--- title: 'Tea you eat: laphet and miang' url: 'https://howtotea.me/traditions/south-and-southeast-asia/laphet-and-miang' markdown: 'https://howtotea.me/traditions/south-and-southeast-asia/laphet-and-miang.md' lang: en date: '2026-10-25' description: 'Laphet in Myanmar, miang in northern Thailand, sour tea in Yunnan: how the leaf ferments in pits and bamboo, and why it ends up in salads and at weddings.' --- # Tea you eat: laphet and miang Editors · October 25, 2026 · 9 min read Laphet, miang and sour tea are tea leaf that has been steamed, sealed off from the air and fermented for anywhere from a week to a year. In 2003 laphet accounted for 44% of all the tea made in Myanmar. People chew it or eat it in salads rather than steep it. ![Lahpet thoke salad: fermented tea leaves with beans, peanuts and sesame](https://howtotea.me/images/c/o/v/e/r/cover-17dce156.webp) Illustration Laphet and miang Where: Myanmar (Shan State), northern Thailand, northwest Laos, Yunnan Method: leaf is steamed or boiled, fermented without air Time: from 7 days to a year, depending on the product Myanmar, 2003: laphet 9,932 t, green 8,003 t, black 4,224 t Eaten as: laphet thoke, a tray, miang with salt, wet tea with tomato Standards: no national ones Some tea is eaten rather than drunk: soft, sour leaf, salted and often garlicky. In Myanmar it goes into salad, in Thailand people chew it after a meal, and the De'ang of Yunnan eat it with tomato and peanuts. Three peoples arrived at the same technique, each by its own path. ## One method, many versions All of these products are made the same way. The leaf is picked, steamed or heated in boiling water, cooled, sometimes rolled, then packed tightly into a container and left without air, under weights or in the ground. Then microbes take over. In laphet and miang they are lactic acid bacteria (Lactobacillus), acetic acid bacteria (Acetobacter) and the yeasts Candida and Pichia, with molds in some recipes. There are no starter cultures or standards, so everything depends on time and an airtight seal. What differs is the raw leaf, the heating, the container and the time: - **Laphet, Shan:** a bud and two leaves, steamed about 5 to 10 minutes, an underground tank or a pit lined with banana leaf, stones on top, two to six months. - **Miang, northern Thailand:** young leaf of Assam tea, steamed 1 to 2 hours, a bag in a basket or a concrete tank, 7 to 28 days or 3 to 12 months. - **Miang, Laos:** steamed 90 minutes, a bamboo section sealed with a plug of panicle grass and clay, buried, from a week to several months. - **Sour tea, Yunnan:** a bamboo tube or basket in an earth pit; the De'ang give it 2 months for eating and 4 to 9 months for drinking. Fermentation softens the leaf and takes the bitterness out. In laphet, molds turn tannins into gallic acid; in miang, the enzymes pectinase and β-mannanase break the leaf down. In a Chiang Mai University trial, lactic acid reached 50.9 mg/g dry weight by day 9, and [polyphenols](https://howtotea.me/science/chemistry/polyphenols) peaked between days 18 and 56. ## Myanmar: laphet In Myanmar laphet is a whole industry. In 2003 it took 9,932 t of tea, more than green tea (8,003 t) and [black tea](https://howtotea.me/teas/black) (4,224 t). About 85% of the country's tea gardens lie in Shan State. In Shan, growers steam the leaf, knead it by hand for about ten minutes and pack it into a pit roughly 2 m deep, lined with mats and banana leaf; these days the pit is often concrete. Stones go on top. After fermentation the soft leaf is sorted from the tough. That is *lahpet-so*, "wet tea." Small farms make another laphet from mature leaf, fermenting it in a vinyl bag or a bamboo tube. Dried laphet (*lahpet chin chauk*) is brewed. Price depends on the harvest. Shan has several, from "shwe phi u" in mid-March to early April to the autumn "hnin that" in September to mid-November. Leaf picked before the water festival in mid-April is prized most: in 2012 it fetched 800 to 900 kyat per peittha, against 400 to 500 in the rainy season. About 80% of the leaf comes from the "zayan" cultivar, which is often mixed with starfruit. Buyers value Mogok laphet because it is fermented without additives. ### The tray and the salad Offering laphet, *ahlu laphet*, comes on a lacquer tray with compartments. The leaf, dressed with salt and sesame oil, sits in the center, with fried beans, dried shrimp, fried garlic, peanuts and sesame around it. A cup of [green tea](https://howtotea.me/teas/green) always stands beside it. For laphet thoke, raw lahpet-so is mixed with garlic, ground chili, salt, lemon or lime juice and peanut or sesame oil. Cabbage, tomatoes, green chili and fried beans go in too. Sour, salty, crunchy and spicy meet on one plate, and that is the whole point of the dish. ## Northern Thailand and Laos: miang In Thailand this tea is called miang (เมี่ยง). It is made in Chiang Mai, Phrae, Chiang Rai, Lampang and Nan; Chiang Mai has the largest plantings, Nan the largest output. The villages sit under a canopy of big trees, and a tea garden looks like secondary forest. The tea trees grow up to 5 m, and pickers work from bamboo ladders. There are two kinds. Miang faat ("astringent") ferments for 7 to 28 days and is bitter, with more EGCG. The sour kind, miang som, ferments for 3 to 12 months, and water is added to the tank. Finished miang goes into baskets lined with banana leaf. It stays fresh for about a month and keeps for about three. Since miang is not dried, every mouthful carries plenty of live bacteria and yeasts. Japanese