Lahpet
Burma | |
Associated cuisine | Burmese cuisine |
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Main ingredients | |
Lahpet, also spelled laphet, laphat, lephet, leppet, or letpet in English (Burmese: လက်ဖက်; MLCTS: lak hpak, pronounced [ləpʰɛʔ]), is Burmese for fermented or pickled tea. Myanmar is one of the few countries where tea is consumed both as a drink and as an eaten delicacy, in the form of pickled tea, which is unique to this region. Laphet is regarded as a national delicacy that plays a significant role in Burmese society, and remains a traditional Burmese gesture of hospitality and is served to guests visiting a home.[1][2]
Its place in the
Fermented or pickled tea is featured in the cuisines of many ethnicities who live near the geographical origin of tea, such as the cuisines of the Bulang,[5] and in Tai cuisine (where it is known as miang in dishes such as miang kham).
Forms
Burmese tea is processed in three major forms:
- Lahpet chauk (လက်ဖက်ခြောက်), or dried tea leaves, also called a-gyan gyauk (အကြမ်းခြောက်), is used to make Buddhist Myanmar, a country with no national drink other than palm wine.
- Acho gyauk (အချိုခြောက်, lit. 'sweet and dry'), or black tea, is used to make sweet tea (လက်ဖက်ရည်ချို, lahpetyei gyo) with milk and sugar.
- Lahpet so (လက်ဖက်စို, lit. 'wet tea') specifically refers to a pickled tea, despite lahpet being generally synonymous with pickled tea.
Quality grades
Burmese tea is distinguished into seven quality grades:[6]
- 'Golden bracelet' (ရွှေလက်ကောက်)
- 'Extraordinary weft' (အထူးရှယ်)
- 'Weft' (ရှယ်)
- 'Top grade' (ထိပ်စ)
- 'Medium top grade' (အလတ်ထိပ်စ)
- 'Medium grade' (အလတ်စ)
- 'Low grade' (အောက်စ)
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Tasters at a lahpet stall in Mandalay
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Lahpet dressed with garlic and chilli
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Fried garnish with lahpet
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Lahpet dish
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Lahpet for sale at a market in Mandalay
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gyin thoke(ginger salad)
History
The practice of eating tea in modern-day Myanmar dates back to prehistoric antiquity, reflecting a legacy of indigenous tribes who pickled and fermented tea leaves inside bamboo tubes, bamboo baskets, plantain leaves and pots.[6] This longstanding history is reflected in the Burmese language, which is among the few world languages whose word for "tea" is not etymologically traced back to the Chinese word for "tea" (see etymology of tea).[6] European observers noted with peculiarity, the Burmese fondness for pickled tea leaf, and the practice of burying boiled tea leaves in holes lined with plantain leaves, for the purpose of fermentation.[6]
According to Burmese folklore, tea was introduced to the country by King
Throughout the pre-colonial era, lahpet was considered a symbolic peace offering between warring kingdoms in ancient Myanmar. It was traditionally exchanged and consumed after settling a dispute.[14] In both pre-colonial and colonial times, lahpet was served after a civil court judge made a verdict; eating the lahpet symbolized a formal acceptance of the verdict.[15][16]
During the colonial era, tea shops became a common fixture in urban centres like Rangoon (now Yangon).[17] These shops opened early in the day, and served breakfast, snacks and tea.[17] In the 1970s, tea shops spread to other parts of the country.[17] These establishments have served as third places and important meeting points for locals.[17] Until recent decades, tea shops were primarily frequented by men.[17]
Since the late 2010s, armed conflict in tea-growing areas between ethnic armed organisations, including the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Restoration Council of Shan State, has disrupted the domestic tea supply chain.[13] This has been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, which created a labour shortage and drastically reduced the average selling price of Burmese tea leaves.[13] Bamar migrants from the Anyar region, who traditionally augmented the local workforce during the tea-growing season, have sought higher-paying jobs in Thailand or Burmese-Chinese border towns like Laukkai and Panghsang.[13]
Cultivation
Tea is native to Myanmar.
Over 700 square kilometres (270 sq mi) of land in Myanmar is under tea cultivation, with an annual yield of 60,000-70,000 tons of fresh product. Of the tea consumed by the country every year, 52% is green tea, 31% is black tea and 17% is pickled tea.[21]
Processing
The traditional laphet fermentation process is a three-step process, encompassing pre-fermentation, fermentation, and modification of the fermented tea leaves.
Preparation styles
Burmese lahpet (လက်ဖက်သုပ်) is served in two main forms. The first is mainly ceremonial and is called A-hlu lahpet (အလှူလက်ဖက်, လက်ဖက်သုပ်လူကြီးသုပ် or အဖွားကြီးအိုသုပ်) or Mandalay lahpet. The second form is mostly served with meals and is more popular.
Mandalay lahpet is traditionally served in a shallow lacquerware dish with a lid and several compartments called a lahpet ohk. Pickled tea flavored with sesame oil is put in the central compartment. Other compartments may include ingredients such as crisp fried garlic, chickpeas, lablab, butterfly peas, Australian peas, toasted sesame and peanuts, crushed dried shrimp, preserved shredded ginger and fried shredded coconut.
Lahpet is served in this form for hsun kyway (offering a meal to monks) at Buddhist
Lahpet may be served as a snack or after a meal for family and visitors. It is usually placed in the center of the table with the green tea. It has a bittersweet and pungent taste and leafy texture. Many believe in its medicinal properties for the digestive system and for controlling bile and mucus.[18] Its stimulant effect (from the caffeine in tea) is especially popular with students preparing for exams, pwè goers at all-night theatrical performances, and funeral aides who keep watch on caskets overnight.[1]
Lahpet thohk (လက်ဖက်သုပ်) or
Some of the most popular commercial lahpet brands include Ayee Taung lahpet from Mandalay, Shwe Toak from Mogok, and Yuzana and Pinpyo Ywetnu from Yangon. Mixed ingredients of fried garlic, peas, peanuts and sesame have become available Hna-pyan gyaw (twice-fried) for convenience, although they are traditionally sold separately.[18][23] Ayee Taung has been around for over 100 years. Its new recipes, such as Shu-shè (extra hot) and Kyetcheini (Red Cross), are quite popular.
