Savage lightning ripped through the tropical storm, casting a disquieting light over the thick reeds and rugged rocks of Mompracem, an island in the Borneo archipelago. It was my first and most vivid encounter with South East Asia.

It was also a literary one�??the opening of Emilio Salgari�??s La Tigre della Malesia, where a heroic Malay Prince, Sandokan, fights against �??those poisoners of people, those land thieves, those dogs�?� that are the British to avenge the massacre of his family. He paints a wild land of sleek tigers, fat pig-deer, entwining vines as big as snakes and a restless sea where slim prahos defy winds, waves and English warships.

Later, much later, I read the English side of the story in Kalimantaan and in White Rajah, where the rebels become sanguinary, head-chopping pirates, British Rajah James Brooke is torn between his native Britain and his beloved Sarawak, and the massacre of the Brunei princes is a family affair ordered by the Sultan himself. Which is probably closer to the truth, though it lacks the gripping, page-turning adventures of Salgari�??s novels. But even in White Rajah�??s dry, historic account of life in Borneo, nature triumphs. The oppressive heat, the towering palm trees, the crocodile-infested rivers dwarf the mere humans.

The British had tea, of course, an oasis of refinement in the encroaching wilderness. Though whether it was local tea or imported from China or India I don�??t know. It probably wasn�??t Malay. According to Boh Tea, the first highland plantation in Malaysia�??which now rules over part of the Borneo, while Indonesia rules the rest�??was established on the Cameron Highlands in 1929.

Tea could have come from Indonesia, though, where Dutch settlers started growing it as early as the 18th century. Cultivation began on Java, and, although Sumatra and Sulawesi followed suit, the island remains Indonesia�??s largest tea producer. So it is hardly surprising that the only Indonesian tea I managed to find came from there. It�??s a black Orange Pekoe, which is no longer a typical example of Indonesia�??s production. Green tea, which was introduced relatively recently, has now taken over. But I liked the idea of having the same tea that James Brooke could possibly have drunk.

Special Teas suggested steeping one heaped teaspoon in boiling water for three minutes. The cup was a deep dark amber with a deliciously fragrant nose. In the mouth, it had enough body and a sweet, serviceable taste, though slightly flat. It was a perfectly decent tea, and good value�??much like those minor Italian painters that drew postcard views of Rome and Naples for the English in the age of the Grand Tour. But it had none of the wilderness, the explosive nature that my books had led me to expect from Indonesia.