Teh halia is the Malaysian version of ginger tea, a variant of the milky and slightly spicy and sweet teh tarik, served in Singapore and Malaysia, also known as teh tarik halia or teh susu halia.
What does teh halia mean?
In Malay, teh means “tea” and halia means “ginger”.
Ginger tea is a drink made from the rhizome of this ginger which has a long love story with East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Western Asia.
Composed of black tea, ginger rhizome, sugar and sweetened condensed milk, the main characteristic of teh talia is its method of preparation.
Like teh tarik, the drink is prepared using two cups and is transferred from one to the other until it takes on a velvety, creamy consistency, lowering the temperature and producing a characteristic foam on top.
What is the origin of ginger, used in teh halia?
Ginger root, native to Asia, has been consumed for more than 3000 years. It is a plant which can measure up to 3 feet (1 meter) in height and has very particular clear yellow flowers.
The dark green leaves come from the hard, thick, underground stem known as rhizome, the part most used for consumption.
The story goes that ginger was one of the first spices to reach the Mediterranean region, probably introduced by the Phoenicians. In the first century BC, Rome made an almost obligatory use of it to decorate meat and poultry sauces.
Ginger was cultivated in India and China 5000 years ago.
It was introduced to the West more than two thousand years ago by spice merchants, widely used in ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, and thanks to the Arabs, it was widely planted throughout Africa.
In the Middle Ages, ginger was so valuable and economically profitable that it enriched those who cultivated it, and later its cultivation spread to the New World, especially Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean, thanks to Spanish and English colonizers.
In the Qur’an, ginger is described as a plant blessed by God, beneficial for spiritual development, and Confucius, the famous Chinese philosopher, in 500 BC, as evidenced in his writings, never finished a meal without chewing a piece of its root.
The first written trace of ginger comes from the Analects of Confucius, written in China during the period of the Fighting Kingdoms (475-221 BC).
Today, ginger is grown in regions with a tropical climate, mainly in India and China. These two countries alone account for half of the world’s ginger production.
However, crops are also grown in Nepal, Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Philippines, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Dominican Republic and Jamaica.
What is the origin of tea?
The word “tea” derives from the word tê (pronounced tei) from the Chinese character 茶 in the southern Min dialect common in southern Fujian and Taiwan.
From this Chinese pronunciation derive, with slight variations, the words for tea in: French, English, Spanish, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Italian, Latvian, German, Dutch, Hungarian, Hebrew, Sinhalese, Tamil, and Malay.
In northern Chinese dialects, tea is called chá (in Pinyin) and chah (in Cantonese), from which the names of tea in Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Tibetan, Thai, Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Romanian, Russian, Portuguese, Czech, Slovak, Serbian, and Uzbek come.
The Greek word tea has a name for each of the two forms: τέιον (téion) and τσάι (tsái), the second, tsái, being more popular.
The history of tea is invariably inscribed in the annals of Chinese Empires. The first references of tea in China date back to the 3rd century. Among the main consumers of tea were the Buddhist monks who adopted it as a ritual and tonic drink.
During the Chinese Tang Dynasty, from 618 to 907, tea spread throughout the country.
During the Song Dynasty, a dynasty that ruled China between 960 and 1279, the Chinese art of tea attained its highest sophistication. During this same period, it also spread to Japan, where a particular form of ritualized matcha preparation, Chanoyu, was codified in the 16th century.
Chanoyu, literally “hot water for tea”, usually refers to art, while sadō or chadō meaning “way of tea” represents the study or doctrine of the tea ceremony as a spiritual path.
In China during the Ming Dynasty, a line of emperors who ruled China from 1368 to 1644, the consumption of tea leaves became popular and, in addition to green teas, oxidized and partially oxidized teas were also produced.
Tea was first mentioned in writing by Gaspard de Santa Cruz, colloquially known as Gaspar de Cruz, a Portuguese Dominican missionary, (1520 – 1570), sent to China, who in 1560 wrote :
“Anyone who visits the house of a ranked Chinese, it is customary to offer on a beautiful tray, in a porcelain cup, a kind of liquid they call cha, reddish and very therapeutic”.
It was probably the Portuguese who introduced tea to Europe, but the first recorded import was by the Dutch East India Company, known in Dutch as the Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, or VOC.
In Europe, tea became popular for the first time in France and the Netherlands.
In England, the first place where tea was served was Thomas Garway’s café in 1657. The English East India Company then began importing it from 1669 and during the following century. Tea then became the most important product of English and Oriental trade.
Tea consumption in Great Britain has increased enormously and has become the national custom. From 1834, the British also introduced tea cultivation and production in their colonial territories in India.
Moreover, in pure British tradition, tea is consumed several times a day, especially at breakfast and tea time in the afternoon.
Tea legends
Tea is certainly a drink that since its Chinese origins has a real history but is also full of mystery and legendary charm.
The Chinese legend of Chen Nung
The most famous legend obviously comes from China. Emperor Chen Nung, in 2737 BC, would have been very strict in his hygienic practices. The only drink he used was boiled water, and his subjects were obliged to do the same.
One day, while the emperor was resting in the shade of a wild tea plant while sipping its boiling water, a leaf fell into the cup. Chen Nung, curious, tasted the infusion and immediately felt invaded by a feeling of well-being.
He then decided to share the discovery with his subjects, creating tea cultures throughout the Empire.
The Indian and Japanese Legend of Bodhidharma
Bodhidharma (wisdom teaching) who lived from the end of the 5th century to the beginning of the 6th century, was a Persian Buddhist monk from India, son of the Indian king Kosjuwo. According to Buddhists, the discovery of tea dates back to the year 543 (AD) thanks to Bodhidharma.
One day, the prince went to China, vowing not to sleep during the seven years of meditation he had imposed on himself. However, he was plagued by drowsiness. Instinctively, he began to chew small leaves from a wild bush, and immediately regained his strength. It was obviously tea.
The Japanese variant of the Buddhist legend is much bloodier. It is said that the prince fell asleep and, furious at himself for his mistake, he decided to cut off his eyelids and throw them into the bushes.
A few years later, on his return from his trip to China, he discovered that lush plants had grown in the same place, which, when chewed, helped to be more energetic. He brought them back to his disciples, inviting them to chew them so as not to fall into his own error.
Teh Halia
Ingredients
INGREDIENTS
- 3 teaspoons Ceylon black tea
- 2 tablespoons fresh ginger , peeled and coarsely grated
- 2 teaspoons sweetened condensed milk
- 1 cup water
Instructions
INSTRUCTIONS
- Bring the water to a boil.
- Add tea and ginger and let steep over low heat for 10 minutes.
- Strain and pour the infused liquid into a large mug.
- Add the condensed milk and mix with a spoon.
- Transfer the tea from one mug to another no more than 5 times. The mixture should be velvety, creamy and frothy.
- In order to make the tea more frothy, carefully lift the teacup as high as possible before pouring it into another cup.
- Increase ingredients according to the number of servings.
Video
Vera is the “expert” of the 196 flavors’ duo. With over 30 years of experience in the kitchen, she is now sharing her skills as a private chef and cooking instructor.
Robin says
Really interesting ! Might do it this weeknd. 🙂