A cup of rich black tea featuring cocoa notes, loose leaves, and mixed herbs. (Photo: Unsplash/Drew Jemmet)

🎙️ Opening

🤔 What’s the first thing that comes to mind when we talk about tea?

🙋 I bet some of you would say...

🍵 Matcha.

😄 Well, no surprise.

😂 Matcha this. Matcha that. It’s everywhere.

🇯🇵 This Japanese tea has taken over cafés and social media.

🌏 But Southeast Asia has its own signature teas that are just as worth talking about.

🛋️ So, get comfortable wherever you are.

🫖 We’re about to dive into Southeast Asia’s tea story.

✨ Are you ready?

🎙️ Hello and welcome to The Southeast Asia Desk Weekly Dispatch Podcast. I’m Akasha Viandri. This is where we slow down the headlines and make sense of the stories shaping Southeast Asia.

🍃 Tea Is More Than Just a Drink

🍃 Tea is much more than just a beverage in Southeast Asia.

📜 It’s woven into the region’s history.

🎉 And even some of its important ceremonies.

💡 Before we go any further, there's one thing you should know.

🍵 Every tea you drink, whether it’s black tea, green tea, white tea, or oolong, comes from the very same plant.

🌿 It’s called Camellia sinensis.

🌼 Meanwhile, drinks like chamomile or peppermint aren’t technically tea.

☕ They’re herbal infusions.

🧪 The word infusion simply refers to the process of steeping herbs, flowers, or fruits in hot water.

👀 Now, here’s where it gets interesting.

🗺️ In Southeast Asia, Camellia sinensis is indigenous to Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam

🚢 Elsewhere in the region, tea arrived with migrants, traders, and colonial power.

🇮🇩 Now, let’s dive in, starting with Indonesia.

🇮🇩 Indonesia: From Decoration to Plantation

📍 Tea first arrived in Batavia, the old name for Jakarta, in 1684 during the Dutch colonial period.

😮 Interestingly, it wasn’t grown for drinking.

🌱 It was simply an ornamental plant.

💰 But after seeing China’s, Japan’s, and Taiwan’s success in exporting tea to Europe, the Dutch wanted to build their own tea industry.

🧳 So they sent tea experts to China to learn everything they could about tea cultivation and production.

📍 And the Priangan region of West Java was chosen as the center of cultivation.

👏 Long story short... it worked.

🚢 Plantations expanded beyond West Java to other parts of Java and eventually Sumatra, with tea exported to the Netherlands by 1835.

🍵 Today, Indonesians enjoy tea in countless ways.

🥚 In West Sumatra, there’s Teh Talua, made from tea mixed with egg yolk, sugar, and lime juice.

🍋 In Solo, Central Java, there’s Teh Kampul, a strong sweet tea served with slices of lime.

🎎 Tea is also deeply connected to local traditions.

🏯 In Yogyakarta, the Sultanate preserves a tea ceremony called “Patehan”.

💧 The water is drawn directly from a sacred well before being boiled in a copper kettle over a wood fire.

🪙 Copper is believed to purify the water and ward off misfortune.

🇹🇭 Thailand: From Hot Tea to Thai Tea

🤔 Let’s move on to Thailand.

🇹🇭 The country’s tea story is closely linked to two major influences.

👑 First, royal projects.

🌱 To reduce opium farming in the mountainous north, the Thai royal family encouraged local communities to replace opium crops with more sustainable and legal alternatives, including tea.

🧳 And second, Chinese migration.

📚 Over time, knowledge of tea cultivation and production expanded through the influence of Chinese immigrants who settled in the region.

😄 Here’s a fun fact.

🧋 You know Thai tea, right? So many people love it.

🔥 Originally, Thai people drank their tea hot without sugar.

🥛 Later, Indian tea culture introduced the idea of adding milk.

👍 Thai people adopted it too.

☕ But they still drank it hot.

🔄 Then came a turning point.

🏷️ In 1945, a Thai tea brand called ChaTraMue, founded by Chinese immigrants, changed the game.

🍵 Before that, the company mainly sold Chinese tea, oolong tea, and green tea.

🤷 But those varieties weren’t particularly popular among Thai consumers.

🧊 So they imported red tea and developed Thai Milk Tea and Thai Black Tea, both served over ice.

🏆 That eventually became the benchmark for the Thai tea we know today.

🤤 Now I’m kind of craving a Thai tea.

😂 Tell me I’m not the only one.

🇲🇾 Malaysia: A Cup of Cultural Fusion

🥛 Speaking of tea with milk...

🇲🇾 Malaysia has one of Southeast Asia’s most iconic tea drinks.

🫖 They have Teh Tarik, made with black tea.

🎭 Or, in English, “Pulled Tea.”

💪 And yes, they literally pull the tea.

📖 Its origin is a blend of many stories.

🇨🇳 Black tea first arrived with Chinese migrants during the 1830s.

🥤 The famous pulling technique was later developed by South Indian street vendors after 1850.

🥛 Milk and sugar became popular nearly a century later, toward the end of British colonial rule.

📜 So, basically it’s history in a cup.

💍 Tea also plays an important role in Malaysian customs, including weddings.

❤️ Influenced by Chinese traditions, tea ceremonies symbolize the coming together of two families and a new beginning for the couple.

🌏 And this tradition can also be found in Singapore, Vietnam, and Cambodia.

🇲🇲 Myanmar: Where Tea Is a National Beverage

🇲🇲 Meanwhile, in Myanmar...

🍵 Tea is practically a national beverage.

🍽️ People drink it before meals, during meals, after meals, and whenever guests come over.

🏪 Tea shops are everywhere.

🚶 You’ll find them on street corners, inside neighborhoods, and as standalone stalls.

😮 And locals don’t just drink tea.

🥗 They eat it.

🥬 One of the country’s best-known dishes is “lahpet”, made from fermented tea leaves.

💡 Think of it as a tea leaf salad.

😲 And you know what?

🙏 It is also part of local traditions, where “lahpet” is offered to spirits in the hope of securing good harvests and protecting farms.

🎙️ Closing

🍵 So, that’s more or less the tea stories across the region.

🤔How about you? Have you ever been to a traditional tea ceremony?

😊 Or maybe you’ve tried lahpet?

😄 I haven’t. But it’s definitely on my list now.

💬 Share your tea stories with us in the comments.

🍵 And hopefully, the next time someone hands you a cup of tea...

💭 It’ll make you wonder...

❓ How did it get here?

❤️ Because the history behind every cup is just as rich as the tea itself.

🎙️ I’m Akasha Viandri, and this has been The Southeast Asia Desk Weekly Dispatch Podcast, where we slow down the noise and follow the region’s compass.

📩 If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to our newsletter at thesoutheastasiadesk.com, and join us again next weekend for stories to linger over, one weekend at a time.

S26E27 - Tea in Southeast Asia: A Story in…