"Bak kut teh" culture?

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mbanu
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Sun Jan 09, 2022 7:24 pm



Does anyone know anything about this? Apparently in Singapore there are restaurants that specialize in pork-rib soup served with strong oolong tea. I found a video that suggests that oolong blends are most popular at these restaurants rather than particular types, is that correct? How does the brewing compare to other oolong-brewing styles?
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Bok
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Sun Jan 09, 2022 9:44 pm

Basically it is to offset the very greasy food, similar to tea at dim sum restaurants. Nanyang tea style, which includes Singapore, Malaysia and other areas? Locals help @OCTO !

The teas in question are typically of lower quality, coarse grade, heavily roasted and blended to cover up the inferior leaf material. The pros bring their own leaves to the eateries, as the provided ones are not good enough for people who really care about tea.

Pek Sin Choon is typical for these low grade teas, they get plus points for having cute vintage style packaging, but the tea is meh. It is below Fukien Tea Company(HK) in terms of quality, which is, well… those who tried FTC know what I mean.
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mbanu
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Mon Jan 17, 2022 3:53 am

Saw a photo of another oolong blender, Koh Beng Huat:
koh-beng-huat.jpg
koh-beng-huat.jpg (190.13 KiB) Viewed 2642 times
(https://www.facebook.com/BornInMalaysia ... 432421865/)

Jason Lim says that they were possibly the first Nanyang blender, starting in 1905, unless this is an unrelated teashop with the same name.
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mbanu
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Mon Jan 17, 2022 4:32 am

Bok wrote:
Sun Jan 09, 2022 9:44 pm
Nanyang tea style, which includes Singapore, Malaysia and other areas? Locals help OCTO !

The teas in question are typically of lower quality, coarse grade, heavily roasted and blended to cover up the inferior leaf material.
After reading that Nanyang teas started in the early 1900s, that makes sense to me -- after the Tea Importation Act of 1897, it was much harder to import Chinese oolong to America due to quality control issues, which lead to Formosa oolong from Taiwan replacing Fujian oolongs as the most popular form in the United States. So then what could Fujian tea-sellers do with these teas except look for new markets?
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wave_code
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Mon Jan 17, 2022 10:21 am

Bok wrote:
Sun Jan 09, 2022 9:44 pm
Basically it is to offset the very greasy food, similar to tea at dim sum restaurants. Nanyang tea style, which includes Singapore, Malaysia and other areas? Locals help OCTO !

The teas in question are typically of lower quality, coarse grade, heavily roasted and blended to cover up the inferior leaf material. The pros bring their own leaves to the eateries, as the provided ones are not good enough for people who really care about tea.

Pek Sin Choon is typical for these low grade teas, they get plus points for having cute vintage style packaging, but the tea is meh. It is below Fukien Tea Company(HK) in terms of quality, which is, well… those who tried FTC know what I mean.
Haven't had their tea since I don't think they ship international, but I've stumbled across it before. Quality aside I really love the design of the Ping Pong TGY in particular. I don't collect tins typically but I'd love to have a box of that for the packaging alone.
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Bok
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Mon Jan 17, 2022 10:55 am

@wave_codesame for me, the packaging is very charming. Basically the international shipping is much more expensive than the tea itself, so it’s not worth it unless you get someone to bring it for you.
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