Myanmar Pickled Tea (Laphet) 11.29oz (Leaf) for Tea Salad Dressing (Zayan) non-spicy ဇယန်းအညွှန့်နှပ်

I went to a Burmese restaurant and loved the tea leaf salad, so I wanted to make it myself. I live in the San Francisco Bay area where there are a LOT of Asian grocery stores, but I couldn't find fermented tea leaves. There were recipes online for fermenting your own tea leaves but the consensus was that it doesn't taste as good. So I ordered this jar from Amazon, bought the other ingredients at my local stores, and made tea leaf salad. It was perfectly delicious, just like that of my Burmese restaurant. Some recipes said that fermented tea leaves can be bitter and that it helps to soak the bitterness out of them with cold water, but these were not bitter at all. (I soaked them but it didn't make any difference. I won't wast time soaking them next time.) The fermented tea leaves come in a sealed bag that's inside of a plastic-lidded jar. In case it helps anyone... I made the dressing, pureed in a blender with the following: 1/2 cup of tea leaves (which are packed in oil, by the way). 1 tsp lemon juice (at least). ½ cup of canola oil. 2 Tbsp fish sauce. 1 clove of garlic (at least). ¼ tsp dried chili flakes. That's enough dressing for about 10 cups of chopped lettuce (for 7-8 people). I'd estimate that this jar of fermented tea leaves contains about 1.5 cups, which would be enough for 3 batches of the dressing recipe listed above. Of course, if you're serving a family of 4, you may want to cut my dressing recipe (and the following salad recipe) in half. In case it helps, the other ingredients that I put around (and then later mixed-in with) the lettuce were: 1/4 cup of fried moong dahl (that I found in the SNACK section, not the grain section, of an Indian grocery store) 1/4 cup of fried garlic chips (which I found at one of my Asian grocery stores-- though you can make them yourself). 1/4 cup of roasted sunflower seeds. 1/4 cup of Spanish peanuts. 1/4 cup of diced tomatoes. 1 small diced jalapeno. 2 lemon wedges squeezed on top. Optionally, 1 Tbsp shrimp powder sprinkled on top. This is good stuff. Good luck! Bon appetite!

So good! Blended this with some oil + garlic, and it tasted and looked exactly like Burma Superstar. There's enough tea leaves to make at least 8 servings. Happy to have found this so I can make it myself. Not sure why there's negative reviews, seems like people don't understand how to prepare it.

Was introduced to Laphet Thoke at a local restaurant. Their dressing is blended so seeing whole tea leaves was unexpected. I just dumped it into a blender. Mixture is in a plastic bag which is shoved into a plastic jar with an aluminum pull top (which broke on me) and then shrink wrapped. Once blended it was really thick so I added oil and fresh lemon juice. Taste was ok, better once amended.

Great for tea leaf salad

One of the best Burmese pickled Tea leaves for their famous tea leaf salad. Great brand. Very happy with the purchase. The vendor even sent a free gift with the purchase

Didn't taste good. Kind of yucky. Not like the tea leaf stuff served in Burmese restaurants.

Tea leaf salads from the local Burmese restaurant are $20+ each, so we wanted to try our hand at making our own. Weren't really sure what fermented tea leaves would be correct, but these do the trick perfectly. Have purchased them twice now. If you're looking to make Burmese tea leaf salad at home, these are the ones.

If you haven't tried tea leaf salad, you're missing out. This is an essential component. 3 stars because this jar was heavy on inedible thick stems I had to pick out.