Tea pickers, each having a bamboo basket on one side, walked in a row on their way out of a tea plantation. It was late afternoon. The sky was clear and the sunlight was about to turn yellow. My travel companions and I ambled along the same road but in the opposite direction of the tea pickers. We were on our way to the tea farm to have our tea-picking experience.
We made our way to Araksa Tea Garden, the organic tea plantation in Chiang Mai’s Mae Taeng district about a 90-minute drive from the city. At a glance, the tea plantation looks different from others I have visited, like those in Chiang Rai and Sri Lanka. The tea garden of Araksa is surrounded by tall trees. It looked much like a forest.
“I wasn’t aware that the site was a tea plantation when we bought the land in 2014,” recalled Chananya Phataraprasit, executive director of Araksa. Her company, which also owns the nearby Lisu Lodge, bought the 300 rai plot of land because she liked the pink flowers of the gliricidia trees (or ton khae farang in Thai). “It was beautiful like sakura [cherry] blossom,” she said.
At first, she didn’t plan for tea production until she tasted the tea. The smooth taste and the unique fragrance inspired her to put in an effort to learn everything about the business.
“I later realised that the site is the oldest tea plantation in the Kingdom that has grown tea plants [Camellia sinensis] for trading,” she said.
The plantation was once a supplier of Raming Tea, the pioneer in tea production in Thailand. It was abandoned for years. Some parts of the tea plantation had been deserted for more than 15-20 years, she said.
The tea shrubs are widely covered with vine. The chemical-free land made it easier for Araksa Tea Garden to apply for organic certifications. Today the company has organic certifications for its tea plantation, tea production and plants from the Department of Agriculture in the United States, or USDA, and European Union.
It started the first production of black tea three years ago. The first tea it produced is called Preserve tea, which is the meaning of Araksa.
“We want the name to reflect our objectives, which are to preserve nature and the environment by applying organic farming as well as to take care of local people. We employ them as tea pickers,” she said, adding that they were ethnic groups like Lahu, Akha and Tai Yai who live in nearby communities.
During the day of our visit, we followed a Tai Yai tea picker and our tour guide into the tea plantation. Out of the 300 rai site, only one-third is the area of the tea plantation. The remainder is still forest.
We were about to learn how to make green tea.
“We can produce every type of tea from one tea plant. It depends on where the leaves were plucked and the process after picking them,” said our guide. The process is known as oxidation, referring to the period of times that tea leaves are exposed to oxygen. A longer time will result in darker tea and deeper flavour.
White tea is made of young leaf buds, known as “silver tips”, while black tea is made of a couple of tea leaves. For the green tea, we are told to pick one bud with one leaf.
It was fun for me to search for young buds from this and that tea shrub. The plantation has about 100,000 tea plants. Only one shrub can give us a handful of young leaves. After harvesting, we gathered the leaves in a bamboo tray. Green tea does not need the process of oxidation so we roasted the leaves right away in a wok over a charcoal stove until they were dry.
Next in the programme was to experience tea tasting and dessert pairing. Our pastries were put on one plate along with nine small tea-tasting cups. Our first cup was Arun tea. It was a white tea made of young buds which were harvested early in the morning. The tea house has Sayan tea which is also a white tea, but the young buds are harvested in the afternoon. It is said that the latter has a stronger flavour than the Arun tea.
“To taste the tea, you sip it a little bit and keep the tea in your mouth while breathing in. You will be able to detect its fragrance and flavour,” said Chananya. Then we took turns to smell the soaked leaves.
“White tea and green tea have a level of caffeine as high as coffee while black tea has little caffeine, which is almost like decaf coffee. People perceive that dark tea has more caffeine than other types of tea because of its bitterness. It is not true. It has nothing to do with colour,” she said.
Each type of tea has its own health benefits. Green tea and white tea are good for the heart while black tea is good for digestion. After tasting all the tea including Thai milk tea and butterfly-pea flower tea, I liked the green tea the most. It has a fragrance like newly cooked rice.
We left the tea garden full of an impressive experience. We hope that we will return to the site the next time we visit Chiang Mai and try its deep-fried tea leaves with spicy sauce and other organic Thai food.
Araksa Tea Garden is open daily from 9am to 5pm. Tea garden tours and tea workshop sessions can be booked in advance at araksatea.com or call 094-989-1156.
The Huai Phak Phai Royal Rose Garden is open every day from 8am to 6pm. There is no entrance fee. Visit bit.ly/2OdC9Ni or call 09-9135-1118.
Baan Jang Nak is open daily from 8am to 5pm. The elephant wood carving centre also has a coffee shop and a restaurant which serves delicious khao soi gai (chicken curry noodle). Admission is free. Visit baanjangnak.com or call 089-700-7162 and 062-707-9940.