In the forests of Northern Thailand, tea has grown as a wild plant for centuries. While a tea drinking culture never evolved in the same way as it did in neighboring China, people instead used the leaves to produce “Hmiang”, fermented tea leaves for eating. While producing “Hmiang”, farmers let the tea plants grow taller, as all leaves are used in the process, and not just the top buds as in normal tea production. Not being dependent on pruning bushes, Hmiang farmers allowed their tea plants to grow freely, in harmony with the forest.
Over the years, the popularity of “Hmiang” has decreased, as younger generations has lost interest in the rather special taste of the dish, and farmers have had no other choice than to find other use of their land than to let tea plants grow freely, often resulting in corn production and slash and burn agriculture. However, one man and his company, Kenneth Rimdahl of Monsoon Tea has created a business model to work with tea farmers to transform tea plantations used for making the eating tea “Hmiang” to tea plantations used for making drinking tea, showing that there is a sustainable way of producing tea that preserve forests and protect biodiversity, all while allowing local communities and farmers to thrive financially.
