Trà Đinh Tiên Sơn (Tien Son Needle Tea)
Single unopened buds picked at first light. Tien Son is the everyday name for this grade in Thai Nguyen, and it is as clean as green tea gets.
Tien Son Needle Tea at a glance
Tien Son Needle Tea (Tra Dinh Tien Son) is made from single unopened buds, plucked by hand at first light in the cooperative gardens at La Bang, Thai Nguyen province, northern Vietnam. Every TRAVINA tea is picked by hand; none of it is machine-harvested.
The dry leaf carries the blue-black sheen that marks good Thai Nguyen tea. In the cup it pours clear, pale green gold, with young rice, clean and sweet on the nose; in the mouth, almost no astringency, a deep sweetness that lingers.
More than ten kilograms of fresh buds make one kilogram of finished tea, and there are only five or six pickings a year.
The gardens are farmed to 6 Không practice. That is not the same as certified organic and TRAVINA does not claim that it is. What the cooperative does hold is VietGAP (DVCL-VG-TT-24-19-68), ISO 22000:2018 for the La Bang facility (GOODVN91025.FSMS), food safety licence 14/2025/UBND-NNMT-TNg, registered planting-area code.
TRAVINA is the export brand of Tam Tra Viet Cooperative in Thai Nguyen. Ninety member households farm 40.5 hectares across Dai Tu and La Bang. Every leaf is picked by hand, and every batch is processed at the cooperative’s own facilities.
How to brew Tien Son Needle Tea
Bud grades are delicate. Use 5-7 g of leaf for a 250 ml pot and water at 80-85 C, never straight off the boil. Rinse the leaf for five seconds and pour that water away, then steep the first infusion 20-25 seconds and add five to ten seconds to each one after it. Four to five infusions: the astringency stays light throughout and the sweetness builds as you go.
Where Tien Son Needle Tea sits in the TRAVINA range
Tien Son Needle Tea belongs to the Thai Nguyen Green Tea range. If you are comparing grades, the bud teas sit at the top of the ladder – see Tien Vua Needle Tea – while Premium Moc Cau Green Tea is the everyday benchmark most Vietnamese households drink. For gifting, the same leaves appear boxed in Tea Boxes and Gift Sets.
Wholesale and export
The cooperative sells in bulk as well as in retail packing. Minimum order quantity is set case by case against what the season has produced rather than by a fixed table, so tell us the volume and the packing you need. For a formal export order we can supply the VietGAP certificate, the ISO 22000:2018 certificate for the La Bang facility, the food safety licence, the registered planting-area code and a pesticide residue test report; phytosanitary certificate, certificate of origin and HS classification are prepared per shipment.
Production details and quality documents
| Plucking standard and cultivar | 1 needle, or 1 needle + 1 unopened shoot |
|---|---|
| Garden and site | A separate plot on the slopes of Tiên Sơn, the old canton covering La Bằng and Hoàng Nông, a tea area known since the late 19th century; 6-No farming; La Bằng site (ISO 22000) |
| Made by | Artisans Phạm Hoàng Giang and Ma Thị Tuyến |
| Dry leaf and cup | Young-rice aroma, rich body, clear liquor |
| Typical buyer | Specialty tea shops, connoisseurs, premium gifting |
From 29 September 2026 this grade is renamed Tiên Sơn Needle Tea (Trà Đinh Tiên Sơn).
Documents: lab report No. 90061/PKN-VKNQG dated 29 Oct 2025 (PDF) and product self-declaration No. 08/TRAVINA/2026 (PDF). Reports are issued by the Thái Nguyên Centre for Agro-Forestry-Fishery Quality Technical Services and Training (VILAS 1098). Documents are in Vietnamese.
Lab report No. 90061/PKN-VKNQG – page 1
Lab report No. 90061/PKN-VKNQG – page 2
Product self-declaration No. 08/TRAVINA/2026
Public copies with signatures masked; originals are shown to buyers on request and sent with the quotation. All tea lines: document library · Compare grades: grade sheet.
Every photograph on this page was taken at our own cooperative in Dai Tu, Thai Nguyen. Real leaf, real packaging, no stock images.
Buying inside Vietnam? Domestic wholesale and reseller orders are handled by our cooperative, HTX Tâm Trà Việt, on its Vietnamese site: Trà Đinh Thái Nguyên.
Benefits
- Taste: almost no astringency, a deep sweetness that lingers.
- Aroma: young rice, clean and sweet.
- Liquor: clear, pale green gold.
- Three to four infusions from one measure of leaf.
- Picked by hand and processed by the same cooperative that farms the gardens, so every batch is traceable to a plot.
Specifications
| Product name | Ngoc Needle Tea (Tra Dinh Ngoc) |
|---|---|
| Type | Vietnamese green tea |
| Grade | Needle grade (Tra Dinh) |
| Picking standard | a single unopened bud, picked at first light |
| Ingredients | 100 percent Thai Nguyen green tea leaf |
| Origin | Dai Tu and La Bang, Thai Nguyen province, northern Vietnam |
| Producer | Tam Tra Viet Cooperative (TRAVINA) |
| Production facility | La Bang facility |
| Certification | VietGAP (DVCL-VG-TT-24-19-68), ISO 22000:2018 for the La Bang facility (GOODVN91025.FSMS), food safety licence 14/2025/UBND-NNMT-TNg, registered planting-area code |
| Packing | 100 g and 200 g vacuum pouches |
| Storage | Cool, dry place, away from direct sunlight and strong odours. Reseal tightly or refrigerate after opening. |
| Shelf life | As printed on each pack. |
| Wholesale | Bulk, private label and export packing available. Minimum order quantity and lead time on request. |
How to use
- Warm the pot and cups with boiling water, then pour it away.
- Use 10 g of leaf for one standard pot. About 6 g gives a lighter cup, 12 to 15 g a strong one. One kilogram makes roughly 100 pots.
- Wake the leaf: cover with hot water, swirl for five seconds and pour it away.
- First infusion: water at about 80 to 85 C. Let boiled water stand two minutes. Steep 20 to 25 seconds.
- Add 10 to 15 seconds for each further infusion. Good leaf gives three to four.
