Macau has played leading role in brewing world’s love of drinking tea
Historian Lo Heng Kong and tea master Andrew U, of Galaxy Macau integrated resort, who pairs drink with food, both keen to promote its health benefits
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Tea historian Lo Heng Kong and Galaxy Macau tea master Andrew U share aromatic brews
Tea is one of China’s most famous global exports, but few people may be aware of the pivotal role played by Macau in making the drink a worldwide phenomenon.
During the 17th century, interest in tea was limited to European trading outposts in the Southeast Asian region, but it was the Dutch who were the first people in Europe to make tea drinking fashionable in their own country.
By the time Princess Catherine of Braganza, daughter of Portugal’s King John IV, married King Charles II and became the queen of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1662, the drinking of tea was already popular among the aristocracy in the southern European country.
In fact, the tradition of afternoon tea in the United Kingdom is believed to have been introduced by Catherine, and Macau was where much of the fragrant goods were loaded on the ship for its journey further afield.
“By the 1860s, the tea trade in Macau was booming,” Lo Heng Kong, founder of the Chinese Teaism Association of Macao, says. “Unions of tea processing workers benefited greatly from it. They contributed significant funds to the renovation of the A-Ma Temple.”
The historic place of worship – one of the Unesco Historic Monuments of Macao – in the southeast part of the city, which honours Ama, the Chinese goddess of seafarers, already existed when the Portuguese arrived; the name Macau is derived from the Chinese name, Ama-gao, meaning Bay of Ama. The temple was particularly important to the people of Macau when shipping was the mainstay of the city’s economy.
“The workers were even able to afford a plaque placed at the top of the main hall,” Lo says. “It cost a fortune. If organised workers could afford it, imagine how much money the bosses were making.”
