Lemon tea 'pounded until hands are tired', shop owner sells 300 cups every night on Hanoi sidewalk

Unlike traditional "lemon tea and chatting" shops with spacious spaces and wide fronts, the hand-pounded lemon tea stall of Mr. Hoang The Hao (born in 1991, from Ha Giang ) is just a small cart, with a few shakers, ice buckets, and simple glasses. However, every night, Mr. Hao can sell hundreds of cups of lemon tea thanks to his novel preparation method.

Mr. Hao peeled the lemon, sliced it thinly, put the lemon and ice into the cup, and crushed it evenly and vigorously. The essential oil from the lemon gave off a pleasant aroma. The owner added homemade sugar water, jasmine tea, and then quickly shook the cup of tea in his hand like a real “bartender”, creating pleasant clattering sounds, delighting the customers.

Occasionally, Mr. Hao reminds customers: "If you need to adjust the color, please let me know."

Mr. Hao said that the lemon he used originated from Guangdong, China, not American or South African lemons. This type of lemon has a rough, quite hard skin but is much more fragrant than other types of lemons. The lemon has a pleasant aroma, like lemongrass, so it is very suitable for making drinks. When pounded hard, the lemon scent is released. This pounding action also makes diners feel strange and enjoy watching.

It is known that Guangdong fragrant lemons cost from 100,000-200,000 VND/kg.

Currently, Mr. Hao’s shop is open from 4pm to 11pm. Each cup of hand-pounded lemonade takes 5-7 minutes to make. Because the shop is small, with only Mr. Hao and one other person helping, customers often have to wait in line for 10-15 minutes.

"The waiting time and queuing time were quite long, but the owner was funny and talked nicely, so customers were pleased. The fact that people were waiting for a cup of lemon tea seemed to make passersby more curious, so more people stopped by to see and buy," said Ms. Nguyen Ha (Dong Da, Hanoi ), a customer.

The owner shared that he had previously done many different jobs from delivery, shoe business, opening a pho restaurant, etc., but his income was not stable. He accidentally learned about hand-pounded lemon tea through social media.

"When I saw that not many people were making this drink, or if they were making it, it wasn't outstanding, I decided to use 7 million VND in capital to start a hand-pounded lemon tea business," said Mr. Hao.

At first, when he first started learning, he was not used to pounding lemon and ice, so he often had pain and muscle tension. It took him a long time to practice this step to become fluent. Customers often told each other that the shop owner pounded lemon "with his life". When he opened, Mr. Hao also had difficulty with the location, changing it many times before finding the current location for the counter.

Currently, Mr. Hao's shop sells 250-300 cups of lemon tea per day. The price starts at 25,000 VND/cup.

According to Mr. Hieu (23 years old, Hai Duong ), the taste of hand-pounded lemon tea is quite delicious, the tea has a slightly bitter taste, but is very fragrant. "I think the price is reasonable. Standing directly watching the shop owner make it, he does not add lemon syrup, the flavor is completely from fresh lemon, harmoniously combined with sugar and tea. This is also a new drink worth trying," said Mr. Hieu.

Some other diners said they came out of curiosity but were not too impressed with the taste.

The 'new' coin cake in Hanoi makes customers wait for hours, 2,000 pieces are sold a day . Cheese coin cake is a dish that attracts young people in Hanoi. To enjoy this dish, diners have to line up for 2 to 4 hours. Sometimes, when waiting for their turn, the cake is already sold out.

Kim Ngan

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