In busy, ever-changing Chinatown, one shop in Mosque Street has remained in place for nearly a century, overlooked by the tourists who throng the busy streets looking for souvenirs.

Behind the unprepossessing exterior, Mr Kenry Peh and his employees are hard at work in a business his family has conducted for four generations.

It’s not hard to guess what this is once you’ve breathed in the aroma and noticed the antique teapots adorning the shelves.

Established in 1925, Pek Sin Choon prides itself on being one of the oldest tea merchants in the country, one that still uses the traditional style of processing tea.

Tea leaves arriving from China, Indonesia and elsewhere are blended, packed and sold to customers ranging from upscale hotels and restaurants to bak kut teh eateries.

Recent popular tea blends include the carbonated cold Nanyang tea and the Peranakan tea, which has been enjoyed by thousands, said the company.

Mr Peh, 49, who prefers to be called a “teaman” rather than owner or general manager, says that his mastery of the tea trade and culture did not come easy although he was destined to inherit the business.

He recalls fondly his days as a young man learning the ropes from his grandfather – the “tea master”.

It was only when the tea master was indisposed one day that Mr Peh, then 24, had his first opportunity to carry out the customary tea-blending process he had watched and understudied for more than three years. It was, he says, his graduation.

Mr Peh still insists that his employees wrap the blended tea by hand, the way it has been done for decades. The company has 16 employees, with an average age of 65.

“We could easily use machines, which would save up to three times in costs what I pay the staff in wages, but we want to continue upholding this tradition for the next generation,” says Mr Peh.

While he has not put much thought into it, he hopes that one of his six children will eventually take over the business.

Though interest in tea drinking continues to wax and wane with the times, he feels it is his duty to carry on the family legacy dealing in “black gold” (tea).

Madam Lim Boh Tan, 82, the oldest employee, has worked for the Hokkien company for more than 60 years. To her, “drinking tea is like drinking plain water”, she says.

As with everyone connected to Pek Sin Choon, tea is not just a business. Says Mr Peh: “We want to pro- mote tea as a culture that integrates people because it is through a cup of tea that we’re able to form an understanding and an interaction with one another.”