A nearly 100-year-old tea dynasty

The intrinsically local cempedak talam is a stand-out crowd favourite that is addictive from start to finish. — Photos: Beca Tea

Beca Tea’s fabled family tea history began in the early 20th century with Koh Ming Fang, who was a tea producer in a tiny little village in the Fujian province in China. Ming Fang’s son Koh Hooi Chew grew up there and became a school teacher, although he continued to help his father with the tea production business.

Seeking to break the cycle of poverty that the family was mired in, Hooi Chew left for Malaysia as an adult and started working as a rubber tapper before fortuitously ending up working for an tea merchant, a business that he eventually took over.