The secret behind the expensive tea products of Shark Hung

The love for Vietnamese tea and regret for the forgotten ancient tea values have prompted Shark Pham Thanh Hung to create Hacoocha branded tea products with the desire to compete with the world's best tea brands.

For Mr. Hung, the development of a tea brand comes from love and enthusiasm for Vietnamese tea, not for profit.

Since Tet last year, in gift baskets of "connoisseurs", instead of famous foreign wine bottles, many people were surprised to see high-end tea boxes with prices dozens of times higher than ordinary teas. Each gift box is meticulously packed, with luxurious motifs, not only making the giver feel confident but the recipient is also very proud.

Few people know that the person behind this expensive tea brand is Shark Pham Thanh Hung, a famous businessman in the real estate market who, because of his love of Vietnamese tea, has created a very miraculous tea.

Have a predestined with tea

Success in the real estate business as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Cen Group and one of the famous "shark" investors in Shark Tank Vietnam, but few people know that his first business field is tea.

Quê gốc Hà Nội nhưng lớn lên ở vùng đất trung du, trong suốt những năm tháng chiến tranh, gia đình đi sơ tán, tuổi thơ Shark Hưng gắn liền với những đồi chè xanh bát ngát. Nông trường chè Chí Linh ở tỉnh Hải Dương khi đó là một trong những nơi sản xuất chè lớn nhất miền Bắc.

Looking back, Mr. Hung still remembers very clearly every early morning, picking tea on the tea hills one after another, running on a long, hot weekend with his parents and family. The love for tea has grown over the years and seems to have permeated into the flesh and blood.

Right from university, Mr. Hung brought tea to Hanoi to sell, although at that time, the family was no longer in Hai Duong tea land. The tea business at that time came from love and attachment rather than making a profit.

Later, after having had the experience, spent a lot of time researching famous ancient tea brands in the world, every time he went abroad, the biggest pleasure for Mr. tea specialties of that country.

From the world's high-end tea brands such as T2 of the UK, Celestial Seasonings of the US, TWG of Singapore or the world's most expensive Pu-erh tea cakes dating back decades in China, it is rare to find any kind of tea Mr. haven't tried it yet.

Now, his main occupation is real estate business, but Mr. Hung has a passion for backpacking and mountain climbing. And during his climbing trips in the highland province of Ha Giang, on the mountain slopes 1,500m above sea level, he discovered extremely rare ancient tea hills. With the trees ancient tea, the diameter is up to about 50 - 70cm, according to experts, the lifespan can be up to thousands of years. Trees with a diameter of about 15-20cm with a lifespan of several hundred years are also numerous.

The ancient Snow Shan tea trees are hundreds of years old

Digging deeper, Mr. Hung learned that most of the rare and ancient tea materials were purchased by Chinese traders. Tea only needs to be picked at the foot of the hill to be bought, preliminarily processed, then packed and transferred to the other side of the border. After that, the Chinese people marinated and fermented them to become especially expensive teas.

Looking to specialist tea factories for China, Mr. Hung was even more shocked when the owners of these tea factories also admitted that, as long as Chinese traders brought tea out the door, the value increased hundreds of times. , and when brought back to China, the value increased thousands of times. "Chinese traders ordered to produce 1,000 tea cakes, but when they reached the other side of the border, they only needed to sell one cake to break even," Hung said.

Hiking up the Tay Con Linh range, Mr. Hung was "startled" when he used his phone to measure the road and found that his place was just over 200km from the famous Pu Er tea area in Yunnan province (China) by the crow's way.

Sad for the ancient tea trees that are not returned at the right value, sorry for the excellent tea products several hundred to thousands of years old that are exported raw at a cheap price, or are over-harvested or improperly processed. Mr. Hung is more determined to build an ancient Shan Tuyet tea brand with the desire to compete with the world's best tea brands.

From there, the Hacoocha Tea brand was born. Hacoocha is based on the criterion of combining ancient tea secrets with modern quintessence, creating excellent tea products that fully store the most quintessential values of ancient Shan Tuyet tea trees.

Also "playing" very sophisticated craft

From the initial ideas in his head, Mr. Hung continued to climb the high and dangerous Tay Con Linh mountain. The deeper he went into the ancient tea areas in the west of Ha Giang province, the more he saw many ancient tea trees growing on the mountainsides, no one owned, but "their ethnic people keep claiming to be their own".

The preservation of these tea plants is a huge problem as local people are always looking for ways to take advantage of them. There are tens of meters high tea trees that people always cut down to pick buds. It takes several years for the tree to grow new sprouts. He asked to buy back those tea plants by handwriting with the confirmation of the village chiefs, then in the season to hire the people there to help pick them.

To pick tea, there is no other way, people have to climb the mountains and cliffs very hard

Growing at an altitude of more than 1,500m, with a lifespan of hundreds of years, the ancient Shan Tuyet tea trees are both rare and of higher quality than those in Trung Son, growing at an altitude of 700-1,200m such as: in Moc Chau or Ha Son at an altitude of less than 700m such as Thai Nguyen, Phu Tho.

The tea tree itself is very picky about soil and climate. There are precious tea trees that, when beaten up and planted in other areas for conservation, are damaged. The ancient tea trees located on Tay Con Linh mountain enjoy the fresh, pollution-free air, being absorbed by the wind and dew to create a unique flavor.

