Trà Vũ: the storyteller pouring Vietnamese tea for a new generation

Vũ began his journey with Vietnamese tea in 2018 and turned professional in 2020. He describes himself as a trà nhân, a tea person, and as a storyteller of tea. The phrase is more than a slogan. His sessions are built so that knowledge, aesthetics and sincerity reach the guest through the tea itself, explained in plain language and paced to how familiar each guest already is with the leaf.

A graduate of FPT University, where he studied Business Administration, Vũ has since become one of the more visible young faces of Vietnamese tea culture. In 2022 he founded Societea, a Hanoi tea community he nicknames the “tổng hội chè chén”, a playful phrase that translates roughly as the grand society of tea drinkers. In 2025 he drew attention at the Tea Master Cup with a tea-brewing performance built around an unexpected tool, a coffee grinder. And from 19 to 21 May 2026, he attended the first International Tea Conference on La Réunion, the French island in the Indian Ocean, as a representative from Vietnam alongside tea-producing nations, experts and researchers.

Honest tea, sincere company

Vũ calls his philosophy Trà Chân, which might be rendered as true tea. It rests on two short lines: honesty in the taste of the tea, and sincerity in the meeting. In practice that means every session leaves room to taste, ask questions and talk. The brewing method, the teaware and the rhythm of service are chosen for each gathering rather than fixed in advance.

Three ideas run through the work. The first is cultural depth, told through the raw leaf, the people who make it and the customs of hospitality. The second is openness, so that newcomers feel welcome and the tea becomes a reason to talk. The third is contemporary practice, careful in its arrangement but flexible to the setting. One former student summed up the result on Google as tea served in a way that is rustic and sincere, with nothing showy about it.

From private tables to luxury salons

The practice now runs on three tracks. The first is the design of tea experiences: brand tea parties, private tea salons, tea omakase, workshops and private tastings, each with its own script, tea menu, table setting and host. The second is consulting for restaurants, hotels, tea houses and tea brands, covering product selection, menus, spaces and the rituals of service. The third is staff training for the tea industry.

The client list is unusually international for a Hanoi tea practitioner. Vũ has worked with Cartier, Vacheron Constantin and Tiffany & Co., with the audio partnership Lotus × KEF, with LaSen Tây Hồ and Hà Thành Mansion, with FPT University and with the Quân Chu tea company in Thái Nguyên. His portfolio lists ten projects across brand events, training and cultural programmes, under the motto that no two tea tables tell the same story.

For individuals and groups of fewer than six, Vũ offers private sessions built around five themes. Việt Thức Trà introduces the heritage of Vietnamese tea culture. Thiền Vị Trà is a mindful, meditative tasting. Dụng Tâm Trà looks at tea in everyday life. Thẩm Ý Trà is a sensory tasting that trains the palate, and Công Phu Trà teaches the gongfu brewing method. Every commission follows the same five steps: listening to the client, agreeing scope and schedule, designing the script and tea table, delivering the session in person, and reviewing it together afterwards.

One of those projects shows how the training side works. For Quân Chu Tea Company in Thái Nguyên, home of one of Vietnam’s best-known green teas, Vũ designed a programme to turn knowledge of the region’s tea into practical skill: understanding the raw material, recognising aromas and flavours, controlling brewing technique and presenting tea consistently. Participants studied the world’s major tea cultures, then practised gongfu brewing straight after the theory. Vũ wrote the curriculum and practical assessment, prepared the teas and teaware with his assistants, and taught the class himself.

Back to where the cup begins

Vũ insists that every cup has a landscape behind it. In Hà Giang, in Vietnam’s far north, he has walked among ancient tea trees and followed a batch of leaves with the farmers who make it, from fresh picking to finished tea, before brewing a pot beneath the trees. The same idea runs through Một Ấm Bao Đời, or One Pot Through the Generations, a short film directed by Yến Trang and written by Minh Thuận. It travels from the Long Cốc tea hills, where farmers pick and pan-fire the leaves, to a Hanoi tea table today, with Vũ playing the adult lead.

Teaching the next tea people

Trà Nhân is the name Vũ gives to the levels of his training system: three courses, taken in order, written and taught by Vũ himself. Classes are capped at five people, with flexible times and venues in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, either one to one or in small groups.

The beginner course runs over three sessions of 90 to 120 minutes and covers the basics of tea, the steps of brewing, tea at home and how to choose tea and teaware. Graduates should be able to brew a pot of gongfu tea on their own. The intermediate course spans nine sessions over 30 to 45 days. It introduces professional terminology and six core families of tea, from white, green and oolong to black tea and both raw and ripe fermented teas, along with production methods and the etiquette of serving. It ends with a practical test and a certificate. The advanced course is designed around each student, aimed at professionals, managers, tea house owners and tea businesses, and includes field experience, one-to-one career coaching and introductions to producers and employers.

Students appear to approve. On Google, Trà Vũ holds a perfect 5.0 rating from 15 reviews. Several reviewers describe arriving knowing almost nothing about tea and leaving relaxed rather than intimidated, while others credit the courses with setting them on a professional path. Vũ’s own professional record includes a completion certificate in Wuyi rock tea from Desire Star Tea Culture in China.

Societea, a community around the cup

If the brand work brings Vũ into luxury salons, Societea keeps him rooted in Hanoi’s everyday tea life. The community hosts a free Trà Hội, or tea gathering, every Sunday afternoon, and organises meetings with artisans and specialists around themes such as hát văn ritual singing, lotus tea, matcha and live music. Members say the point is connection as much as the drink. One reviewer noted that Hanoi has plenty of tea shops, but few places where tea is more than something to drink.

His work has drawn steady press attention, from Tatler Asia, which explored where the soul of Vietnamese tea really lies, to Nhân Dân, Người Lao Động, Văn Hóa, Vietnam Business Insider, Travellive and Sống Trẻ. FPT University also featured him in an episode of its Alumni Around series, released on 14 October 2023.

The line that opens his website sums up the approach: every cup of tea, a story. Whether the setting is a private table for four or a brand evening for a Swiss watchmaker, the method stays the same. Sit down, listen first, and let the tea start the conversation.

TRÀ VŨ AT A GLANCE