Hibiscus & Lemongrass

The teas offered by

The Elephant Story are organically grown in the hills of the Golden Triangle of Thailand.

• Brewing Instructions: Brew 1 tsp per cup for 8 minutes.

Story of Thai Tea

In 1949, a group of Chinese Nationalist soldiers (the Kuo-Min-Tang or KMT) fled Yunnan and settled in the hills of the Golden Triangle, in Burma. From there, for more than a decade, they harassed China's People's Liberation Army (PLA).

In the early 1960s, the Burmese army drove these renegade soldiers into northern Thailand.

To survive, at first, the KMT in Thailand raised money by running illegal opium and gem smuggling operations. Eventually educational and crop substitution programs helped a new generation of immigrants integrate into the Thai economy.

Coming from the homeland of tea, tea farming naturally appealed to these new Thais. Oolong tea plants were initially introduced by Taiwan into the highlands of Chiang Rai Province in the late 1980s.