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When the bigger wave of Chinese migrants began arriving in the country in the 19th and 20th centuries to work in the tin mines, they too brought tea with them.

"Because they were poor, they couldn't pack many things. One of the things that could withstand travel well was tea leaves. And the tea leaves that they brought were those with long shelf lives which were typically dark teas — the same sort that explorers like Marco Polo brought around the world. So very little of the white teas made it to Malaysia," says Koh Peng Chye, whose family has been in the tea industry in Malaysia for nearly 100 years and now runs modern tea bar Beca Tea.

According to an article published by the Tea Trade Association of Malaysia, different Chinese communities in Malaysia have different predilections for tea-drinking. For example, the Cantonese have a preference for Liu Pao dark tea; the Hokkiens and Teochew are partial to Oolong tea; and the Hakkas traditionally opt for green tea.

Essentially, all Chinese tea comes from the Camellia sinensis plant. But what separates different teas is the way they are processed.

While the Western world recognizes four kinds of teas, there are six acknowledged types of Chinese teas — green tea, yellow tea, white tea, Oolong tea, dark tea and red tea.