Tea, which was used in the past as both a spice and medicine, originated near Yunnan Province, China. As Yunnan Province borders Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos, it’s highly likely that people in these countries also began to drink tea around the same time as the Chinese. As the concept of national borders was not as clear back then as it is now, perhaps we could say that tea originated in the vicinity of Yunnan Province, which includes the countries of ASEAN. And just as old as the history of tea in ASEAN is the love of tea by the people of ASEAN.
When you go to a restaurant in Myanmar, green tea is offered instead of water. Your stomach fills with green tea before the meal, and afterwards, refreshes your mouth once you’ve eaten your fill. In Myanmar, people say that mango is the best fruit, pork is the best meat, and lahpet, the tea leaf, is the best leaf. Lahpet thoke, which literally means “tossed tea leaves,” is a pickled or fermented salad. Fermented tea leaves are mixed with corn, sliced garlic, cooking oil, fried onions, ginger, and peanuts. This is the national dish of Myanmar, a country where you don’t just drink tea but enjoy it as a side dish.
Meanwhile, Thai milk tea is a popular drink loved around the world. While both Thailand and India are hot countries, Indian people tend to drink hot milk tea while Thai people prefer their milk tea served cold and tasty. Thailand’s milk tea, cha nom yen, is made by mixing black tea with tamarind, star anise, vanilla, and sweetened condensed milk. Both kids and adults alike love the sweet flavor, which is almost like cotton candy that you can drink. Milk tea mix powder, like coffee mix in Korea, can be purchased at any supermarket.
Singapore is another country that should never be missed when talking about tea culture. The nation was founded by Lee Kuan Yew, whose family was ethnic Chinese – the people who first began drinking tea. It was also once a colony of Great Britain, a country that waged the Opium Wars with China in part due to an obsession with tea. Singapore also serves as the center of the tea trade between the East and the West. These factors are the background for the birth of TWG, a world-renowned tea brand. As a former British colony, Singapore continues to enjoy afternoon tea. But strictly speaking, afternoon tea is Singapore closer to high tea. The difference between afternoon tea and high tea is the time of day they are served. While afternoon tea is an upper-class meal enjoyed at around three in the afternoon with cake, high tea is part of common culture, accompanied by a hearty meal and served at seven in the evening. Afternoon tea is served on a fancy three-tiered tray, but delicious and filling high tea can be found at restaurants or hotel buffets.
In Viet Nam, lotus tea is often enjoyed. Before the sun rises, Vietnamese people collect dew and lotus flowers. The anthers of the flowers are immediately separated and mixed with good green tea leaves. The mixture is then dried seven times, wrapped with lotus leaves, and stored. Because lotus tea requires so much care, it’s expensive, precious, and not easily accessible to everyone. Instead, tea franchises are taking over Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi in droves nowadays, and clear iced tea is all the rage. While Thailand prefers its milk tea murky and flavored with condensed milk, Vietnam loves clear tea without milk. Instead, Vietnamese people add a variety of juices from tropical fruits, such as mango and passion fruit, to their tea leaves. Despite Vietnam’s status as the world’s second-largest coffee producer and a nation that drinks coffee 24/7, tea may one day surpass coffee in popularity there; that’s how popular today’s modernized and improved tea is. If you want to drink the most delicious iced tea in the world, I recommend going to Viet Nam. The wide varieties and flavors of iced tea on offer are unmatched anywhere else in the world.
KOREA FOUNDATION
