Cover Two co-founders of Pang Cha: Kanchana Tathiyakul and Chef Sangnarong Montriwat (Photo: Worapon Teerawatvijit)
Two co-founders of Pang Cha: Kanchana Tathiyakul and Chef Sangnarong Montriwat (Photo: Worapon Teerawatvijit)
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From a Dessert Born of Love to a Globally Acclaimed Brand: This is the Story of Pangcha, crafted by the visionary duo— Kanchana Tathiyakul, and Chef Sangnarong Montriwat. Together, this creative couple has redefined the future of Thai tea, elevating its value and potential on the world stage like never before.
Many people may not know that the origin of the dessert menu that became the talk of the town, 'Pang Cha', was when Chef Saeng Saengnarong Montriwat pioneered the 'Lukkaithong' shop with his talented wife, Gam Kanchana Tattiyakul, who has been attached to Thai tea since she was young. Since Lukkaithong shop at that time did not have a dessert menu, Gam came up with the idea of making 'shaved ice with Thai tea' as a gift to show gratitude to customers. It turned out that everyone loved it and encouraged them to sell it. This became the inspiration to create the 'Pang Cha' menu and later expanded to the famous Pang Cha shop.
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Above Two co-founders of Pang Cha: Kanchana Tathiyakul and Chef Sangnarong Montriwat (Photo: Worapon Teerawatvijit)
Two co-founders of Pang Cha: Kanchana Tathiyakul and Chef Sangnarong Montriwat (Photo: Worapon Teerawatvijit)
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Youthful bonds and unique tea recipes that add value
Two Pang Cha executives took turns telling their business experiences, which began with their love of making delicious desserts as a token of gratitude. But when it was time to get serious, they tried doing some research and discovered that foreigners really liked Thai tea, but the image that everyone remembered was local street food at 20-25 baht per bag. This led to the idea of how to make Thai tea more valuable.
Chef Saeng said that the nature of tea is not stable, difficult, but that doesn't mean impossible. His wife has both knowledge, love, and experience accumulated since childhood. She also remembers the taste, combined with her own techniques and understanding of the astringency, bitterness, intensity, and lightness of each season of tea. Therefore, the taste of tea must come from this woman's hands.
Gam began by telling the story of the origin of her tea knowledge and skills that she had since she was young. “In the past, my mother liked to leave it with my grandmother. Then, my grandmother’s friend who sold traditional tea and coffee on a boat liked to make it for me to drink. So, I got to experience the naturalness of Thai tea since I was a child and I still remember its taste forever.”
Gam explained that tea is seasonal and there are many types of tea leaves, such as black tea, red tea, oolong tea, Assam tea, etc. So she wanted to experiment and create a new tea recipe for Pang Cha by blending five types of tea to create a strong, high-quality, and delicious tea.
“Thai tea must be sweet. How do you make Thai tea fragrant and blend it with milk?” Before Gam could finish, Chef Saeng added, “But how do you make it so that the milk doesn’t overpower the tea aroma? That’s the key.” The two looked at each other and nodded with a smile.
Gam continued, “What customers always say is that our tea is strong and fragrant. Foreigners would say it’s very rich or strong, meaning it’s a Thai tea with a strong flavor, which has become our signature.”
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Above Two co-founders of Pang Cha: Kanchana Tathiyakul and Chef Sangnarong Montriwat (Photo: Worapon Teerawatvijit)
Two co-founders of Pang Cha: Kanchana Tathiyakul and Chef Sangnarong Montriwat (Photo: Worapon Teerawatvijit)
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Above Thai tea with pearls (Photo: Pang Cha)
Thai tea with pearls (Photo: Pang Cha)
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Dress up in style and be proud of your Thai identity.
Although the taste of Thai tea has been developed to be mellow, it is still not ready to be launched in the market in Chef Saeng's eyes.
“At that time, I thought it was ordinary because Thai tea came from street food and we hadn’t dressed it up to be modern yet. I’m a cook. I like to make food like my own child. I wanted him to be Thai and marry a foreigner. I felt that the child would be more beautiful (smiles).”
