Tra sen

Tra sen Hue is a Hue specialty. Enjoying this tea is a traditional ceremonial art of the imperial city.

During the Nguyen Dynasty in the 1800s, imperial maids used to row to Tinh Tam Lake to collect each dewdrop on the sen leaves to make tea. The maids served the tea to kings in a different special tea pot for each of the four seasons.

“Lotus tea has its own summer tea pot, for example,” says Nguyen Dac Xuan, 90, an historian specialising in the history and culture of the Nguyen Dynasty.

“Sen flowers grow in all of the country’s rural areas. But a sen tea connoisseur prefers tea scented by sen flowers grown in Tinh Tam Lake, where the lotus flowers are much more aromatic than lotus flowers from elsewhere,” Hue expert cook Ton Nu Thi Ha says.

Lotus flowers bloom from early May through June. This is the season when dried tea leaves are traditionally placed in newly opened lotus flowers which are then tied closed to perfume the tea.

“When the lotus flowers opened at midnight, the tea leaves were placed inside the flowers. At 5am these same flowers were then harvested to make tea,” Hoang Anh Suong, Xuan’s son, says.

Lotus flowers for fragrant tea should be picked before dawn. Cool air and fog help to preserve the light, pure fragrance of sen. After sunrise, sen loses its fragrance due to the heat.

In the past, lotus tea was only served to kings in Hue.

But sen tea was also well known in Ha Noi’s ancient villages around Ho Tay (West Lake). For example, Quang Ba, Tay Ho and Nghi Tam villages have long been renowned for making lotus-scented tea.

As a result, many Hanoians have known for generations how to enjoy lotus tea in the most sophisticated, precise and stylish way, lotus tea expert Truong Xuan says.

Ho Tay sen (West Lake lotus tea) is considered the most precious lotus tea because of its beauty and aroma.

These days there are new ways to scent tea. The most popular method utilises lotus anthers to perfume tea at home.

There are also many closely guarded secrets for making tasty lotus-scented tea.

One method involves layering dry tea and dry lotus anthers, then wrapping them in water-resistant paper for three days to preserve the delicate fragrance. This process must be repeated seven times for three weeks to make the most perfect sen tea, says Suong who learned this art from his father.

20th century writer Nguyen Tuan praised lotus tea for embodying the highest cultural values of the Trang An (an old name for Hanoi) native people, reflecting the precision, stylishness, elegance and connoisseurship of Hanoian culture.

“Sen tea is the most precious and popular perfumed tea. Sen fragrance embodies the most essential qualities of earth and heaven,” Tuan wrote.

“Lotus plants grow in black mud, but never smell bad. Therefore, lotus represents the most important qualities of sky and earth. This is why lotus roots, leaves and flowers are precious herbs,” said Vietnam’s most renowned herbalist, Hai Thuong Lan Ong (1720-1791).

Vo Thi Lua of Ha Noi’s Thanh Xuan District and her husband enjoy lotus tea for its aromatic fragrance, compared to other teas.

“Tra sen is a national heritage which should be preserved,” Lua says.

Mut sen tran

The Vietnamese consider Mut sen tran (Sugar-coated lotus seeds) one of Vietnam’s greatest gifts to the world.

Tue Tinh (1330-1400), a renowned herbalist of the Tran Dynasty, called the lotus seed a “son of the lotus plant” because it is a nutritious food which helps cool internal body heat, as well as a medicine to treat sleeplessness without harmful side effects.

These treasured seeds are essential for Tet and wedding parties for Hanoians.

Veteran artisan Nguyen Vy, 87, an owner of Ninh Huong which sells the best mut sen tran in Ha Noi, says the food originated in Nanh Village in Ha Noi’s Gia Lam District hundreds of years ago.

After a long history of working with herbs, the village now specialises in making traditional food.

Artisan food-making was interrupted by wars in the past and Vy sometimes had to do other jobs, such as tailoring, to earn a living.

“But we have tried to preserve our tradition of making mut sen tran because it is a noble food left to us by our ancestors,” Vy says.

Dam Hong Lam, 40, of HCM City always remembers to buy several kilograms of mut sen tran as gifts for his relatives and friends.

“My family members often enjoy mut sen tran with sen tea during the Tet holidays when we fully enjoy the essence and spirit of the food.”

“My father said drinking astringent tea together with sweet, nutty lotus seed during Tet creates harmony and a peaceful,warm quality,” Lam says.

In the box

Mut sen tran (Sugar-coated lotus seeds) can be found at:

Hanoi:

– Phuc Thanh.

