Amidst the busy life in the heart of the capital, luxurious seats and elaborate drinks that take time become too far away. The presence of iced tea on the sidewalk gradually permeates the minds of Hanoians. To the point, this has become a street culture and the sidewalk is the preferred seat among all options.
For Hanoians, sidewalk iced tea is an indispensable part, it has become a permanent habit that creates a unique popular culture.
The fancy restaurants, accompanied by expensive drinks, make it difficult for anyone to say another word or order another drink.
But with iced tea, it’s different. There’s no need to dress up elaborately when drinking iced tea. Because the people sitting here can be seen from office workers to laborers or anyone else. There’s no comparison here, sometimes you can even get acquainted through a few stories.
A glass of iced tea for an autumn day in Hanoi
Having the opportunity to visit a tea shop with a prime location at 8 Hang Bun, the simple but not disjointed scene made me want to stop here immediately. My friend and I ordered two glasses of iced tea, sipped some sunflower seeds, and chatted with the shop owner.
He said: “There are a lot of customers here, every day is the same. Rain or shine, they still come here. Selling iced tea is both leisurely and fun and brings in a decent income. There are as many stories as there are customers sitting here. And not just Vietnamese customers, there are many Western customers who still come here to sit and drink like our people.”
Drinking iced tea is not necessarily a pleasure and just sitting and drinking. Over a glass of iced tea, people tell stories. Iced tea on the sidewalk carries within it all the joys, anger, love and hate of many people in the city. At that moment, they seem to gradually forget all the pressures of life.
The burden of urban struggles of both host and guest gradually disappears into a cup of tea. If we are too tired, we make a cup of iced tea, if we are too cold, we make a cup of hot tea, and the story continues like that, year round.
It's so simple, but the habit of drinking iced tea on the sidewalk is a nostalgia for those who are far from the capital.
No one knows when and where iced tea on the sidewalk came from, but everyone who has lived in the capital has probably had at least one glass of iced tea. In Hanoi, when you step out of your house and walk down the street, you will see iced tea shops. On every street or deep in the alleys, you will see iced tea shops everywhere. Just a few low plastic chairs, a set of cups, a teapot and a plate of sunflower seeds are enough to chat all day long.
Regardless of the season, the iced tea shops are still very attractive to customers. There are not many sophisticated drinks, just iced tea, guava juice, wormwood, sour plum, some peanut candy or sunflower seeds and a water pipe, some very common things in the middle of a bustling and modern place.
Iced tea is considered the cheapest and easiest thing to buy in Hanoi, only 3,000 or 5,000 VND. That is why people do not hesitate to order a second or third cup. The sweetness of peanut candy, the spicy tobacco, the bitterness of the iced tea, all blend together, just like that, you can put it in your mouth and talk about it forever without getting bored.
Regardless of gender, profession, age, sidewalk iced tea meets all the needs of all classes of people.
Iced tea sellers are as diverse as their customers. They can be young people or retired old people with free time. Selling iced tea does not require much capital investment. Iced tea shops in the capital never have any unique characteristics, but there are still places that are crowded with customers, and places that are sparsely populated, probably just enough for the shop owners to earn a few pennies to live on.
Time passed, iced tea on the sidewalk became an indispensable part of the lives of the people here. Everyone accepted its presence and always sought it out as a form of entertainment after stressful working hours. A very ordinary tea shop, nothing special, but it became an indispensable part of the lives of the people of Hanoi. And then when they had to leave this place, the habit of iced tea on the sidewalk was a memory in this land of a thousand years of civilization.
Not too fancy or grand, just a glass of iced tea at a sidewalk cafe can also become a very unique feature of Hanoi.
More and more shops are popping up, but iced tea on the sidewalk still has its attraction for all the people of the capital or tourists when they come here. That is enough to see how deeply this culture has been imprinted on many people of Hanoi.
