Shan Tuyet Green (Vietnam)
Shan Tuyet means snow mountain, and the name points to the thick white down on the buds of the old, high-altitude tea trees of northern Vietnam that produce it. This green is made from large-leaf material plucked from semi-wild ancient trees in provinces like Ha Giang, Yen Bai, and Lao Cai. The variable that matters most is the tree material and elevation, since genuine old-tree mountain leaf is what separates this from ordinary Vietnamese green.
Look for large, sturdy leaf and downy, silver-white tipped buds, with a sweet, full, sometimes honeyed or wild-herb aroma rather than a thin or merely grassy one. The defining feature is that white fuzz (the tuyet, or snow), which comes from genuine old-tree buds. Good shan tuyet has body and a thick, sweet mouthfeel that ordinary cultivated lowland green lacks, and it tends to hold up over many steeps. Be wary of vague claims of ancient or wild trees with no region named; Ha Giang, Yen Bai (Suoi Giang), and Lao Cai are the credible origins. Because the same tree material is also made into white, black, and aged teas, confirm you are buying the green-processed version.
Shan Tuyet comes from large-leaf tea (a shan, or assamica-type, varietal) growing as old, often semi-wild trees at high elevation in Vietnam's northern mountains: Ha Giang (Hoang Su Phi, Lung Phin), Yen Bai (the famous Suoi Giang gardens), Lao Cai, and Son La. Many of these trees are decades to centuries old and are harvested by climbing, giving low yields of distinctive downy buds. The cool, misty, high-altitude terroir and the old-tree material together produce a green with more body and sweetness than cultivated lowland Vietnamese tea. The same trees supply leaf for white, black, and even compressed and aged teas, so processing, not just origin, defines the style.
Western: 80°C, 3 g per 200 ml, 2 minutes, 3-4 infusions. Gongfu: 80°C, 4-5 g per 120 ml in a gaiwan, 20-30 seconds for the first steep and ascending, 5-6 infusions from genuine old-tree leaf. The robust large leaf tolerates slightly warmer water than a tender bud green, but keep it off a full boil to preserve the sweetness and avoid drawing out harshness.
€12-35 (about $13-38) per 100 g for everyday old-tree green; €45-90 (about $49-97) per 100 g for high-mountain, genuinely old-tree spring lots.
Prices reviewed June 2026
Shan Tuyet White (Vietnam)
The same snow-mountain tree material made as white tea: minimally processed, dried buds and leaf, even more downy and delicate.
Shan Tuyet Black (Vietnam)
The fully oxidized version of the same old-tree leaf: malty and sweet, showing how much the large-leaf material can change with processing.
Shan Tuyet Aged (Vietnamese Sheng)
Compressed and aged shan tuyet, treated more like a Vietnamese answer to puerh than a fresh green.
Thai Nguyen (Tan Cuong)
The cultivated counterpart: bush-grown Thai Nguyen green is brighter and more astringent-then-sweet, and far higher in yield than wild old-tree shan tuyet.
Some of Vietnam's shan tuyet trees in places like Suoi Giang are claimed to be hundreds of years old and tall enough that pickers climb them to harvest, which is why the tea is often grouped with ancient-tree (co thu) teas rather than with ordinary plantation green.