To pick tea, there is no other way, people have to climb the mountain tops and cliffs very hard, and at most, they can only pick 5 bags a day, 3-5 kg each.

After purchasing raw materials, the processing stage is also very sophisticated. Mr. Hung went to meet and cooperate with many ancient tea artisans to jointly improve the conditions of tea processing to create excellent tea products.

Miracle right from the tea drying stage…

After the tea is picked, it is dried in large trays, and the artisan has to arrange each leaf one by one to avoid being crushed. Every processing stage is very meticulous and requires highly skilled artisans who are really knowledgeable and connoisseur of tea.

There are three common ways of processing tea: thermal action, physical action, and biochemical fermentation, each of which requires "esoteric" skills. Like the physical impact is to use the tea machine to secrete resin, thereby creating flavor. The biochemical effect is forced fermentation by increasing humidity and temperature, or natural fermentation is to keep the tea into cakes for self-fermentation.

… to brew tea!

For a long time, Mr. Hung went up to the tea areas every week to monitor the processing process. Wherever there is delicious tea, he also collects and drinks it. Everywhere, from the home office to the corporate tea room, was filled with tea. Each tea product is carefully researched by him and his associates, constantly adjusting, adding one flavor, removing another to produce the most satisfactory tea products.

If at mass-produced tea farms, they only harvest once every two weeks, but with ancient Snow Shan tea, they can only pick two crops a year, which is extremely rare. Moreover, the rate of failure, loss, and breakage is also very high.

Because of its rarity and elaborate production, each box of Hacoocha tea 70g-100g has the most expensive price up to 1 million VND, each kg of tea costs from 10 million VND. Meanwhile, Thai Nguyen's delicious industrial tea is only 800,000 VND/kg. However, Mr. Hung said that the price of Hacoocha tea is still extremely cheap if compared with the quality and value of tea products with famous tea brands in the world.

Aspiration to raise the level of Vietnamese tea

Right from the name, "Hacoocha" has expressed Mr. Hung's desire to preserve the quintessence of ancient tea. Hacoocha according to Mr. Hung is "Ha Giang ancient tea", ancient tea of Ha Giang, but he revealed a very interesting meaning: "two cups of tea" or double tea.

As a brand person, Mr. Hung is very picky in designing the brand for Hacoocha. He took the symbol of two deer standing next to an ancient tea tree and according to Western culture, deer is an animal that means protecting the forest. Building such a name and brand image, Mr. Hung wishes to protect ancient tea and promote the quintessential values of Vietnamese tea.

Hacoocha's products are aimed at really high-end consumers

Or like the naming of the tea lines, Mr. Hung also put a lot of heart into it. Hacoocha's five lines of tea correspond to the five elements of mutual birth, each with many unique products. Dozens of "cousin" names of the Hacoocha family each have a personality but are also very related, hearing the name is guessing. For example, white tea has Silver Light, Virgin Silver or green tea has Woody Incense and Woody Sword.

If yellow tea is gentle with Hugged Mountain, passionately seductive with Foggy Mountain, the black tea branch is famous with Pink Lady and Thunder Horse. Finally, the elder brother of the fully fermented tea line, also known as dark tea with the majestic name Mountain Stream.

There are many rare and naturally fermented tea cakes such as Sun Arrow, or Glory Moon and Red Moon. These are all excellent and rare tea products that have never been easy to obtain.

More delicately, Mr. Hung also selected the English language corresponding to each tea line. As Bac Nguyen Khai is Virgin Silver or Hong Nu Nhi is Pink Lady, and according to Mr. Hung's revelation, this bilingual idea also represents the goal of not only conquering the domestic market but also exporting Vietnamese tea to compete. compete with the world's leading brands.

Currently, Hacoocha's products are aimed at really high-class consumers, especially those who meditate, tea connoisseurs, understand and appreciate the values of ancient tea. With the values of hard work, right from the first Tet season, a number of tea products were launched to explore the market and although only sold directly through the "acquaintance" channel, Hacoocha was still "sold out".

This year, Hacoocha continues to launch delicious tea products and many high-class Tet gift sets, meticulously prepared, expecting to conquer even the most demanding customers. The company has just launched a gift set of Rhythm of Time with 15 unique tea products, containing 15 surprising stories for each day. Rhythm of Time tea box is inspired by European Advent calendars, when enjoying tea or sweets while counting down each day until Christmas and New Year.

Demand is expanding day by day, but in order to develop a stronger brand, the biggest problem is output. With extremely rare and scarce raw materials, to increase tea production, expanding production is not simple. Currently Mr. Hung is looking for more precious ancient tea areas in Yen Bai and Son La, striving to reach the revenue target of 70-100 billion VND/year.

And currently, although the revenue is not worth it compared to real estate investment activities, Mr. Hung said, "The development of the tea brand comes from love and enthusiasm for Vietnamese tea, not for profit".

Looking further, for Mr. Hung, that is not all. With Hacoocha, Mr. Hung hopes to revive and add great values to ancient tea and the tea-drinking culture of Vietnamese people.

“Instead of guests coming to the house to invite wine may be drinking tea. A precious teapot is sometimes even more expensive and precious than a bottle of brandy. More importantly, drinking tea is an elegant, luxurious and quiet hobby. Thanks to that, people can get closer together, tell each other good and interesting stories, while drinking alcohol is noisy and harmful to health, "said Mr. Hung.