Producing herbal tea with… straw!
(Baonghean) - That is the story of "farmer" - veteran Phan Van Hoa in Vinh Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district, who researched and created a purple rice variety - VH1 herbal rice. Now he is "experimenting" with using straw and stubble of that purple rice variety to produce a herbal tea with initial success...
After many years of research efforts, using the method of selecting and creating new varieties, Mr. Phan Van Hoa has succeeded with the VH1 herbal rice variety, a rare rice variety in Vietnam that produces rice products with herbal properties. According to the assessment of the Center for Technical Standards and Quality Measurement 1 (General Department of Standards and Quality Measurement): Rice grown from the VH1 herbal rice variety is rich in micronutrients, trace elements and vitamins A, B (B1, B2, B6), lipids, fiber, Omega substances to fight cancer, prevent osteoporosis, and is very beneficial for overweight people. The main characteristics of this rice variety are the purple Hue stem and rice grains; the rice leaves are purple in the early stages, later turning dark green... With the benefits of this rice variety, many localities such as Quang Binh, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Ninh Binh, Nam Dinh, Thai Binh... have directly come to Vinh Hoa Limited Liability Company to learn and order seeds to plant locally with a total area of about 1,000 hectares.
Not only is herbal rice valuable, but in 2014, Mr. Phan Van Hoa also successfully tested the production of herbal tea made from the straw of VH1 herbal rice. Since then, he has not only purchased VH1 rice for farmers but also purchased the straw of this rice variety at the price of 800,000 VND/sao.
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| Herbal tea products are made from purple rice stalks. |
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| Mr. Phan Van Hoa with the purple rice bundle VH1. |
Visiting Mr. Phan Van Hoa's herbal tea production facility while he was directing workers to pack tea. He confided: In 2013, when I visited the VH1 purple rice field during the harvest in Bao Thanh commune - Yen Thanh, I accidentally picked up a stalk of straw and saw purple color stuck to my hand. I thought that the straw and stubble must still contain a lot of Omega content... How can I take advantage of the precious content that is in excess on the VH1 straw? After many sleepless nights, I found a solution, which is that I can take advantage of the straw and stubble of VH1 rice to produce herbal tea. I cut a bunch of purple rice and brought it to the Center for Technical Standards and Quality Measurement 1 for testing. The test results on October 3, 2013 were surprising: 5 main content units were all high; such as Omega 6 reaches 22.0mg/100g, omega 9 reaches 68.4mg/100g, iron reaches 37.94mg/100g, calcium 120mg/kg... These contents meet the standards for producing herbal tea".
Immediately after that, Mr. Phan Van Hoa sent a report to the District Party Committee and People's Committee of Yen Thanh District about the policy of requesting land lease to build a herbal tea bag processing factory. After studying and considering, Yen Thanh District Party Committee agreed to let his Vinh Hoa Science and Technology Company Limited build a herbal tea processing factory. Mr. Hoa invited experts to test the production of tea, the raw materials were taken from VH1 rice straw, then brought the herbal tea bag products to the National Institute for Food Safety and Hygiene (Ministry of Health) for testing. The test results of 6 active ingredients showed that 4 active ingredients met the VLAS standards, a good result for processing herbal tea products. On May 26, 2014, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Xuan Duong visited and worked with Vinh Hoa Science and Technology Company Limited. On June 4, there was an announcement of Conclusion No. 259/TB/UBND of the Provincial People's Committee Chairman assigning the Department of Health to preside over and coordinate with the Department of Science and Technology to guide Vinh Hoa Technology and Science Company Limited to carry out necessary procedures in accordance with current regulations of the State before organizing the production of "Herbal Tea" from the main ingredient of purple rice stalks.
Mr. Phan Van Hoa took a bag of herbal tea that was packaged quite attractively, inside the small filter bag was made in the form of “Lip-ton” tea, and brewed it for his guests. He felt that when he drank it, it had a fragrant, delicious taste that was not inferior to expensive teas on the market. Mr. Hoa added: “According to the test results, herbal tea bags with vitamins, calcium, iron, especially omega 3, omega 6, omega 9 … have the effect of supporting the treatment of diseases, cancer, osteoporosis, blood sugar and cardiovascular diseases, enriching blood, and improving health”.
Currently, Mr. Phan Van Hoa's herbal tea bag production line is continuing to be completed, Vinh Hoa Company is also completing the necessary procedures to bring herbal tea to the market. In 2015, the Company will organize the purchase of purple rice stalks (straw, stubble) for some purple rice areas VH1 in Yen Thanh. Thus, the purple rice variety VH1 put into production has brought in 1.6 times higher income than other rice varieties, now combined with the sale of straw, stubble of 800,000 VND/sao/crop, farmers will have additional income per unit area...
Van Truong