The pitcher of miền Tây-style sweet tea is like a boat ride taking me away from the exhaustion of the city back to the memories of my hometown amongst the canals of the Mekong Delta.
It’s a sweltering noon. I’m busy finding my uniform and preparing my backpack for this afternoon’s extra lesson. My midday napping habit has caused trouble for keeping up with the school schedule many times. I rush towards the Honda Cub in the front yard and see that my mom has already hung a familiar plastic pitcher on its side. She shows up behind me as if by teleportation and chastises my tardiness, as usual: “You sleep too much, so I made you trà đá đường to sip on while you go to class to continue sleeping!”
Just like that, pitchers of trà đá đường have quenched my thirst during every humid lesson and indulged my laziness during downtime when I sip while watching TV. It’s also my go-to order whenever my friends and I hang out at a streetside cafe.
Trà đá đường is self-explanatory: it’s made of tea, ice, and sugar. Photos via Facebook page Đồng Tháp Mười.
When typing these memories, I called my mom to share with her my intention. I told her that I would love to write about her pitchers of trà đá đường, about the pitchers we order at cafes, and, above all, about the familiar sweet tea of our hometown. She laughed at me through the video chat: “Oh dear, what is there to write about trà đá đường?”
When I think about it more, I get what she meant. It’s not too bold to claim that trà đá đường is like the lifeblood of delta folks. It shows up in every corner of life, when we’re thirsty, when we’re tired, when our appetite wanes. It exists as an assumed default beverage, so commonplace that it might seem that there’s nothing to discuss or debate over.
Transparency right from the name
Right from the name, this drink is already as transparent and straightforward as can be. “Trà đá đường” is simply made of trà (tea), đá (ice), and đường (sugar). Still, it’s not just any sweetened tea like some believe. There’s no official recipe for sweet tea, but the most popular method is steeping tea leaves really intensely to produce a strong brew with distinctive aroma and tannic taste. Then, add as much sugar as your heart desires. Many might be alarmed by this rather generous amount of sugar, but worry not; the concentrated sugared tea is then tempered by an equally generous amount of crushed ice. In the extreme heat of the delta, the ice will quickly melt to balance out the cloying sweetness of the tea.
A classic pitcher of trà đá đường. Photo via Măm Măm Sài Gòn.
Enjoying trà đá đường has never been a procedural or structured activity: you can take sips, use a spoon, or slurp loudly through a straw. Or, if particularly parched, just put the teaspoon handle across the pitcher opening to stop ice cubes from flowing into your mouth, and then chug. It also doesn’t require a table or special occasion. A pitcher of sweet tea can appear at any time on any surface to do its God-given job: bringing relief to dry throats.
In my opinion, a good trà đá đường should retain the slightly bitter and tannic notes of strong tea, followed by the sweetness of sugar. In one sip, one should be able to sense the faint grassy notes of tea, as well as the crunchy texture of crushed ice and some undissolved sugar crystals.
Of course, these are my preferences based on the best tea pitchers I’ve experienced, but each household, cafe, or person will no doubt have their own set of standards. Some prefer brutally strong tea with minimal sweetness, while others choose to dilute the tea with tap water to increase the drinkable volume. My family only uses móc câu tea by the Thiên Hương No. 9 brand, but my friend’s is faithful to Thái Nguyên jasmine tea.
Trà đá đường in the Mekong “sweet tooth” universe
On the other hand, not all Mekong families are into this tea. A high school friend used to complain to me about the trà đá đường ban at her home, as the parents were deadly afraid of diabetes. They scared her into abstinence by warning her that if she drank this stuff too much, ants would find her at night in bed.
Every family develops its own tea from a range of local brands. Photo via Tạp Hóa Tá Lả Miền Tây.
I couldn’t help but burst out laughing when I heard the story. I still remember her gaze of admiration when she saw me chugging the tea pitcher I brought to class. Sometimes, I even sneaked her some, just as a treat, saying: “I think your mom worries too much. I had lunch at your house, and every dish was sweet. I don’t think we can live without sweetness.”
We realized the unspoken truth behind that offhand claim. Our palates would not be content without sugar. A pot of pepper braised pork, as savory as it is with lots of fish sauce, would not achieve its enticing shine without caramelized sugar. A plate of cơm tấm sườn must be accompanied by a viscous bowl of sweetened nước chấm. Trà đá đường is just one of many ways southern people sweeten our lives.
Many treat trà đá đường as a default way to hydrate. I have yet to reach the level of one pitcher a day, but I have heard of people who are already there — wherever they go, whatever meal they have, trà đá đường must be on the side. To me, it’s not a must-have everyday drink, but after a few days without it, I feel a craving.
Since that one time I let my friend drink my tea, she started asking me to make her some when I came to class. As I watched her painstakingly scrubbing her water bottle to remove any tea trace to hide it from her mom, I couldn’t help wondering who invented this addictive drink that stole the hearts of miền Tây people and pushed my friend into this subterfuge.
A recipe for a tea mix that went viral on social media. Image via TikTok user @nguyenthithaoquyen97.
According to my grandmother, in the 1930s and 1940s, during her generation, trà đá đường had already existed in the Mekong Delta. There is no written record confirming its origins, so my personal theory is simply that, in a land where sugar is so abundant that it appears in nearly every dish, iced tea is no exception.
Where I live, the elders believe that trà đá đường is a very potent energy drink. Just drink it, and you will feel healthy and awake immediately, they rave. Tea does contain caffeine, and sugar indeed gets turned into energy, so trà đá đường was born to be the countryside’s cheapest form of energy drink. Just imagine: after a whole morning laboring away in the field, you hunker down to rest and gulp up a huge sip of ice-cold, refreshing tea. How satisfying would that be? Perhaps, providing temporary relief from the back-breaking labor of agriculture was how trà đá đường first found its way into our hearts.
The delta’s choice of energy drink.
Today, trà đá đường is not beloved by just people who farm, but also cà phê võng patrons, children napping after school, street vendors in markets, ferry workers on a break, and xe ôm uncles waiting at intersections. A pitcher of trà đá đường is present somewhere by their side.
Now, living in the city, I tend to think of milk tea when the word tea is mentioned. It, too, is familiar and relevant to my current environment, yet, there is still a small corner within me for the pitchers of trà đá đường Mom made for me to take to school.
