Australia
1920
The 3rd brother of owner father led his 8 siblings immigrated from Chaozhou, China to settle in Thailand.
About us
1925
The 3rd brother Sa Pae had established Chinese Tea Shop named Lim Meng Keeat Chalermburi, Yaowarat Road. The tea products were imported from China and this was the origin of family tea business.
World War II
After the shop had been established for about 20 years and had a fairly good operating result, the World War II was begun. The shop at Chalermburi was damaged by bomb, so the shop had to move to SoiPadungdao, Yaowarat and continued the business. The main product was still a Chinese tea, Oolong tea and green tea as well as the shop began to imported red tea at this period.
1945
The Beginning of ChaTraMue (Number One Brand Thai Tea)
As Thailand is a tropical country, Chinese hot tea is not very popular among Thai people. The shop had imported red tea to make Thai Milk Tea and Thai Black Tea both served with ice to meet the needs of Thai people. The name “ChaTraMue” was given and taken 1945 as the starting year of the ChaTraMue brand since then.
1945 – 1965
Thailand originally collected tea leaves to make tea leaf-wrapped appetizer. However, Thai people started to make their own tea and developed as Thai tea. Mr.Ting, the shop manager, at that time was the first group of pioneers who opened up the tea factory on Wawee hill at Mae Suai district, Chiang Rai province. The factory name was “Cha Hom Factory” or Aromatic Tea Factory in which the tea machineries had to use elephants to drag up to the Wawee hill.
1965 – 1989
Due to the difficulty and inconvenience of travel and management, the factory at Wawee hill had to be cancelled. The shop manager turned to develop and build a purchasing network with local tea planters. Later when the roads are more comfortable, the current owner recognized the important of Chiang Rai and the nearby area which have plenty number of tea. He started a new factory located at Wiang Pa Pao district, Chiang Rai in 1989 and gave name “Siam Tea Factory” which is currently registered as Cha Thai International Company Limited.
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