it didn’t inspire me, I didn’t feel any energy from it.
Since then, I’ve discovered that tea has a history, a life, a freedom in the forest and it’s so stunning, it’s so meaningful. It’s also a different kind of tea to the one I used to drink. This wild tea is so gentle, and you can really taste the wild, woody flavour. The tea talks about the place where it grew, and tells us many stories.
"NUAGE SAUVAGE... IS MY BRAND OF WILD TEA THAT GROWS AT ALTITUDE"
VÂN
What does tea represent in Vietnam?
Wherever you go, you’ll always find tea on offer. On the streets It’s quite hidden, but there are stalls almost everywhere, especially for people who work outside all day. It’s a refreshing drink, often served very bitter to wake you up. That’s why Vietnamese tea has a reputation, but it’s part of popular culture, used for combating heat and fatigue. We don’t have a tea ceremony like in Chinese or Japanese culture; in Vietnam, tea is about sharing – tasting in order to share. There are no rules, but there is a philosophy of tea: each person prepares the tea in their own way and invites others to taste their version.
It used to be that even the king had to make his own tea and share it with others. It’s the same with the way we eat – it’s all about sharing. We all dip into each other’s dishes, a dish is not for an individual. I think that this culture has had much influence on the culture of tea – we have a way of drinking tea that is very convivial and very free.
vàn in his workshop
Tea tasting at CHEZ NUAGE SAUVAGE
Where does your tea come from?
The majority of my wild tea comes the Forest of Ha-Giang, which is an area near the north of China.. But I also select tea from other workshops that Is for their specialities and specificities.
Tell us about your time in Vietnam
I try to spend as much time as possible on site, at least two months a year and more often in the spring as that’s when the premium harvests take place: the tea is fuller and tastier then.
On every trip, I try to reach out to the younger generation. Thanks to my cooperative and my producer, I go to schools to teach children about the art and history of tea so that they can be proud of their culture, and these are always great moments.
"There's no school, knowledge is passed down from generation to generation. "
VÂN
What happens at harvest time?
In industrial tea growing, gardens and plantations are fenced off and machinery is used. In forest and mountain cultivation, pickers from different villages travel as far as possible to sell their fresh leaves to the shops they prefer or to those that pay the most.
For my part, I go there when the leaves are fresh, and I select batches from the workshops I work with, just a few producers. I made this decision to use very specific batches from a top-of-the-range organic selection.
Working in tea is a very difficult job. We work long days and get little sleep because we have to prepare, wilt and dry the leaves, and if we’re not careful, a whole batch might have to be thrown away. If we mess up, we’ll have nothing until the following spring, so it’s a big responsibility. There are no machines in the craft sector, everything is done by hand, by nose and by experience.
Every day is different, depending on the weather. If it’s too hot, or if it rains too hard, everything has to stop. We listen to nature and we wait.
There’s no school for learning, knowledge is passed down from generation to generation.
Vân picking tea
Vân picking tea
How many varieties of tea do you have?
We have a dozen teas and tea colours.. White, green, black, yellow, oolong, pure, fermented tea and exceptional batches. We also have blends that I make with Vietnamese spices and flowers to differentiate our tea and show its authenticity.
Each year, the name is the same but the tea is renewed, evolving according to the harvest.
What are your plans for the future?
My ambition is to promote Vietnamese culture in general. I want to tell the story of how we see life, how we celebrate it.
I also have a dream that here in my shop, which is also a gallery of drawings by talented Vietnamese artists, I will bring back a photo exhibition that I organised in Vietnam in 2018. I also want to promote the cultivation of forest tea, with a sensory exhibition.