I’ve marked this as a place to eat with a few things to look at, rather than a place to visit for fun, because while there is a tiny exhibition, if you had made a journey just for that you would be very disappointed.
Boh Tea is the best selling tea in Malaysia, all grown at its plantations in Cameron Highlands. The Boh company has been going since 1929, and bought up the land around Sungai Palas in the 1950s. In 2007, it built a visitor centre and cafe overlooking a valley of tea bushes.
We travelled there along a winding and narrow ‘cliff’ road, occasionally backing up in traffic as lorries tried to pass. The 1.5km access road took us about 15 minutes! Next, we looked up at the 149 steps to get up to the centre. These are actually easier than you’d think, as it has some flat sections to help out.
At the top, the cafe is to the left, and the mini-gallery (and shop selling lots of tea) to the right. The exhibition has a handful of photos and explanatory boards, along with a trilingual video on the history of Boh, and a few tea processing machines. Pleasant enough, but very small.
The cafe is like a canteen, with one major exception – the views of the valley are stunning, especially from the viewing platform.
We had some teas and a couple of interesting drinks (strawberry and lychee tea which was very sweet; ice blended cham which was…also very sweet, with little coffee flavour breaking). We also shared two cakes.
Strawberry cake was artificial-tasting strawberry cream with chocolate sponge, liberally spread with some sugary fake cream. Not very good, and we didn’t finish it (between 5!).
Salted egg pineapple cheesecake, on the other hand, was very tasty despite the potentially weird combination. A chocolate biscuit base, delicious pineapple paste, European style cheesecake centre , then a subtle salted egg cream cheese with a mild jelly on top. All of us liked it, which is hard to do.
I don’t think the refreshments or the exhibition are worth the drive and the climb, but the views are pretty nice. You’ll have to weigh up if they’re nicer enough than other views in the region to make the journey worthwhile. I probably won’t go back, but could possibly be persuaded.
Address: Jalan Sungai Palas, 39100 Brinchang, Cameron Highlands
Telephone: 054962096
Website: https://bohtea.com/visit-our-tea-gardens/sungei-palas-tea-garden/
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