History of Thai Tea (Part 2)

[Opium's Gone, Tea Garden's Blooming]

However, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the opium cultivation and trade were increasingly challenged and relevant laws enforced by the Thai government, police and military, mainly driven by a campaign of the Thai Royals, it was particularly the mountain population that had to find and pursue new ways of generating income.

Two factors played a key role in the initiation and development of the commercial cultivation and processing of high quality teas in Northern Thailand:

1. Thai Royal Projects

While on the one hand it was clear that Thailand, in a bid to boost its international reputation as a developed and modern country, had to put an appropriate regulatory framework in place and enforce it, the wise king of Thailand, on the other hand, knew that it wouldn’t be a sustainable solution to deprive people of their source of income without offering them another way to earn their living.

Thus, a range of Royal Projects were initiated to be instrumental in identifying, researching and promoting a variety of cash crops that would thrive well under the region’s diverse geographic and climate conditions. For higher altitudes, inhabited mainly by hill tribes and Chinese migrants, such crops included coffee and tea.

2. Ethnic Chinese Communities

A second key factor in the development of Northern Thailand’s tea cultivation were the ethnic Chinese settlers of the mountain enclaves Doi Mae Salong and Doi Wawee, established during the early 1950s by remnants of the Chinese General Chiang Kai Shek’s Kuomintang army, which were looking for a new home in Northern Thailand after having failed their resistance against Mao Tse Tungs Cultural Revolution in China.

While the 2 settlements are said to have been major players in the Golden Triangle’s opium trade before, the Chinese millennium-old tradition and knowledge of tea cultivation and processing paid back, when these communities tried to make a virtue out of the Taiwan connection.

泰国奶茶! Thai Milk Tea Mix ชานมไทย (ElepTea Brand)

泰国奶茶! Thai Milk Tea Mix ชานมไทย (ElepTea Brand)

Credits to: Thomas Kasper, SiamTea Founder & General Manager
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