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A trip to BOH Tea Plantation



It has been over 10 years that I had not been to Cameron Highlands. And this time, thanks to BOH Tea for the great arrangement and we are back to Cameron Highlands for a short and sweet trip.


The Story About BOH

For those who are not aware, BOH Tea is one of the largest tea plantations in Malaysia and they are founded back in 1929 by J.A. Russel.  And the business started back during the British Colonial Era where Russel had arrived in Kuala Lumpur at the age of seven in 1980. Prior to BOH, Russell had worked in the Straits Trading Company and from there he had started to invest in tin miners. And during the British occupancy, they had started invested in real estates and many more.


It’s the Great Depression and the world has spun into recession. Archie decided to start planting tea at Cameron Highlands together with A.B. Milne, a veteran planter from Sri Lanka. Virgin jungle terrain was transformed into the first highlands tea garden in the country, now known as BOH Plantations. The name BOH was derived from “Bohea”, the hills in Fujian Province also called Wuyi Hills, where tea was originally thought to have been discovered by the Emperor Shennong. Bohea was also the name of a premium tea grade in the early China tea trade. Boh means precious happiness in mandarin.


Did you know? BOH is also known as “Best Of Highlands”. This name was actually given by the locals and tourists over the years.


After Archie death in Singapore, his widow Kathleen insisted BOH be retained despite the financial difficulties. And during World War II, the estate was occupied by the Japanese and after the war, Tristan ( Archie’s son) joined the business. And with his determination, BOH remains till today and BOH’s founding family remained committed to staying in Malaysia, optimistic about what the future would bring, and themselves becoming truly Malaysian.


The BOH Sungei Palas Tea Centre is open daily to the public except for Mondays from 9.00am – 4.30pm. Admission to the BOH Tea factory is free and information tours are conducted approximately every 30 minutes. For more information about BOH, you can visit their website: https://www.bohtea.com/

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