Tea in Thailand: a young industry with ancient roots
Tea in Thailand: a young industry with ancient roots
Driving through Chiang Mai province, one passes tea fields barely thirty years old alongside forests where tea trees have grown for centuries. This is Thailand: a country where hill tribes have eaten fermented tea leaves with their meals for generations, while just a few kilometres away, world-class oolong is being produced.
The modern industry is relatively young. It only emerged in the 1980s when Chinese refugees, expertise from Taiwan and a royal agricultural project came together on slopes where opium had been cultivated shortly before.
The Golden Triangle
The border region between Thailand, Myanmar and Laos is known as the Golden Triangle. For decades it was one of the world’s most important opium-producing regions. Opium is the dried sap of the poppy and the raw material for heroin. In the remote mountains of Southeast Asia it was cultivated on a large scale by hill tribes who had few other sources of income.
The cultivation brought money but also violence, addiction and international pressure. Governments and aid organisations spent years searching for ways to reduce poppy cultivation without plunging communities into poverty.
The transition
The shift began in 1969 when King Bhumibol Adulyadej founded the Royal Project. After visiting the opium village of Doi Pui, he decided to introduce alternative crops, including tea, to the hill tribes. The project grew into a broad programme with 39 development centres across five provinces. By 2015, opium cultivation in Thailand had declined by 97 percent.
A second origin lies with the Kuomintang, the Chinese Nationalist Party that lost the civil war against the communists in 1949. Remnants of the 93rd Regiment fled via Myanmar to northern Thailand, where they settled around Doi Mae Salong in the early 1960s. The community lived from the opium trade for years. It was only in the 1980s that they made the switch to tea, with support from the Thai government and expertise from Taiwan.
The tea regions
Production is concentrated mainly in Thailand’s northern mountain provinces.
Doi Mae Salong in Chiang Rai province is the best-known production area. At altitudes between 1,200 and 1,400 metres, tea farmers produce primarily oolong tea. The town, officially named Santikhiri, still breathes Chinese culture: Mandarin is spoken, Yunnanese cuisine is served and tea is tasted in gongfu style. Approximately 80 percent of all tea in the province comes from this area.
Doi Wawee lies about forty-five kilometres to the west. The area is smaller but known for pu-erh and oolong.
Around Mae Hong Son, close to the border with Myanmar, communities of the Karen, one of the hill tribes in the region, produce oolong and black tea on a small scale.
In Chiang Mai province the terroir lies lower. In the Mae Taeng district, at around five hundred metres above sea level, old Assam varieties grow in sheltered valleys at the edge of the forest.
Plucking season
In northern Thailand tea leaves are typically plucked four times a year: in spring, twice in summer and in autumn. The spring harvest, from March to April, is considered the most aromatic.
Thailand has no true winter dormancy and production never stops completely. Some varieties, such as Jin Xuan, yield a final pluck even in December. It is a rare harvest with a maltier character.
Production methods
Thailand is internationally known for its oolong tea. The tea leaves are mainly hand-plucked, withered, partially oxidised and carefully rolled. The floral aromas and fruity notes are characteristic of the Thai terroir.
In addition, production of green, black and white tea is growing, and pu-erh is made on a small scale. Total tea production amounts to over 106,000 tons per year. More than 90 percent of this is Assam tea, destined for the domestic market and the ready-to-drink beverage sector.
The artisanal segment represents only a fraction of that volume but is growing slowly. As in Malawi and Uganda, a division is emerging in the sector: large-scale production focused on volume and a smaller group that focuses on quality and origin.
Working in tea
The tea sector in northern Thailand is intertwined with the hill tribes of the region: Akha, Hmong, Lisu, Lahu, Karen and descendants of Chinese migrants. For many of these communities, tea provides a stable income, often as a direct successor to opium cultivation. They form the largest part of the workforce in plucking and processing.
Yet conditions are not equal everywhere. On larger plantations, hill tribe members often work as seasonal labourers, while smaller producers deliberately invest in training and community development.
Tea in daily life
Ordering tea in Thailand often yields something quite different from a cup as we know it. The country is famous for cha yen: an iced tea of strongly brewed black tea combined with condensed milk, sugar and ice. Recognisable by its striking orange colour, it is everywhere: from street stalls in Bangkok to Thai restaurants in Brussels.
Besides cha yen, cha dam yen is also popular: an iced tea without milk, and cha manao, with lime. In the morning, tea is drunk with pathongko, fried dough sticks of Chinese origin.
Miang
In the north, hill tribes and the Lanna people have known miang for centuries: fermented leaves from wild tea trees that are chewed. The tradition strongly resembles that of laphet in Myanmar, where fermented tea leaves form the basis of a salad that is an essential part of daily life. In both cases it concerns the same plant and a similar processing method. It is a shared heritage of peoples who migrated southward from Yunnan.
Araksa Tea Garden: an example
In the Mae Taeng district of Chiang Mai lies Araksa Tea Garden, one of the oldest tea gardens in the country. The name means ‘to preserve’ in Sanskrit. In 2018, Araksa became the first plantation in Thailand with both USDA and EU organic certification for both garden and factory.
The team’s work demonstrates how organic cultivation, artisanal production methods and support for local communities can together give direction to the Thai tea sector.
Our selection from Araksa Tea Garden
At Tea Kulture we offer several teas from Araksa Tea Garden, including Silk Black, Bluefly and Thida Green.
Silk Black is made from handpicked leaves that give an amber coloured infusion with soft floral and honey like notes. Bluefly combines lemongrass and butterfly pea flower in a distinctive herbal infusion that turns deep blue and tastes fresh with a light citrus touch. Thida Green is a green tea that is hand rolled after pan roasting. The infusion is light green with a balanced taste and gentle floral and herbal accents.
Future
The tea regions in the north are increasingly affected by climate change. Farmers notice shifts in seasons, heavier rainfall and landslides on steep slopes. Yet recent research suggests that Thailand could actually expand its tea fields by 2050.
Still, there are challenges. Coffee and the enormous market for ready-to-drink tea beverages compete for the same fields and labour. The general public in Thailand shows less interest in loose-leaf tea. But international interest is growing. Thai tea exports rose by over 13 percent in 2024.
For those who look beyond the well-known tea countries, Thailand is certainly an origin worth watching.
