Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam Puerh

One of the intentionally aged teas, Pu-Erh has a loyal following.


User avatar
May 5th, '12, 06:53
Posts: 4536
Joined: Apr 1st, '09, 00:48
Location: Bangkok

Re: Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam Puerh

by Tead Off » May 5th, '12, 06:53

No need to go back to the States for proper pizza. Thailand has excellent pizza and you should be able to find something in Chiang Mai.

User avatar
May 6th, '12, 19:31
Vendor Member
Posts: 2084
Joined: Sep 24th, '08, 18:38
Location: Boston, MA

Re: Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam Puerh

by gingkoseto » May 6th, '12, 19:31

I looked up my record and realize that a tea I bought last year was made by a tea company run by a Chinese Thai. The tea was made in a Thai Chinese (Dai) village next to Myanmar border (still on the Chinese side). Now if there isn't much tea business going on in Thailand, I guess they probably eventually sell most of the tea in Malaysia :D And of course there was some sold in China and some transported to America. Multinational tea trade :mrgreen:

User avatar
May 6th, '12, 23:04
Posts: 4536
Joined: Apr 1st, '09, 00:48
Location: Bangkok

Re: Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam Puerh

by Tead Off » May 6th, '12, 23:04

Thai Chinese and Dai are 2 different things. The Dai are an ethnic group in Yunnan, some probably migrated to Myanmar, Laos, & Thailand. But Thailand is the only one that doesn't share a border with China and to my knowledge, there are no native tea trees here. Thai Chinese would be somebody like yourself, a mainland Chinese who settles in Thailand. Many of these here, mostly Chao Zhou, and drinking imported teas and Northern Thai oolongs.

There is 1 shop that opened here last year that sell only Puerh tea. One day I visited the shop, walked in, and, there was no one there. I stood there browsing the teas for 15 minutes and no one came. I called out. Finally, I left. :o

User avatar
May 7th, '12, 01:00
Vendor Member
Posts: 2084
Joined: Sep 24th, '08, 18:38
Location: Boston, MA

Re: Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam Puerh

by gingkoseto » May 7th, '12, 01:00

Tead Off wrote:Thai Chinese and Dai are 2 different things. The Dai are an ethnic group in Yunnan, some probably migrated to Myanmar, Laos, & Thailand. But Thailand is the only one that doesn't share a border with China and to my knowledge, there are no native tea trees here. Thai Chinese would be somebody like yourself, a mainland Chinese who settles in Thailand. Many of these here, mostly Chao Zhou, and drinking imported teas and Northern Thai oolongs.

There is 1 shop that opened here last year that sell only Puerh tea. One day I visited the shop, walked in, and, there was no one there. I stood there browsing the teas for 15 minutes and no one came. I called out. Finally, I left. :o
Actually when I said "Thai Chinese", I meant Dai. They share the same ethnic and cultural root as Thai in Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. And the "Chinese Thai" I mentioned is a Dai whose recent ancestors emigrated to Thailand, unlike many native Thais who have been in Thailand for many generations.
But actually all these could sound quite confusing. I was translating an article recently and wasn't sure whether to put Dai people as Dai or Thai Chinese. By putting it as Dai, there is one more strange word. But now after reading your comments, I do feel Dai sounds less confusing than Thai Chinese. :D

As for puerh in Thailand, I feel eventually those puerh companies will manage to market puerh in Thailand, if they try hard enough. If they see a market, they will go for it. There are already Muslim grade puerh produced now to cater to Malaysian Muslims. :wink:

User avatar
May 7th, '12, 03:04
Posts: 4536
Joined: Apr 1st, '09, 00:48
Location: Bangkok

Re: Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam Puerh

by Tead Off » May 7th, '12, 03:04

Gingko, Malaysia has a real tea culture amongst the Chinese. I'm not sure why there is such a difference between the 2 countries. And, when it comes to Puerh, Thailand is not in the equation on any level. Is it the difference between which Chinese have settled in Malaysia vs Thailand? Chao Zhou here but I'm not sure which Chinese group is the majority in Malaysia. Even the best shop in BKK has little to no Puerh. But, they are originally Fujianese.

BTW, Dai would be correct.

User avatar
May 7th, '12, 13:40
Posts: 474
Joined: Oct 6th, '11, 23:01
Location: Hong Kong, next China

Re: Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam Puerh

by needaTEAcher » May 7th, '12, 13:40

Just to weigh in on the KL vs Bangkok puerh thing, I spent hours walking around China town in Bangkok, and found mediocre puerh at best. The teapots just made me sad. KL on the other hand had some truly awful tea and teapots for sure, but also some pretty amazing finds. I feel like KL sits on the global stage as a bad place to buy high-end pu and pots (too expensive), but a great place to buy really solid middle-end (really cheap). Bangkok really doesn't seem to factor in for pu and pots. There just aren't many, and what I could find didn't seem worth buying, considering that I am hopping between KL, Korea, and later China.

That said...why? Bangkok is really bumping these days, with a lot of money and a lot of tourists pouring in. Such a sleek, modern city, with so many different cultures steeping should have a solid puerh scene! What's the deal?

User avatar
May 7th, '12, 16:27
Vendor Member
Posts: 2084
Joined: Sep 24th, '08, 18:38
Location: Boston, MA

Re: Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam Puerh

by gingkoseto » May 7th, '12, 16:27

I guess it's because puerh is a new thing in a lot of places. Even in most provinces of China, puerh is not new but has only got trendy in recent years. But Malaysia and Singapore seem to have puerh and oolong in their traditional diets long time before puerh became trendy. Maybe that's why the tea market grows faster there? I wouldn't be surprised if lots of Malaysian storage puerh starts to be sold back to China in 10 years :wink:

I guess Chinese in Malaysia are descendents of various provinces, but mainly the southeastern provinces. I know Chinese Malaysians from both Fujian and Guangdong.

I always think Chaozhou is a very interesting culture. As an outsider, I feel it's much closer to Fujian culture than to Guangdong culture, yet it's put in Guangdong province.

User avatar
May 24th, '12, 23:54
Vendor Member
Posts: 2084
Joined: Sep 24th, '08, 18:38
Location: Boston, MA

Re: Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam Puerh

by gingkoseto » May 24th, '12, 23:54

Tead Off wrote:I have never seen Thai puerh. Never heard of it. That's not to say it doesn't exist. KMT farmers were more involved with opium production than tea after their exit from China. They needed money to fund their utopian dreams of counter revolution. It was the Taiwanese who helped them setup tea production in the 80's in conjunction with the Thai gov't as the pressure to give up opium farming was great and the chance of counter revolution was nil.
Recently I was reading about Kogango (in Northern Myanmar) converting opium cultivation to other production (puerh, along with rubber tree and sugarcane) as a regional strategy to get rid of opium. It's very impressive. Tea production is probably the first major production they've had in centuries after opium, which started right after 1840 opium war.

+ Post Reply