KUALA LUMPUR: Ho Yan Hor, a popular Chinese herbal tea, has come a long way since it was sold by the cupful on the street 60 years ago.

Over time, it has become one of the main remedies in Chinese homes for flu or for getting rid of excessive body heat.

In the old days, the late Ho Kai Cheong extracted the goodness from 24 types of herbs and blended them with tea.

He would take a week to make one batch of the concoction.

He would then sell this outside his home in Treacher Street (now Jalan Bijeh Timah) in Old Town Ipoh by the cupful.
Today, the herbal tea business is being managed by his son, David, a pharmacist cum businessman who is managing director of Hovid Bhd.

The younger Ho is proud to continue the legacy his father started as a home business.

"Back then, the tea was bitter but everyone took it as a flu remedy.

"In the 1950s, there was a worldwide flu epidemic where millions were dying and many in Ipoh started drinking our herbal tea.

"Since then, Ho Yan Hor has become a household name."

He said the tea then was particularly popular with the tin miners in Perak who often fell sick.

"In the old days, they would boil the tea, drink it hot and cover themselves with a thick blanket," he added.

Upon building a name for himself as a herbal tea maker in Ipoh, the senior Ho took his herbal tea to Penang and Kuala Lumpur.

By the 1960s, other herbal tea makers started entering the market.

"To entice customers, they would have beautifully dressed ladies ladling the herbal tea along the streets in Old Town Ipoh.

"Since then, Ipoh became well known as the herbal tea town."

Now with many other players in the market, Ho estimates that his tea still commands a 50 per cent market share.

A year ago, Ho came up with the herbal-tea-in-a-can concept for people on the go.

He said apart from the packaging, the tea offers the same benefits that it did during his father's time.

"Of course, in those days it was more bitter but now, we have toned it down to suit the current taste."

Ho Yan Hor's herbal tea is also available in its original tea sachets.