Long read.
A master’s quest for revival of Cambodian tea
| Publication date 07 September 2020 | 21:38 ICT

With around 30 years of experience in the tea industry, Sothea Sambath is very respected in his profession and well-known for his expertise in the field.

After discovering the all-but-disappeared Camellia cambodiensis, a tea shrub native to Cambodia, Sambath has made it his life-long mission to champion the crop – promoting its production for local supply and export, and catalysing national tourism and economic development.

Not many Cambodians know that their country is home to a unique species of tea with a distinctive flavour, he says.

To deliver a revival of Cambodian tea, Sambath is working on an aptly-named project, entitled “Cambodia Tea Renaissance” that will limelight the product for export to compete in international markets, especially Europe.

Sambath sat down with The Post’s May Kunmakara to discuss the project and how he believes Cambodian tea will climb the list of priority exports.

How did you get involved in the tea industry?

I started working in the tea industry in 1991 in France, at the most prestigious and luxurious Parisian teahouse. I learned all the aspects of the tea business, from tasting, selecting, blending, selling and of course preparing this spiritual beverage. The owner of the business, a Thai man, took me under his wing and turned me into a tea master.

I also managed public relations and marketing back when our structure was quite small and had to multitask like in a family business. However the brand was and is still today the most well known tea brand in the world.

As a tea master I had to select and taste most of the teas on a regular basis and came up with the idea one day to use tea leaves in French dishes that we served at our tea salons. Thus “La cuisine au the” was born.

After a decade in Paris, I moved to New York to work in the gourmet and luxury industry. I was still creating tea recipes for companies in the US and in France.

Recently in 2017-2018, I was in Bangkok running a tea lounge at a prestigious shopping mall on Ploenchit Road. And until now I am still creating new blends for international companies.

What led to your discovery of the species of tea native to Cambodia?

When I was in Paris, around 1998, my mentor asked me about Cambodian tea, if I’d ever heard of tea that is native to Cambodia. I never had.

He told me that there are two major species of tea plant found around the world – the Camellia sinensis from China and the Camellia assamica from India. But then, he said, there’s also the Camellia cambodiensis from Cambodia.

It was a mind-boggling revelation after having worked in the industry for all these years. I never knew that there was a tea native to my parents’ home country, nor had I ever come across any literature about it – the Cambodian tea plant must have simply vanished during civil conflicts and economic downfall.
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