Tea is classified into six categories: green tea, white tea, yellow tea, blue tea (oolong tea), black tea, and dark tea. This site introduces the various teas that CHAMART has sampled.

Dark tea
Post-fermented tea (anaerobic bacterial fermentation)
Miang is a highly post-fermented tea leaf that has been eaten in northern Thailand for a long time. Miang is a kind of pickled tea leaf.
Miang is popular with people in their 50s or 60s or older, but young people rarely eat it. People eat Miang while drinking tea. (Locals were interviewed in Chaing Mai in December 2018.)
Production area: Northern Thailand
Flavor:
Miang has a strong fermented smell and tastes sour and bitter, from fermentation.
Production method:
How to eat:
Wrap a pinch of salt or crushed peanuts with a piece of Miang tea leaf, and eat it.

Siriwattana market in Chiang Mai (December 2018)

Many pieces of Miang tea leaves are wrapped with a banana leaf and it was sold for 20 Thai baht at Siriwattana market in Chiang Mai.

Siriwattana market in Chiang Mai (December 2018)

How to produce Miang:
Steam tea leaves and pickle the tea leaves with salt water in a wooden or plastic bucket. Then, cover the bucket with something and place a stone weight on it.  Pickle the tea leaves for about half a year.
The longer the pickled period, the higher the degree of fermentation.
In the old days, steamed tea leaves were put in a bamboo basket lined with banana leaves, and sealed the basket with pork fat. Next, it was buried in the ground to ferment the tea leaves.

Miang in Mae Kampong Village (December 2018)

Reference: 
中村羊一郎(平成29年) 中村羊一郎のお茶しませんか 初版第一刷 羽衣出版
松下智(平成10年) 茶の民族誌ー製茶文化の源流 初版第一刷 雄山閣出版
大森正司、阿南豊正、伊勢村護、加藤みゆき、滝口明子、中村羊一郎編(2017) 茶の事典 初版第一刷 朝倉書店

*The site does not describe all “Teas of Japan” or all “Teas of the World”. Additionally, each article expresses the writer’s personal experience and feelings.
*The information provided on this site may be updated. If you find any information in this article that is incorrect, new, or incomplete, please contact CHAMART.