.
BANGKOK, Thailand / Bangkok Post / Brunch / LIFE / July 12, 2009
LIFE'S LIQUIDS
Drinks that helped Thai people stay cool and refreshed in the old days
By Suthon Sukphisit
Beverages have had a long and colourful history in Thailand. In the beginning, Thais took advantage of the fact that the country has abundant rainfall - the rainy season lasts six months - and that the rainwater was both safe and free. Even today, households in the countryside place large earthen jars outside to catch the precipitation.
The best-tasting rainwater came from houses that were roofed with nipa palm leaves. It had the slightly yellowish colour of weak Chinese tea, but also the fragrance of the nipa leaves. This was high quality drinking water for the poorer households (in the past, poor people wove nipa leaves to make roofs for their houses).
Later, houses were fitted with galvanised drainage gutters along the edges of the roof to lead the water into metal pipes, also galvanised, that brought the water down to big, ceramic storage jars. In ordinary households, these containers were red and unglazed, and were known as Sahm Koke Jars, named after the Thai title of the Chinese novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Wealthier families had glazed jars imported from China that were decorated with a dragon design. They were called "dragon jars". Those who were very rich and prominent collected their water in hexagonal dragon jars that bore dragons with five claws - the highest category of dragon (ordinary dragon jars were square).
For fancier drinks, an early alternative to plain water in Thailand was Chinese tea. There is evidence of trade between Thailand and China since the Ayutthaya period, with Thailand importing a fairly large amount of tea leaves.
But Chinese tea was drunk only by people of high status and by monks. From the beginning of the Ratanakosin period until about a century ago, the items in the homes of the wealthy and the nobility that were used to impress guests were tea sets imported from China. These consisted of a teapot, usually in an odd or unusual shape, at least six little cups, and a tray to hold these components. The way to tell how valuable a set was, was to look at the teapot (how strange and elaborate was its form?) and the cups (how thin and delicate was the china?) Extremely thin and fragile cups were highly prized because they were so hard to form, fire and glaze.
Monks, too, became collectors of tea sets. Later, tea drinking became a custom associated with monks, although a few villagers also developed a taste for it.
Monks considered it a necessity to drink tea on the grounds that it was safer than water. Each monk would have a stove in his room to boil the water and keep it hot. At first they used brass, kerosene-burning "Butterfly" brand stoves from England, but later they switched to electric ones with coiled wire elements. Of course, they also needed pots for boiling water and vessels for storing the tea leaves.
Their tea leaf containers were made of glazed ceramic with blue and white patterns known in Thai as lai khrahm (which were somewhat similar to Delftware motifs). The teapot was wrapped in a soft cloth and then placed inside an aluminium receptacle to hold the heat.
There is a famous anecdote about a disagreement between two people that is so well known that people often cite it as an example of the lack of understanding of the importance of using hot, boiling water for making tea. The two characters are an old monk and a young novice whom he is raising and educating. The elderly monk is always telling the boy to boil water for Chinese tea, sometimes even late at night. Finally, one day the boy asks him why he needs it so hot as he always blows on his tea to cool it before drinking it. His point is, why doesn't the monk just use cool water to make the tea in the first place?
Thais only started drinking coffee about 70 years ago. At first, it was sold by Chinese vendors who paddled around in boats. The vendors had to buy coffee beans from a source on Ratchawong Road. They would then take them home for roasting and grinding. They brewed coffee by putting the coffee powder inside a long, cloth bag and immersing the pouch in boiling water. Sweetened condensed milk was usually added to the result obtained in this process. At that time, there were only two brands of sweetened condensed milk, both of which were imported: Milkmaid and Bear. The first local plant was set up about 45 years ago.
With time, coffee vendors moved from their boats to the communities on land. The coffee remained the same, brewed using the long, stocking-like cloth bags and sweetened with condensed milk. It was sold in the morning in shops that became gathering places where people would sit and talk. Customers didn't go to these coffee shops just to drink coffee. They went to talk and exchange ideas and opinions, usually on politics.
Besides coffee, these shops also sold khai luak (half-boiled, or so-called three-minute, eggs). The congealed egg was put into a glass, and then pepper, salt and "Maggi" seasoning sauce would be added to it. Only men ate it; women never ordered khai luak. This was because people thought it improved a man's sexual performance. If any man was seen ordering two of them, he would be asked by teasing friends if he hadn't been up to the task in bed the night before.
There were some drinks that people drank for relief from the heat. Thais of an earlier time liked nahm yaa uthai, a red liquid that came in a small bottle. A small amount of it would be put into a big bowl of water, followed by a block of ice. They dipped their glasses into the bowl to fill them and cooled off by sipping the drink.