post-fermented teas are sun-dried and brewed with boiling water, and lactic acid bacteria barely survive in them. The closest Japanese relative of miang is awa-bancha from Tokushima. People chew miang with salt, ginger, coconut or tamarind. In a 1960s account, each person takes a bundle (a *kam* weighed about 300 g), rolls it into a ball around a grain of salt and puts it in the mouth, spitting out the fibers afterward. Miang was sold by the bundle, and a picker gathered about 50 kam a day. Demand has been falling since the 1970s. In Laos miang survives among minority peoples of the northwest, once part of Lan Na. There the leaf is tied in bundles and steamed for 90 minutes, and the bamboo section is sealed with clay. The Japanese researcher Sasaki suggests that miang reached Thailand by two routes: from Myanmar, and over the mountains from Laos. ## Sour tea in Yunnan The Blang of the Bulang Mountains and the De'ang of Mangshi county in Dehong ferment sour tea (酸茶, suānchá) without air, much like laphet. The Blang boil the leaf and bury it in a bamboo tube; the De'ang steam it, roll it and also pack it into bamboo. The Blang call it "勉" (mian), consider it food and keep it in the mouth. From one batch the De'ang get two products: "wet" sour tea, eaten with tomato, peanuts and salt, and a dry tea that brews a clear golden liquor. The wet kind keeps for 1 to 3 years. Official descriptions give no brewing parameters for the dry tea, so there are none here either. In 2021 the craft was added to the fifth national list of intangible heritage, and in 2022 it became part of the UNESCO element on traditional tea processing techniques in China. Yunnan sour tea should not be confused with bamboo tea. Among the Blang of Zhanglang, bamboo tea is roasted leaf packed into bamboo and baked by the hearth, while their sour tea is boiled leaf fermented in the ground. ## Tea as ritual In Myanmar laphet is a token of peace. Kings offered ahlu laphet to an enemy when they wanted to end a war, and the parties to a court case ate it from one plate to show they accepted the judge's decision.[1](#fn:1) In 1906 J. G. Scott called the shared chewing of betel and laphet by the parents of a bride and groom "the national way of sealing any bargain." The couple's parents send out parcels of laphet as wedding invitations. Among the Blang of Zhanglang the invitation (恩膏勉) is a banana-leaf parcel of tea and two wax candles, tied with bamboo. Whoever receives it must come. The De'ang serve sour tea at weddings, meetings, farewells and sacrifices. In northern Thailand miang is set out at religious ceremonies and funerals. There is a counterexample, too. In Namsan 90% of residents are Palaung, yet they eat little laphet themselves: tea counts as a "cooling" food, unsuited to the chilly highlands. ## Safety and adulteration Researchers who studied laphet in Myanmar say plainly that its health benefits are not scientifically proven. Fermentation takes time to suppress intestinal bacteria. In Lao miang, coliforms were still at 5.31 log CFU/g after a week and gone by weeks 3 to 5, hence the advice to ferment for at least three weeks. Poor hygiene during fermentation can let pathogens into miang. Under-steamed leaf spoils and turns brown. The main documented risk is dyeing. On March 12, 2009, Myanmar's Ministry of Health announced that the textile dye auramine O had been found in laphet from 43 producers. Singapore and Malaysia banned imports; Thailand did not. Producers admitted they had checked the leaf by eye only: dyed leaf stains the hands. Laphet fermented at about 30°C and then aged for a year showed no molds that produce aflatoxin or ochratoxin. As of 2020 Myanmar laphet was unregulated, with no requirement to label the date or the producer. Quality comes down to fermentation time, a clean container and an honest wholesaler. The general rules of [tea safety](https://howtotea.me/science/chemistry/tea-safety) apply here as well. Tea that is also ripened by microbes but brewed is [dark tea](https://howtotea.me/teas/dark), and its best-known example is [pu-erh](https://howtotea.me/teas/dark/puer). [Tea with milk](https://howtotea.me/traditions/south-and-southeast-asia/asian-milk-teas) is a separate tradition in the region. ## Common questions What is laphet and how is it eaten? Laphet is fermented tea leaf from Myanmar. Its best-known dish is laphet thoke: the leaf is dressed with garlic, chili, salt, lemon or lime juice and peanut or sesame oil, then tossed with cabbage, tomatoes, green chili and fried beans. It is also served on its own on a tray, next to a cup of green tea. Can laphet or miang be brewed? No, they are food: laphet and miang are chewed or eaten, and miang fibers are usually spat out. The dry sour tea of the De'ang in Yunnan is brewed, but sources give no brewing parameters for it. Is fermented tea leaf safe? Home-made leaf ferments without starter cultures, so everything comes down to time and an airtight seal. In Lao miang, coliform bacteria were gone by weeks 3 to 5, which is why at least three weeks of fermentation is recommended. In 2009 the dye auramine O turned up in Myanmar laphet. No health benefit of laphet has been scientifically proven. Notes 1. International Trade Centre, [All about Myanmar Tea](https://kalawheritageonline.org/khstories/storiesAboutTea/ITC_All%20about%20Myanmar%20Tea_English%20version.pdf). Tradition ties laphet to King Alaungsithu of Bagan (reigned 1112/13–1167); the chronicles give different years of his reign. 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