TWT stands for “Tea, Warmer, Treat” and as you have guessed it, it’s a cafe to go for meals and tea ! There’s only a handful of cafes in Ipoh that focuses on tea instead of coffee, could tea be the next hot trend amidst the craze for coffee ?
Tag Archives: Tea
Tea & Tattle @ Ipoh (De Garden)
Drinking tea at Tea & Tattle is truly a sophisticated experience – where teas come with a dainty sand timer that indicates how much time you must endure before you can take in a sip of warmth. Tea is the main focus here, served in an uncluttered environment. Continue reading
Purple Cane Tea House @ Ipoh, Malaysia
Purple Cane is located in the building where the famed Foh San dim sum place used to be and has given it a new life. The building is rather unattractive on the outside with no fancy signage but once you step in, it’s a completely different world. Continue reading
Something’s Brewing @ Ipoh
With a swirl of coffee stain (or milk tea stain?) on its logo, Something’s Brewing keeps patrons intrigued at what’s brewing. There’s both coffee and tea on the menu but it’s the tea selection that I found to be stellar. Continue reading
Gaharu Tea Valley @ Gopeng Malaysia
The Gaharu Tea Valley in Gopeng (務邊沉香園) has an impressive number of 200,000 gaharu trees. The gaharu trees also known as argawood, span through hundreds of acres of land with Ipoh’s beautiful limestone mountains as the backdrop.
The gaharu tree when infected with mold, produces resin as a defense mechanism, resulting in an aromatic dark wood within the trunk. The dark wood is s of high commercial and medicinal value, whether it’s to be extracted for essential oil, perfume, burnt as incense or used for sculpturing. If you look at the trees closer, you will observe a lot of tiny holes where the molds are injected through.
The gaharu has a beautiful Chinese name “沉香”, literally meaning “sinking aroma”. The grades of gaharu wood are classified by their ability to sink. The more resinous the wood is, the more precious it is and the heavier it is, resulting the wood to sink completely into the water or only semi-sinking if the wood is not heavy enough.
The tour to view around the plantation is RM10 per person (by van), which comes with a packet of gaharu tea and a small piece of kayu raja wood.
The driver cum tour guide first took us to see the panoramic views of the valley. It’s also where the remains of a 20 year old gaharu tree trunk is. Hugging it is supposed to bring you good luck! A hotel is being set up nearby.
Our tour guide is very knowledgeable, telling us stories about how the gaharu tea valley all began. 15 years ago, 200 baby gaharu trees were given to the owner by a Japanese man. When the Japanese man came back to visit again, there were only 30 gaharu trees left due to theft and it was only then the owner realized that the gaharu trees are so precious. The land was originally growing palm trees but the owner decided to pull out everything and plant the gaharu instead. Today, the gaharu valley is flourishing with precious trees with some of the older trees worth hundreds of thousands each.
The trees are colored with yellow, red or black bands, indicating how old they are.
Our guide also showed us this loving tree couple – the darker tree resembles a man courting the lady (white tree). You can see that tree branch is reaching out to the white tree, as if trying to lure her into his arms! Even the tree trunks are intertwined with each other!
At the base of the base of the valley, there’s a souvenir shop, selling gaharu products like gaharu tea, gaharu tea egg premix packs, bak kut teh herbal packs and even gaharu tea instant noodles! The gaharu tea is pretty pricey. My father tried the tea and he reckons that the tea helps him to sleep better.
Gaharu flavor is used in desserts too in herbal jelly and ice cream.
Gaharu sculptured items displayed in the souvenir shop.
This piece here is not for sale!
More gaharu trunks outside the souvenir shop.
The Gaharu Tea Valley sits within the forest areas of Gopeng. When you see this mini Great Wall of China, you have arrived at the main entrance 🙂
More Info
Gaharu Tea Valley Official Website
Address: Lot 9840, Mukim Sg Teja, 31600 Gopeng, Perak, Malaysia.
GPS : N 04°27’30.00″ E 101° 11’26.40″
Tel: 05 3511 999
Admission: RM 10 per person to tour around the valley.
Opening Hours: Daily 9am – 6pm.
Related articles
- What is Gaharu Wood? (gaharuwoods.wordpress.com)
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STG Tea House Cafe @ Ipoh, Malaysia
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Nine Creeks by Misty Trees @ Hangzhou China
The Nine Creeks are fairly close to the Longjing Tea Village that we visited. The Nine Creeks are rated as one of the Ten New Scenes of West Lake in Hangzhou which has a few names in Chinese – 九溪烟树 (jiu xi yan shu) meaning Nine Creeks by Misty Trees or 九溪十八涧 (jiu xi shi ba jian) meaning Nine Creeks & Eighteen Streams. We walked about 1 hour from the Longjin Tea Village as transportation wasn’t readily accessible (unless you hire a cab for the day). Continue reading
Longjing Tea Village @ Hangzhou China
“Longjin” means dragon well in Chinese. So like the name suggests – there’s gotta be a well somewhere which the village was named from – and here it is. Continue reading