Wenzhuo Liu
Marloes Bodewes-Bos is from the Netherlands. She successfully transitioned from a career in law to the tea industry and is now an independent curator working with two Dutch museums, primarily focusing on exhibitions related to tea. In August 2026, Marloes has collaborated with the Dutch branch of National Geographic, traveling to Indonesia to film tea documentaries for exhibitions. In April 2027, an exhibition curated by Marloes on the Dutch tea heritage of Indonesia will be presented at Museum Joure in the Netherlands. Looking ahead, Marloes hopes to have the opportunity to visit China to experience Chinese tea culture firsthand and to curate an exhibition centered on Chinese and Dutch, European tea.
At the museum, Marloes‘ interest in tea developed from tasting into research, particularly the history and culture behind the drink.
From the Courtroom to the Tea Room
For Marloes Bodewes-Bos, tea is more than a drink. It is a doorway into history—a story of trade, colonialism, migration, technology and cultural exchange connecting China, Europe and Southeast Asia.
A Dutch freelance curator specialising in tea, Bodewes-Bos now works with two museums in the Netherlands, curating exhibitions on tea history and culture. Her career, however, began in law. She once provided legal advice to prisons operated by the Dutch government.
Her journey into tea started through the influence of a former colleague. She began studying tea, qualified as a tea sommelier and started offering tea experiences and classes. As her student base grew, she gradually reduced her legal work and devoted more time to tea. She also founded a search and booking website recommending places for afternoon tea.
“I found that I enjoyed this work much more.” Tea introduced her to people who shared her curiosity and gave her opportunities to exchange knowledge and experiences.
Her career changed direction completely when she joined the Dutch Tea Museum, De Theefabriek. She eventually left the legal profession and sold her website. At the museum, her interest in tea developed from tasting into research, particularly the history and culture behind the drink. She began curating tea exhibitions and, by 2026, had collaborated with two Dutch museums on multiple projects.
In August 2026, Marloes worked with the Dutch National Geographic team for a two-week filming trip to Indonesia.
Following tea across the Indian Ocean
In 2023, Bodewes-Bos worked with De Theefabriek on an exhibition centered on a romantic novel about Dutch tea planters during the colonial era. She also curated a 20-minute documentary filmed in Sri Lanka.
In August 2026, she worked with the Dutch National Geographic team for a two-week filming trip to Indonesia. A six-person team documented the country’s tea heritage and traces of its colonial past. The Indonesian footage will form part of a 20-minute documentary, accompanied by an article in National Geographic.
In April 2027, Museum Joure in the Netherlands is expected to present an exhibition curated by Bodewes-Bos on Indonesia’s Dutch tea heritage.
The story goes back to the early 17th century, when the Dutch East India Company began transporting Chinese tea to Europe on a large scale. In 1825, the Dutch colonial government of Indonesia imported tea seeds from Japan and successfully cultivated them on Java. Indonesia produced its first black tea in 1829.
The Indonesian footage will form part of a 20-minute documentary, accompanied by an article in National Geographic.
A tea story shaped by China
Chinese expertise also played an important role. Between 1828 and 1833, the the Dutch colonial government of Indonesia sent the tea specialist “Jacobson” to China six times to study tea cultivation and production. He returned with tea plants and seeds, technical expertise, workers and equipment. Dutch planters and the local Chinese community later introduced more tea varieties from China, helping establish tea as an important agricultural crop in Indonesia.
Bodewes-Bos plans to tell this history through a chronological timeline, beginning with the Age of Discovery and following more than two centuries of related history, cultural exchange and the people who shaped it.
By the early 20th century, Indonesia’s tea production had risen to third in the world. After independence, most of the tea plantations and factories came under state management. Today, Indonesia is the world’s eighth-largest tea producer, with black tea accounting for around 80 percent of production.
The internationally prevalent CTC (crush, tear, curl) method of tea dominates exports, while Java black tea remains one of the country’s best-known varieties. Green tea is also produced on a smaller scale. The country’s tea industry is now developed by state-owned enterprises, private companies and smallholder farmers, while organic tea plantations have also emerged over the past two decades.
Some historic plantations and factories have been converted into tourist attractions, while other traces of the past survive mainly through the memories of older tea workers.
One detail particularly interests Bodewes-Bos: in Indonesian, black tea is called teh merah, literally “red tea”—the same colour-based expression used in Chinese, rather than the ”black tea” terminology common in the West.
Some historic plantations and factories have been converted into tourist attractions, while other traces of the past survive mainly through the memories of older tea workers.
A Dutch relationship with tea
The Netherlands played a pioneering role in the maritime tea trade and was among the first countries to transport Chinese tea to Europe on a large scale. Yet it did not develop a distinctive tea ceremony or a strongly recognisable tradition of tea utensils.
Instead, tea became part of everyday Dutch life. People drink it in the afternoon, make a simple cup from a tea bag, meet friends for tea or sit down with family for tea and conversation after school or work.
Bodewes-Bos shares that habit. Among Chinese teas, Dianhong, or Yunnan black tea, is her favourite, and she also regularly drinks Longjing and Tieguanyin. She has studied China’s long tea history and major tea traditions, and Chinese tea has featured in many of her curatorial projects.
The Netherlands played a pioneering role in the maritime tea trade and was among the first countries to transport Chinese tea to Europe on a large scale.
A journey to China still waiting to happen
China is also a country she has visited many times. During her student years, she worked as a flight attendant, giving her several opportunities to travel there. Yet she never had the chance to experience Chinese tea culture in depth.
That is something she hopes to change.
She wants to return to China not simply as a visitor, but to visit tea museums, travel to tea-growing regions, meet tea farmers and experience local tea traditions firsthand. She also hopes to curate an exhibition related to Chinese tea.
The possibilities, she believes, are almost limitless. An exhibition could explore the centuries-old tea trade between China and the Netherlands, the broader relationship between China and Europe, or even become a travelling exhibition developed with tea museums across Europe.
For Bodewes-Bos, that is both the challenge and the appeal of Chinese tea: there are simply too many stories to tell.
Tea, after all, is never just what is in the cup. Follow its journey far enough, and it becomes a map of connections—linking China and Europe, merchants and farmers, migration and memory, and generations of people brought together by a shared drink.
Tea, after all, is never just what is in the cup. The possibilities, Marloes believes, are almost limitless.