19 Hang Dieu Street. Phone: 0906160984

– Ninh Huong

22 Hang Dieu Street. Phone: (04) 3825 1148

– Phuong Soat

75 Hang Chieu Street. Phone: (04) 3828 1169

– O mai Hong Lam

11 Hang Duong Street. Phone: (04) 3928 1838

1A Pho Hue Street. Phone: (04) 6278 2511

151 Quang Trung Street. Phone: (04) 6325 0230

– O mai Tien Thinh

21 Hang Duong Street. Phone: (04) 3984 0323

25 Phan Dinh Phung Street. Phone: (04) 6270 0723

Ho Chi Minh City

– O mai Hong Lam

82-84 Ham Nghi Street. District 1. Phone: (08) 3914 0177

Tra sen (Lotus tea) is served at:

Hanoi:

– Tra sen

169 Nghi Tam Street. Phone: 0976 775 814251

Tran Cung Street. Phone: 0976 775 814

– Tam tra quan

51 Phan Chu Trinh Alley, Phan Chu Trinh Street. Phone: 093 649 95 69

– Vo uu tra quan

68E Tran Quang Dieu Street. Phone: 0902 362628

Hue:

– Tra Dinh Vu Di

Thien An Eco-Tourism, Cu Chanh village, Huong Thuy town. Phone: (054) 3865703

– Tra That Kim Long

110 Kim Long Street. Phone: (0511) 3692 963

Da Nang:

– Tra That Hoa Sen

156-158 Nguyen Tri Phuong Street, Son Tra District. Phone: (0511) 3725 304

Ho Chi Minh City:

– Khanhcasa Tea House

46 Dong Khoi Street, District 1. Phone: 01266666605 – 0838251757

66 Le Loi Street, District 1. Phone: 01266666605 – 0838251757

77 Ham Nghi Street, District 1. Phone: 01266666605 – 0838251757

214 De Tham Street, District 1. Phone: 01266666605 – 0838251757

In the last two years, they have tried to help Kai Kai and Jia Jia out a little through artificial insemination.

The pandas have been together for about four years but are still young and inexperienced when it comes to mating.

So when Jia Jia shows signs of becoming fertile, humans spring into action.

Though this year’s attempt was again unsuccessful, Cheng Wen-Haur, chief life sciences officer and deputy chief executive officer of Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS), believes they now have a better handle on Jia Jia’s behavioural cues and the period she is fertile, which happens once a year.

“Both Kai Kai and Jia Jia have also shown improvements in their mating techniques since their first mating attempt last year,” said Dr Cheng.

While Kai Kai, nine, and Jia Jia, eight, are friendly to each other, the furry duo, on a 10-year loan from China, are still teenagers in panda years. Unsuccessful mating is therefore not uncommon for the young and inexperienced like them.

Experts in China report a 60 to 80 per cent success rate in getting pandas to mate successfully but, outside of China, it is pretty much “hit or miss”, said Cheng.

Part of it is to do with experience and part of it is the fact that the Chinese simply have more pandas to work with.

All that aside, breeding pandas in captivity is a headache in itself.

In the wild, a receptive female panda would have its pick of the most virile bear — an experienced male in its prime.

“Cut back to us, we have got a boy and a girl — no experience whatsoever, and we expect them to go on and do it,” said Cheng.

Trying to anticipate when the female giant panda is most fertile is also a tricky business. It has only one reproductive cycle per year and is receptive to mating for one or two days. It is fertile for just 24 hours.

This means the vets have a one-day window period or less to ensure the best chance of success. Artificial insemination has to be carried out as soon as the oestrogen level drops, after it peaks.

“By the time it has dropped too much, we would have missed the window period,” said Cheng.

And even if the vets score a hit with the insemination, various other factors could stand in the way of a successful pregnancy taking.

“Female pandas have pseudopregnancy, a state in which pregnancy symptoms are shown but the panda is not pregnant. This makes it challenging to detect a genuine pregnancy,” he explained.

Despite the challenges, vets at the River Safari believe they are getting closer to helping the young pandas become proud parents.

For instance, they were better this year at reading Jia Jia’s signs, and so the procedure was carried out closer to when she was fertile, said Serena Oh, assistant director of veterinary services at WRS.

“This year we did it the very day her oestrogen level dropped. Last year, we did it the day after,” said Oh. Vets and keepers will continue to perfect their timing of Jia Jia’s fertile period.

As giant pandas are seasonal breeders, with females coming into heat in the spring, zookeepers will continue to vary daylight hours and the temperature in their space to simulate the passage of the seasons as they would occur in the pandas’ homeland in Sichuan, China.

“If we want it to get brighter earlier, we just turn on the lights early. If we want it to get darker, we just turn it off and we have dark curtains to make it all black,” said Dr Oh.

Latest estimates have put the population of adult giant pandas at 1,864, moving the status of the cuddly, charismatic species from “endangered” to “vulnerable”.

Fertility specialist Liow Swee Lian said artificial insemination is the cheapest and safest procedure for animal breeding in livestock and wildlife conservation.

Other methods of conservation, including animal cloning and in-vitro fertilisation, are costlier.

“Most importantly, we should do our part to conserve the natural habitats for all animals threatened with extinction. It will be a very sad day for us when we can find these animals only in the zoo,” said Dr Liow.

But while conserving natural habitats is important, breeding animals under human care is a good backup.

Dr Cheng said: “Captive breeding is an important component in the conservation of giant pandas. We need to have an assurance colony in case something disastrous happens in nature.”