How the next generation of a 92-year-old tea dynasty is shaking things up

Five generations later, tea remains at the heart of the family. “We eat, breathe, and live for tea,” chuckles PC. “Some of my friends used to joke that I had tea running in my veins.” It was a family secret how the first generation Koh processed teas, a skill he passed down to the males in the family.

Many of PC’s earliest memories revolve around tea, including morning sessions he would share with his father tasting teas. “My father was typically an impatient man, but when it came to tea and inducting me into the trade, he was surprisingly forgiving,” he reminisces. 

As a child, PC and his extended family used to live on a one-acre piece of land in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, where family life and tea-production commingled. At the time, teas from China arrived semi-finished and required roasting at a constant temperature. “I have vivid memories of stoking the embers of the charcoal fires that were kept alive twenty four-seven to roast tea,” he says.

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Fifth-generation Joshua Ong, PC’s nephew, who sits with us in Beca Tea alongside PC’s wife, Rin Rin Wong, also shares similar tea-centric experiences. “There was always a large, communal pot of tea in the house, filled with oolong or tieguanyin, that everyone would drink from,” he smiles. 

Tea remained at the centre of the family, but over generations, perspectives shifted as times changed. The fourth and fifth generations of the Koh family felt that in the current climate, available tea offerings were at two extreme ends—a more expensive, inaccessible set up that takes time, and at the other end, fast-moving boba joints with syrup-laden offerings that overpower the natural flavour of teas. While for the past 92 years, the family has been selling its teas directly to businesses, Beca Tea is the first customer-facing initiative.

“As a family that grew up understanding tea, we wanted to show people what tea could be,” Wong explains. As such, the brand was born with the hope to educate on the purity and beauty of the drink, a product of nine decades of knowledge and expertise passed down five generations. 

From the very beginning, the family shied away from sugars, syrups, preservatives, and colourings, making use of real botanicals and fruit infusions. “Living in Malaysia, a land where locals love their sugar, we might be foolhardy,” laughs Ong, who played a key role in the recipe development process.

While most fruit teas contain fruit-flavoured syrups rather than real fruit, Beca Tea tries to let fresh fruit and vegetables speak for themselves. At times, the essence of herbs are extracted, and when sweetness is needed to achieve a certain flavour profile, stevia, a natural sugar substitute, is incorporated. 

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At the core of all the drinks, however, lies tea. Five bases of tea form the foundation of all drinks: white, green, oolong, pu’er, and black cold brew. “The next step was to find ingredients that make our teas sing, so we worked with mixologists to refine our drinks,” Wong says. “The collaborations were often creative and spontaneous, sometimes our consultants took the lead on crafting certain drinks, and other times we let them fine-tune our own creations.”

The Squash Supreme reflects this collaborative process: “we wanted to see how the naturally sweet fruit paired with oat milk,” Ong shares, as he places down a cup of the signature drink in front of me. “One of our mixologists felt it needed some bite, so we added grass jelly, and topped the drink with balsamic vinegar to cut through the rich milk foam.”

The outcome is a wholesome drink filled with textures from the grass jelly and squash and fragrance from the tea, but without the cloying decadence of commercial milk tea. “We alternate between roasting and steaming the squash at our production facility,” he adds, as I compliment the mouthfeel of the fruit.

It took a year of research and development before the drinks were launched at the brand’s flagship store at Damansara Uptown. While it is, at its very core, a grab-and-go store, the beautifully designed, minimalistic space also offers customers a chance to sip and share behind tea-dyed fabric installations, learn about the craft through musings on the walls, or sample tea while waiting in line.

“We’re a modern tea shop alternative, offering healthy, crafted beverages you’ve never tasted,” Koh says. “While sharing the art of tea is a serious mission, we are fun-loving people that want to share the secretive and conservative trade of tea.”

The family love exploring tastes, cultures, and history of food, and want to give customers the chance to journey together with them. A tea bar is set up next to the counter with rotating flavours each month, showcasing different teas from around the world.

During my visit, on pour is pink Kashmiri tea from Pakistan, served with a sprinkling of green pistachios. “While tea originated from China, tea shoots were brought to countries such as India, Kenya, and Indonesia during colonial times,” Koh explains. Much like in the case of wine, tea takes on different characteristics depending on where it is grown due to the terroir. 

“Kashmiri chai, or sheer chai, is made with green tea and has a more subtle spice level compared to chai masala,” Koh says, as I sip the sample. He elaborates that in Kashmir, it is often enjoyed with bread as a breakfast tea. “It is also a cultural symbol of hospitality, and enjoyed in beautiful cups and saucers during special occasions.”

At my time of visiting, Beca Tea has only been open for a week, but I leave the Damansara Uptown store knowing more about tea than ever before. “We have an audacious mission to take a bit of narrative away from the coffee world, to satisfy the sheepish boba junkie, and to give quiet tea drinkers the space they need,” Wong smiles. An admitted coffee aficionado, I find myself excited, for the first time in a long time, about tea.

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