Trà Tấm Đinh (Broken Needle Tea)
The broken fraction of the needle grade. It brews faster and stronger than whole buds, which makes it the practical choice for a busy kitchen.
Broken Needle Tea at a glance
Broken Needle Tea (Tra Tam Dinh) is made from the smaller pieces sifted out of the bud and needle grades, from tea plucked by hand 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 green gold, brewing faster than whole leaf, with young rice on the nose; in the mouth, the same garden character, arriving quicker in the cup.
Made from needle-tea leaf, this grade is clean and safe, but it is not sold as part of TRAVINA’s 6 Không line and it is not certified organic. 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 Broken Needle Tea
Broken leaf gives up its flavour fast, so brew it short. Use 4-5 g for a 250 ml pot at 80-85 C and steep the first infusion only 15-20 seconds; any longer turns it harsh. The sachet version needs no pot at all: one sachet in a cup of hot water, taken out after a minute.
Where Broken Needle Tea sits in the TRAVINA range
Broken 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
Documents: Broken needle tea is sorted out of our needle grade and has no report of its own; the needle-grade documents are lab report No. 78102025/KQKN dated 29 Oct 2025 (PDF) and product self-declaration No. 08/TRAVINA/2025 (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. 78102025/KQKN – page 1
Lab report No. 78102025/KQKN – page 2
Product self-declaration No. 08/TRAVINA/2025
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.
Benefits
- Taste: the same garden character, arriving quicker in the cup.
- Aroma: young rice.
- Liquor: green gold, brewing faster than whole leaf.
- 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 | Broken Needle Tea (Tra Tam Dinh) |
|---|---|
| Type | Vietnamese green tea, broken leaf |
| Grade | Broken fraction of the bud and needle grades |
| Picking standard | the smaller pieces sifted out of the bud and needle grades |
| 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, 200 g and 500 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.
