The tea shop has served customers in Ben Thanh market for more than half a century

At 10 a.m. every day, Ms. Truong Thi Tuyet Trinh opens the tea stall located near the West gate of Ben Thanh market. The 4 square meter tea shop with glass cabinets displaying dozens of colorful types of tea has been a stop for generations of diners for more than 50 years.

Ms. Trinh said that the tea shop was built by her mother in 1968, initially as a small shop at Hoa Hung market (old district 10) before moving to Ben Thanh market. The market was built in 1912 and completed in 1914, and has long been a commercial and tourist symbol of the city. Ms. Trinh has been attached to the stall since she was 8 years old when she helped her mother sell. In 2001, her mother passed away, she took over the family business and maintained the traditional recipe for the past 25 years.

The shop owner starts every day at 2am to prepare ingredients and cook sweet soup. The shop serves 18 types including 9 hot dishes and 9 iced dishes, of which mixed sweet soup, banana cake sweet soup and lotus sweet soup are the most popular dishes. Each cup of tea costs 20,000-30,000 VND, which is considered stable compared to the general level at Ben Thanh market food court, which welcomes thousands of visitors every day and is one of the 10 most typical attractions of the city for international visitors.

The tea shop and the market have gone through many periods of upheaval, most notably during the Covid-19 period. During the tourism closure period, the total number of visitors to Ben Thanh market sometimes decreased by more than 90% compared to before the epidemic. To adapt, Ms. Trinh tried to put the store on online food delivery applications. Currently, online orders account for a large proportion of daily revenue, while on-site customers are mainly tourists resting after shopping. She said the shop sells about 300-500 glasses a day.

The attraction of the tea shop also comes from the owner’s multilingual communication ability. To serve the international tourist flow that is recovering strongly in Ho Chi Minh City, reaching nearly 8 million in the first 11 months of 2025 – Ms. Trinh taught herself English, French and Korean. She said most foreign guests prefer dishes with coconut milk and often avoid dishes with strong flavors such as durian.

The tea shop is not just a simple food stall but has become a part of the local culinary heritage. Many overseas Vietnamese from the US, Canada or Australia often return to the shop every time they return home. Ms. Trinh also packages tea to sell to customers in nearby places such as Singapore, Hong Kong or Thailand. Some customers in Europe who cannot carry sweet soup often buy banana cakes to eat with coconut milk.

The shop is also on the list of destinations for the tour “District 1 – Colors of the Night” (now Ben Thanh Ward), a tourism product launched by Ho Chi Minh City to promote the night economy and preserve long-standing cultural values.

Ms. Phuong Lan, a tourist from Hanoi, experienced the tea shop for the first time after walking in the market in hot weather. Ms. Lan appreciated the neatness of the stall even though it was located in an old market space. “I was impressed with the clean layout and comfort of the shop,” said Ms. Lan. She and her two friends went with her and ordered two portions of mixed sweet soup and one portion of lotus sweet soup with basil seeds.

The sweet soup is easy to eat, not too sweet, however, she thinks the sweet taste is similar to many other traditional shops in Saigon. What’s impressive is the hostess’s enthusiasm and the convenient seating.

In the context that the space in front of Ben Thanh market is being proposed for restoration with an estimated cost of 145 billion VND to preserve heritage architecture, old stalls like Ms. Trinh’s play an important role in retaining customers. The 63-year-old owner shared that she has no intention of opening another branch or moving to another place because she wants to follow her mother’s instructions about maintaining her career at the market.

Even though she is at retirement age, Ms. Trinh still devotes her whole heart to each pot of tea every morning. In the future, she plans to pass the restaurant on to her granddaughter to continue the underground culinary culture in the city center. This transfer is considered a testament to the enduring vitality of the household business model in traditional markets in Vietnam, contributing to creating a unique identity for the city’s tourism industry.

“In about 5-10 years, I will retire, spend money to travel and leave the tea shop for my niece to take over,” she said.