The story
Phongsaly Tea Festival in Phongsaly
Phongsaly Province, home to 400-year-old tea trees near the Phunoy village of Ban Komaen, has organized a dedicated Ethnic Food and Tea Festival featuring a tea-making contest, ethnic cuisine displays and cultural performances. Independent tea tourism along the scenic Tea Trail also peaks separately between February and April each year.
Phongsaly Province, Laos's northernmost region and often described as the birthplace of the country's green tea, is renowned for tea trees over 400 years old growing near the Phunoy ethnic village of Ban Komaen, roughly 18 kilometers from Phongsaly town, where specimens reach up to six meters in height and 30 centimeters in trunk diameter, a form the plants take when allowed to grow as towering trees rather than the clipped low bushes seen on conventional plantations.