Zayan lahpet is lahpet mixed with carambola (star fruit) and pickled young leaves cut together with coarse leaves. Many prefer Mogok lahpet as it uses only young tea leaves.[18]
In the Northern Thai provinces of Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son, lahpet thohk can be found at restaurants where Shan ethnic food is served. In Thai, it is called yam miang (ยำเหมียง), from Shan neng yam (ၼဵင်ႈယမ်း).[26][27]
The town of Pyay (formerly Prome) is known for a local delicacy known as taw laphet (တောလက်ဖက်; lit. 'rural laphet') or Nibbinda laphet (နိဗ္ဗိန္ဒလက်ဖက်).[28] Originating from Burmese nunneries in the area, the laphet is fermented from the leaves of the naywe (နရွဲ) tree, or kyettet (ကြက်တက်), the Combretum pilosum plant.[29][30] The pulp is then tightly wrapped into dried banbwe (ဘန့်ပွေး) leaves and left soaking in regularly changed water for up to 2 years, before it is consumed.[29] Taw laphet is otherwise consumed in an identical fashion to traditional laphet.[29]
2009 scandal
On 12 March 2009, the
See also
- Tea culture – Culture of tea
References
- ^ a b c Haber, Daniel (March 31, 2002). "Lephet - Green Tea Salad". Swe Sone magazine. Archived from the original on July 8, 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-10.
- ^ ISSN 2352-6181.
- ISBN 978-1-4521-3008-8
- ^ "Burmese Tea Leaves That Feel Like Family", The New York Times, July 26, 2012
- ^ Eating tea with the Bulang people
- ^ ISBN 978-90-04-39360-8.
- ISBN 978-1-59077-260-7.
- ISBN 978-90-04-11812-6.
- ^ a b Lei Shwe Sin Myint (2020). "Analysis of Tea Culture in Myanmar Society: Practices of Tea Consumption in Upper Myanmar" (PDF). University of Mandalay Research Journal. 11.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-139-43762-2.
- ISBN 978-0-521-79914-0.
- ISBN 9799749290858.
- ^ a b c d "Bitter harvest: Shan State tea growers grapple with labour shortage". Frontier Myanmar. 2023-06-13. Retrieved 2023-07-03.
- ISBN 978-4-925243-25-4.
- ^ Nisbet, John; A. Constable. Burma under British rule and before. Vol. 1. p. 1901.
- ^ Judson, Adinoram (1893). Robert Charles Stevenson (ed.). Judson's Burmese-English dictionary. Government of Burma. pp. 285–286.
- ^ ISSN 2010-314X.
- ^ Myanmar Times vol.12 no.221. Archived from the originalon 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-04-09.
- ^ a b "Pickled tea leaves or laphet". Myanmar Travel Information 2007. Archived from the original on 2006-12-12. Retrieved 2007-04-09.
- ^ "လက်ဖက် ယဉ်ကျေးမှုနှင့် ပလောင်တို့၏ ဘဝ". ဧရာဝတီ. 2013-08-26. Retrieved 2020-04-27.
- ^ "Myanmar Tea". Archived from the original on 2009-11-25. Retrieved 2007-04-10.
- ^ "Making Tea Edible: Laphet from local plants in three ways". Nordic Food Lab. Archived from the original on 2020-01-18. Retrieved 2020-04-27.
- ^ Myanmar Times vol.10 no.184. Archived from the originalon 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-04-10.
- ^ Fytche, Albert (1878). Burma past and present. Vol. 2. C. K. Paul & co.
- ^ Hart, Alice Marion Rowlands (1897). Picturesque Burma. J. M. Dent. pp. 113.
- ISBN 0-931745-92-6.
- ^ Scott, George (1906). Burma. Alexander Moring. pp. 265.
- ^ "ပြည်လက်ဆောင်". Ksetra Pyay (in Burmese). Archived from the original on 2021-01-13. Retrieved 2021-01-12.
- ^ a b c "ပြည်မြို့က တောလက်ဖက်". လွမ်းမပြေ သုတရပ်ဝန် (in Burmese). 2014-07-24. Retrieved 2021-01-12.
- ^ "ပြည်မြို့ကတောလက်ဖက်ကို နှီးနဲ့ဘာဖြစ်လို့တင်းနေအောင်ချည်ထားကြတာလဲ". MRTV Travelogue (Travel Diary -5.1) (in Burmese). Retrieved 2021-01-12.
- ^ Min Lwin. "Tea Leaves Found to Contain Banned Chemical". The Irrawaddy, April 1, 2009. Archived from the original on March 23, 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-19.
- ^ Min Lwin. "Singapore Bans Imports of Laphet". The Irrawaddy, March 19, 2009. Archived from the original on June 5, 2011. Retrieved 2009-04-01.
- ^ Min Lwin. "Singapore, Malaysia Ban Burmese Pickled Tea". The Irrawaddy, April 2, 2009. Archived from the original on April 6, 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-02.
- ^ [1] Amazing Green Tea, Eating green tea - Is It Healthy?
External links
- Tea in Burma YouTube
- Eating Tea in Xishuangbanna XishuangbannaTropical Botanical Garden
- Twindaung satellite map GeoNames
- Myanmar Lahpet Thoke Pickled Green Tea in Myanmar: Lahpet Thoke