That is the origin of adding toppings on the tea bread, such as roasted almonds, colorful pearls such as Thai tea pearls, seaweed pearls, etc., including using honey to sweeten it instead of sugar.
“We add pearls to make it cool, with a chewy and crunchy texture. It’s crunchy and chewy, making it fun to eat. And if you think about it scientifically, it’s the emotion of fun and chewy that makes you salivate. When you salivate, it helps you absorb the flavor better.”
Not only that, when looking from a chef's perspective, the container is also an important thing that helps highlight the food. That is the origin of the term 'cold food' must go with 'stainless steel', and it is the mission of the talented wife to seek out suitable Thai handicrafts.
“If you look closely, Pang Cha is like a work of art. It is a delicate work that is molded to have the right amount of ice, not too tight, not too loose. And when it is finished, it looks like a lotus flower tray. So we drew the container to look like lotus petals. We imagined the golden lotus flower tray that is given to customers to reflect the feeling that everything in Pang Cha is molded from the love that we want to convey to all of our guests. Because if there were no customers, there would be no Pang Cha desserts and shops today.”
In addition to the beautiful craftsmanship of Pangcha containers, which require beating, hammering, and molding, each piece is not easy to create. The shop's decorations also use pottery that tells the story of Thai identity.
“We like Thainess, so we told Phi Saeng that Kaem would like to do this because if one day we are no longer here, the roots and culture of Thainess will still be passed on to our children, grandchildren, and everyone. That is something that makes us happy when we look at it.”
Above Two co-founders of Pang Cha: Kanchana Tathiyakul and Chef Sangnarong Montriwat (Photo: Worapon Teerawatvijit)
Two co-founders of Pang Cha: Kanchana Tathiyakul and Chef Sangnarong Montriwat (Photo: Worapon Teerawatvijit)
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Above Pang Cha, a famous menu (Photo: Pang Cha)
Pang Cha, a famous menu (Photo: Pang Cha)
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Above Pang Cha Pearls (Photo: Pang Cha)
Pang Cha Pearls (Photo: Pang Cha)
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Family desserts and everyone's cooperation
Another cleverly hidden strategy is to design a dessert menu that requires people to sit in a circle and eat it.
“Many people say, make a small cup so that one can eat it alone. We say no, because it is the spirit of Pang Cha that we intended from the beginning. No matter what generation, this Khanom Thua can meet the needs. We want to see children bring their parents, grandparents, and grandparents to sit and eat dessert together. They take turns taking turns talking at the dining table, reflecting the ancient tradition of eating with family and friends. This is the inspiration that makes us unable to stop doing this. It is a joy to see customers happy.”
Although Pang Cha always emphasizes serving love to customers, it is undeniable that the success of this world-class Thai dessert shop is due to the combined efforts of the two founders and all employees.
“I think the team is very important. It’s a good combination where we work together with love. We love our customers, we love our employees, we love what we do, and we focus on doing it continuously for a long period of time. In fact, love doesn’t last long. When it comes to love, it’s the power that makes us not feel tired and can overcome any problems,” Chef Saeng shared his feelings with sparkling eyes.
While Gam herself added that this success would not have been possible without the cooperation of everyone in the organization.
“The most important thing is that everyone must have the same heart and see the same picture first. Our ultimate goal is to do whatever it takes to make Thai tea more memorable and valuable than before. When guests come, they must stop by to drink Thai tea. We don’t see them as just a Pang Cha shop, but as one of our children. They can grow up anywhere, as long as there are people who love Thai tea as much as we do. That alone makes us happy.”
Above Two co-founders of Pang Cha: Kanchana Tathiyakul and Chef Sangnarong Montriwat (Photo: Worapon Teerawatvijit)
Two co-founders of Pang Cha: Kanchana Tathiyakul and Chef Sangnarong Montriwat (Photo: Worapon Teerawatvijit)
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