Figaro Shakes
Cultural Ferment

Lahpet Thoke: Burmese Fermented Tea Leaf Salad, What Lahpet Is and How to Make the Salad

By Updated 2 min read

Discover lahpet thoke, Myanmar’s iconic fermented tea leaf salad that served as a peace offering between warring kingdoms. Learn to assemble this probiotic-rich dish with all traditional accompaniments.

At a glance

Lahpet is Myanmar's fermented tea leaf: steamed tea leaves packed tightly and fermented until soft, sour and savoury, mainly by Lactobacillus and Acetobacter with yeasts. It's eaten as lahpet thoke, a salad of the dressed leaves with fried garlic, sesame, fried beans, peanuts, tomato, chilli and lime. Fermented tea keeps tea's caffeine, and fermentation lowers rather than raises its vitamins.

  • Steamed tea leaves fermented with little air; eaten, not drunk.
  • Main microbes in 14 Myanmar products: Lactobacillus and Acetobacter, with Pichia and Candida yeasts.
  • Related to miang, fermented tea leaves of northern Thailand and Laos.
  • Fermentation reduced vitamins B1, B2, B3 and C in Thai fermented tea.
  • Contains caffeine from the tea.

Ferment profile

Origin
Myanmar (related miang in northern Thailand and Laos)
Fermentation
Lactic acid
Main microbes
Lactobacillus plantarum, L. collinoides, Acetobacter; yeasts Pichia, Candida, Cyberlindnera
Live cultures
Yes
Alcohol
None / trace

Lahpet (laphet, letpet) is fermented tea: young tea leaves (Camellia sinensis) that are steamed, packed tightly and left to ferment with little air until they turn soft, olive-green, sour and savoury. In Myanmar it’s eaten rather than drunk – most famously as lahpet thoke, a salad of the dressed leaves with fried garlic, toasted sesame, fried beans and peas, peanuts, dried shrimp, tomato, chilli and lime, served at gatherings and offered to guests. Fermented tea leaves are also eaten in northern Thailand and Laos as miang.

What Ferments It

A study of 14 laphet products from different parts of Myanmar found Lactobacillus and Acetobacter the most abundant bacteria, and Candida, Pichia, Cyberlindnera and Debaryomyces the most abundant yeasts; the dominant cultured species were Lactobacillus plantarum and L. collinoides, with the yeasts Pichia manshurica, Candida boidinii and Cyberlindnera jadinii. Microbes and pH differed between products (Bo et al., 2020). The related miang of Laos follows the same pattern: lactic acid bacteria and yeasts dominated after a week underground in bamboo tubes, while coliform bacteria present at the start became undetectable later in fermentation (Phovisay et al., 2024).

Nutrition and Caffeine

Fermentation changes the leaves, but not into a vitamin source: in Thai fermented tea, steaming and then fermenting reduced most vitamins, including B1, B2, B3 and C, while fat, sodium, potassium and iron rose (Chupeerach et al., 2021). Fermented tea still contains tea’s catechins and caffeine, which researchers measure in miang (Wangkarn et al., 2021) – so a plate of lahpet thoke carries caffeine, worth knowing late in the day, in pregnancy or for children.

Making the Salad

Lahpet itself is a slow traditional ferment, and we don’t give a home method: buy it from Burmese or Southeast Asian grocers or online, as plain fermented leaves or ready-dressed. The salad is the easy part (recipe card below): dress the leaves with oil, lime, fish sauce and garlic, then arrange the crunchy toppings around them so everyone can mix their own. For another fermented-leaf tradition, see Nepal’s gundruk; for fermented tea you drink, our kombucha guide; and from neighbouring Laos, the fermented fish paste pa daek.

Recipe: Lahpet Thoke (Tea Leaf Salad)

Makes
4 servings
Hands-on
25 min
Fermentation
None (made with bought lahpet)
Temperature
Room temperature
Difficulty
Easy

Equipment

  • Mixing bowl
  • Small frying pan
  • Serving plate

Ingredients

  • 100 g fermented tea leaves (lahpet) (bought)
  • 2 tbsp peanut or sesame oil
  • 1 tbsp fish sauce (or soy sauce)
  • 1–2 limes, juiced
  • 1–2 cloves garlic, finely minced (plus 6 cloves sliced and fried for topping)
  • 3 tbsp each toasted sesame seeds, roasted peanuts, fried split peas or broad beans (the crunchy mix)
  • 2 tbsp dried shrimp (optional)
  • 2 tomatoes, diced
  • 1–2 green chillies, sliced
  • A handful shredded cabbage (optional)

Method

  1. Drain the tea leaves and chop them if they're coarse.
  2. Mix the leaves with the oil, fish sauce, lime juice, minced garlic and half the chilli; taste for salt and sourness.
  3. Fry the sliced garlic gently in a little oil until golden, then drain.
  4. Pile the dressed leaves in the middle of a plate and arrange the fried garlic, sesame, peanuts, fried beans, dried shrimp, tomato, cabbage and the rest of the chilli in mounds around it.
  5. Mix at the table and eat straight away, with rice or on its own.

Frequently asked questions

What is lahpet?

Myanmar's fermented tea leaves, eaten as a food – most famously in the salad lahpet thoke.

Does lahpet thoke contain caffeine?

Yes. Fermented tea leaves keep tea's caffeine, so the salad has some.

What does lahpet taste like?

Sour, slightly bitter and savoury, with a soft, leafy texture; the toppings add crunch.

Is lahpet the same as miang?

They're related fermented tea-leaf foods: lahpet from Myanmar, miang from northern Thailand and Laos.

Can I make lahpet at home?

We don't give a method: it's a slow traditional ferment, and bought lahpet is easy to find in Southeast Asian shops and online.

Is lahpet healthy?

It's a flavourful food, but fermentation lowers rather than raises the leaves' vitamins, and it contains caffeine; the salad is often salty and rich in fried toppings.

Sources

  1. Bo B, Kim SA, Han NS (2020). Bacterial and fungal diversity in Laphet, traditional fermented tea leaves in Myanmar, analyzed by culturing, DNA amplicon-based sequencing, and PCR-DGGE methods. Int J Food Microbiol 320:108508. Link
  2. Phovisay S et al. (2024). Microbial population and physicochemical properties of Miang fermented in bamboo tubes by the Luar ethnic group in Lao PDR. Foods 13(13):2109. Link
  3. Chupeerach C et al. (2021). The effect of steaming and fermentation on nutritive values, antioxidant activities, and inhibitory properties of tea leaves. Foods 10(1):117. Link
  4. Wangkarn S et al. (2021). Development of HPLC method for catechins and related compounds determination and standardization in Miang (traditional Lanna fermented tea leaf, Northern Thailand). Molecules 26(19):6052. Link
#Southeast Asia
Share:

More Global Fermented Foods