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The Subtle Fragrance of Tea in the Everyday
Tea culture is an integral aspect of daily life in many ASEAN countries.
From Cambodia to Indonesia, tea is woven deeply into the fabric of the everyday.By Jeong Seung-ho (Director, Korea Tea Sommelier Institute)

Tea plantation in Java, Indonesia

ASEAN’s tea culture has been around for a very long time. In Myanmar, there are wild tea trees that are centuries old and still thriving. People in Myanmar use tea leaves for both brewing and as food, with lahpet being the most famous example of the latter. Lahpet, which is made by steaming and fermenting fresh tea leaves, is enjoyed either as part of a tangy, sweet salad or alone. It is no exaggeration to say that tea leaves are a “peoples’ ingredient” in Myanmar. Thailand also boasts a tea culture with a rich history. The Thai people, which make up the majority of the country’s population, have long grown tea trees throughout Southeast Asia and China’s Yunnan Province and processed the leaves picked from them. These days, Thai iced tea is preferred to hot tea, and is made by adding condensed milk and spices, such as cloves and cinnamon, to a base of strong Assam tea.

In Viet Nam, one of the world’s top 10 tea producers, tea is mostly grown in the country’s mountainous northern regions. Viet Nam’s tea culture has its origins in the 19th century, when the country was a colony of France, with tea being an essential part of commemorative ceremonies, weddings, and most social gatherings. Vietnamese citizens usually drink green tea, but wild teas have also become popular recently due to an increased interest in health.

The Khmer, Cambodia’s largest ethnic group, joined forces with Myanmar’s Hmong tribe to form the Mon-Khmer, a “peoples’ militia” that was the first to cultivate tea trees in Cambodia. The country has long been a haven for tea trees which continue to thrive today in the wild. In Cambodia, the act of drinking tea is synonymous with the giving of a blessing; tea is always included in important events such as weddings and ancestral rites.

Indonesia, which straddles the Indian Ocean and South China Sea, was a key hub of the Dutch tea trade in the 17th century. Initially, Chinese tea trees were grown on Sumatra and Java. The incompatibility of the tree species with the islands’ climate, however, soon resulted in their being replaced with Indian (Assam) trees. This switch caused an explosive increase in production that has allowed Indonesia to maintain its position as a top global tea cultivator into the present day.

Today, tea consumption continues to increase. In an age in which health of body and mind are more important than ever, tea is popular regardless of nationality or ethnicity? A phenomenon which, of course, is rooted in ASEAN’s longheld customs.