Taking high tea at the Chiang Mai Chedi hotel

By Andrew Bond

Just what is it that sets a five star hotel apart from the rest? This I pondered while sipping exotic oolong tea and savouring a delicate pastry, seated on an historic riverside veranda which was once graced by the British consul and his guests. And lounging there lazily, among all the silverware and expensive china, I truly felt like the consul himself in days of yore. Attendants came and went, I gazed idly – almost indecisively – at the delightful selection of cakes and parfait, and the conversation wandered from lifestyles to travel as the soothing Ping river quietly slid by.

Taking high tea in the tropics sounds like a luxury that belongs only in period movies, as coolies pad softly around teak-floored balconies and hand-operated punkah-wallahs beat back the stifling Asian heat. Yet, the lovely old colonial architecture of the consulate remains and the afternoon ritual of high tea has been revived in the grandest of style by the Chedi Hotel.

“It’s not just the food, but the whole experience we are offering here” explains Marcel Huser, the Swiss-born executive chef. He’s right. The elegant rattan furniture and polished teak tables truly replicate the era, when logging concessionaires and missionaries would drop in for a tête á tête with his eminence and discuss the state affairs in faraway Europe.

How times have changed. A modern, yet tastefully designed luxury hotel now discreetly surrounds the old consulate, and well-heeled travellers lounge beside a infinity-edged pool nearby. Chiang Mai is no longer the sleepy provincial town it once was and there’s more accommodation on offer than the legendary old Railway Hotel. Foreigners now come here for leisure, and they can experience a piece of luxury that would otherwise be out of reach to all but platinum credit card-holders if they were back in their home countries. Here in Chiang Mai it’s a surprisingly affordable activity, especially for a rainy day. For less than the price of a taxi fair from Phuket airport to your beach resort you can step into an afternoon of true luxury.

Thinking again about the five star experience, I start to reason that it’s the obsessive details that secure that final star. It’s in the leather bound menus that are especially prepared for the occasion, with a revolving selection of a la carte pastries and fine selection of teas from the breadth of Asia. Choices like marinated pineapple with Szechuan peppercorn and coriander praline parfait or marscaponi and kiffir lime cheese cake have me salivating wildly and looking suspiciously at the price. Or how about the Araguani Valrhona chocolate served with bitter orange marmalade to pique the taste buds?

“Araguani Valrhona? That’s an unusual blend” I bluff inquisitively to Marcel.

“Ah, yes”, good question he says, saving me the embarrassment.

“Araguani is the region in South America that this high quality Valrhona cocoa is cultivated”.

“Ah, yes! Of course, quite dear boy!”. The fine art of afternoon tea is a tradition that only the English will ever really understand. A dash of milk first, then the tea – pot pre-warmed mind you, with a slice of lemon and a strainer for the tea-leaves. Teabags just won’t do old chap, quite uncouth I say!

Loaded on the silver tray in front of me are boutique-styled sandwiches to pick at and diminutive quiches to accompany the colourful and mouth-watering display of cakes. Even though I’m supposed to be taking notes I can’t help reaching for another, hiding my guilt with a few masquerading questions about the food preparation.

“We do a tapas menu too” Marcel mentions, proffering another leather-bound menu.

“We want to encourage the public to drop in and enjoy our restaurants. You can sit anyway and enjoy one of our three menus”. Before I’ve even finished admiring the clever tapas menu that includes an international selection of snacks, he insists on showing me around the old consulate. It now functions like a kind of private club, complete with private dining rooms and wonderful views of the river. The main restaurant and waterfront terrace are still under construction following devastating floods that scuppered the hotel’s original opening this time last year.

But let’s get back to the tea. That we are indulging ourselves in this thoroughly English activity on the verandas of the old British consulate is quite appropriate. And in this respect the Chedi has pulled off a coup, for the atmosphere is truly unique. This isn’t just a list of beverages on the menu but a complete experience, with its own custom menu to rival The Claridges in London.

Although the English have made the art of tea drinking their own, they were relative late-comers to the habit. The Chinese had been drinking tea for more than a millennium before the East India Company presented two ounces of this new brew to King Charles II in 1660. It found its way into the coffee houses of Europe and by the early 18th century 240 tonnes a year were arriving on the shores of Blighty. Of course, with the English love of country gardens it wasn’t long before tea gardens where flourishing across the length of England. Americans got their first taste of tea when Peter Stuyvesant took chests of it across the Atlantic, and it would soon become synonymous with English Imperialism and grace. Which is probably why it became the symbol of protest in the Great Boston Tea party when East Indian ships had their tea chests unceremoniously dumped into Boston harbour in 1773. That was in protest of the high colonies taxes and the North Americans have preferred coffee ever since. But in today’s Britain, the good old ‘cuppa’ is alive and well and consumed an estimated 20 million times every day single day. Blimey! That’s a lot of tea parties and not a lot of work.

From the barracks of Peshawar to the hill stations of Malaysia’s Cameroon Highlands and even as far as the long-gone mansions along Shanghai’s Bund, tea was a celebrated daily ritual among the officers of the great British Empire. It wasn’t simply a chance for a refreshment or downing of tools but a refined gathering of gentlemen (and occasional ladies) to discuss empirical affairs, complain about slipping standards or crack a few racist jokes about the locals. Those days are now confined to forthright old BBC documentaries and dusty photo collections, but the idyllic impression remains with us all as a symbol of luxury and even slight decadence.

Thailand was thankfully never colonised and though they inherited tea drinking rituals from the diaspora of Chinese who arrived early in the twentieth century, the activity never quite caught on. It was confined to these very verandas of consulates and pavilions that were frequented by colonials, such as the historic Chieng Mai Gymkhana club. Having inherited the wonderful riverfront property which once belonged to the Crown, Chiang Mai’s newest luxury hotel has preserved some of the legacy with a truly memorable experience.

Chiang Mai Chedi
All about tea