Thais in the past enjoyed all these beverages. Some of them, like the cloth bag-brewed coffee and nahm yaa uthai, are getting hard to find, but they are still around. If you happen on them, do sample them to have an idea of the popular thirst quenchers of the days before Starbucks and canned soft drinks. [
rc]
© Copyright 1996-2009 The Post Publishing Public Company Limited
The best-tasting rainwater came from houses that were roofed with nipa palm leaves. It had the slightly yellowish colour of weak Chinese tea, but also the fragrance of the nipa leaves. This was high quality drinking water for the poorer households (in the past, poor people wove nipa leaves to make roofs for their houses).
Later, houses were fitted with galvanised drainage gutters along the edges of the roof to lead the water into metal pipes, also galvanised, that brought the water down to big, ceramic storage jars. In ordinary households, these containers were red and unglazed, and were known as Sahm Koke Jars, named after the Thai title of the Chinese novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Wealthier families had glazed jars imported from China that were decorated with a dragon design. They were called "dragon jars". Those who were very rich and prominent collected their water in hexagonal dragon jars that bore dragons with five claws - the highest category of dragon (ordinary dragon jars were square).
For fancier drinks, an early alternative to plain water in Thailand was Chinese tea. There is evidence of trade between Thailand and China since the Ayutthaya period, with Thailand importing a fairly large amount of tea leaves.
But Chinese tea was drunk only by people of high status and by monks. From the beginning of the Ratanakosin period until about a century ago, the items in the homes of the wealthy and the nobility that were used to impress guests were tea sets imported from China. These consisted of a teapot, usually in an odd or unusual shape, at least six little cups, and a tray to hold these components. The way to tell how valuable a set was, was to look at the teapot (how strange and elaborate was its form?) and the cups (how thin and delicate was the china?) Extremely thin and fragile cups were highly prized because they were so hard to form, fire and glaze.
Monks, too, became collectors of tea sets. Later, tea drinking became a custom associated with monks, although a few villagers also developed a taste for it.
Monks considered it a necessity to drink tea on the grounds that it was safer than water. Each monk would have a stove in his room to boil the water and keep it hot. At first they used brass, kerosene-burning "Butterfly" brand stoves from England, but later they switched to electric ones with coiled wire elements. Of course, they also needed pots for boiling water and vessels for storing the tea leaves.
Their tea leaf containers were made of glazed ceramic with blue and white patterns known in Thai as lai khrahm (which were somewhat similar to Delftware motifs). The teapot was wrapped in a soft cloth and then placed inside an aluminium receptacle to hold the heat.
There is a famous anecdote about a disagreement between two people that is so well known that people often cite it as an example of the lack of understanding of the importance of using hot, boiling water for making tea. The two characters are an old monk and a young novice whom he is raising and educating. The elderly monk is always telling the boy to boil water for Chinese tea, sometimes even late at night. Finally, one day the boy asks him why he needs it so hot as he always blows on his tea to cool it before drinking it. His point is, why doesn't the monk just use cool water to make the tea in the first place?
Thais only started drinking coffee about 70 years ago. At first, it was sold by Chinese vendors who paddled around in boats. The vendors had to buy coffee beans from a source on Ratchawong Road. They would then take them home for roasting and grinding. They brewed coffee by putting the coffee powder inside a long, cloth bag and immersing the pouch in boiling water. Sweetened condensed milk was usually added to the result obtained in this process. At that time, there were only two brands of sweetened condensed milk, both of which were imported: Milkmaid and Bear. The first local plant was set up about 45 years ago.
With time, coffee vendors moved from their boats to the communities on land. The coffee remained the same, brewed using the long, stocking-like cloth bags and sweetened with condensed milk. It was sold in the morning in shops that became gathering places where people would sit and talk. Customers didn't go to these coffee shops just to drink coffee. They went to talk and exchange ideas and opinions, usually on politics.
Besides coffee, these shops also sold khai luak (half-boiled, or so-called three-minute, eggs). The congealed egg was put into a glass, and then pepper, salt and "Maggi" seasoning sauce would be added to it. Only men ate it; women never ordered khai luak. This was because people thought it improved a man's sexual performance. If any man was seen ordering two of them, he would be asked by teasing friends if he hadn't been up to the task in bed the night before.
There were some drinks that people drank for relief from the heat. Thais of an earlier time liked nahm yaa uthai, a red liquid that came in a small bottle. A small amount of it would be put into a big bowl of water, followed by a block of ice. They dipped their glasses into the bowl to fill them and cooled off by sipping the drink.
Thais in the past enjoyed all these beverages. Some of them, like the cloth bag-brewed coffee and nahm yaa uthai, are getting hard to find, but they are still around. If you happen on them, do sample them to have an idea of the popular thirst quenchers of the days before Starbucks and canned soft drinks. [rc]
© Copyright 1996-2009 The Post Publishing Public Company Limited
