Thai Iced Tea Recipe
Published
The orange is not the tea, it is a food dye in the mix, and once you know that you can decide whether you want it.
Jump To Recipe
Why I Stopped Buying It From The Boba Shop
For a long time my only Thai iced tea came from a bubble tea shop, made from a powder and a syrup, and it tasted mostly of sugar. The first one I had from a street cart in Bangkok was a different drink: bitter and smoky underneath, with the sweetness sitting on top of real tea rather than replacing it, and so cold that the ice had barely started to melt.
Making it at home turned out to be easy once I stopped doing the one thing that ruins it, which is pouring hot tea over ice. The vendors get away with it because they brew the tea twice as strong as I would have dared. I brew it strong too, but I let it cool first, and the last glass from the jug tastes as good as the first.
It is the drink I make whenever there is a curry or a plate of pad thai on the table. Nothing puts out chili heat faster.
The story
Thai Iced Tea Began In A Chinese Tea Shop In Bangkok
Cha yen simply means cold tea, and its story runs through Yaowarat, Bangkok’s Chinatown. In 1920 a Teochew family of eight siblings emigrated there from Chaozhou in southern China, and in 1925 one of the brothers opened a tea shop called Lim Meng Kee. It sold the oolong and green teas the Chinese community drank hot. In a tropical city those teas were a hard sell, and the shop was destroyed by bombing during the Second World War and had to start again a few streets away.
When it did, it changed course. The family began importing black tea, which the Thai call red tea for the color of the brew, and blending it for a Thai palate: brewed very strong, sweetened, mixed with milk and poured over ice. In 1945 they gave it a brand name, ChaTraMue, the Number One Brand, with a thumbs-up hand as its logo. By the 1960s the company was producing its tea in the hills of Chiang Rai in northern Thailand, and today it sells most of the Thai tea drunk in the country.
The milk is canned for a practical reason. Sweetened condensed and evaporated milk keep without refrigeration, which mattered in a hot country where fresh milk did not, and condensed milk sweetens and thickens the tea at the same time.
The orange came later and has nothing to do with the leaves. Commercial Thai tea mixes add a food coloring, usually Sunset Yellow, the dye sold in the US as Yellow No. 6, along with vanilla flavoring, so that every batch looks and tastes the same. Brewed on its own, the tea is the deep amber-brown of any strong black tea. Both versions are made below, and neither one contains anything a vegetarian has to think about.
What to buy
Ingredient Notes
Thai tea mix
Sold in Asian groceries and online as Thai tea mix or Thai tea leaves, most often in the ChaTraMue red-label bag. It is finely cut black tea with coloring and vanilla flavoring already in it, and it is what gives the drink its familiar color and perfume. Avoid instant Thai tea powders, which are mostly sugar and creamer and will not brew.
Black tea, for a dye-free version
Use 3 tablespoons of strong loose Assam or Ceylon tea, or 8 tea bags, in place of the mix, with 1 star anise and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract added to the steep. It tastes close to the original and brews a deep amber-brown rather than orange. That color is the tea’s own.
Sweetened condensed milk
This is what gives the drink its body as well as its sweetness, so do not swap it for regular milk and sugar. Stir it into the tea while the tea is still hot, when it dissolves completely. Cold condensed milk sinks to the bottom of a cold drink in a sticky lump.
Evaporated milk
Unsweetened, from a can, and poured over the top of each glass at the end. It is thicker and creamier than fresh milk, so it drifts down through the tea in slow white clouds. Half-and-half does the same job; regular milk works but disappears into the tea almost at once.
Sugar
Plain granulated sugar, on top of the condensed milk. Thai iced tea is meant to be sweet, because the sugar is what carries the tannins of tea brewed this strong. Dissolve it in the hot tea; it will not dissolve properly once the tea is cold.
Crushed ice
Crushed rather than cubed, filled right to the top of the glass. It chills the tea almost instantly, which is how street vendors serve it. Cubes melt more slowly and dilute less, so use them if you drink slowly; the ideal is ice cubes made from the tea itself.
Thai Iced Tea
Thai iced tea, cha yen: strong Thai tea sweetened with sugar and condensed milk, chilled, poured over crushed ice and topped with evaporated milk.
Ingredients
Equipment
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you.
Instructions
- 1
Boil the water
Pour the 4 cups of water into a saucepan and bring it to a full rolling boil over high heat.
- 2
Steep the tea off the heat
Take the pan off the heat, stir in the Thai tea mix and push any floating leaves under with a spoon. Leave it to steep for 5 minutes, stirring once halfway, until the tea is a deep, opaque red-orange. Do not leave it longer, or it turns bitter.
- 3
Strain the tea
Line a fine mesh strainer with a double layer of cheesecloth and set it over a large heatproof bowl. Pour the tea through and let it drip through on its own without pressing the leaves.
- 4
Sweeten it while hot
While the tea is still hot, stir in the sugar and the sweetened condensed milk until both have dissolved completely. The tea turns a creamy, opaque orange.
- 5
Cool the tea
Let the tea cool to room temperature, then cover it and chill it in the fridge for at least an hour, until it is completely cold.
- 6
Fill the glasses with ice
Pack four tall glasses right to the top with crushed ice.
- 7
Pour in the tea
Stir the cold tea, then pour it over the ice, leaving about an inch of space at the top of each glass.
- 8
Float the evaporated milk
Slowly pour 2 tablespoons of evaporated milk over the back of a spoon onto each glass, so that it sits on the tea and drifts down through it in white clouds. Serve straight away with a straw, and stir before you drink.
Notes
In a hurry, do it the street-stall way: pour the hot sweetened tea straight over glasses packed with crushed ice and drink it at once. It will be a little more diluted.
For a dye-free version, swap the Thai tea mix for 3 tablespoons of loose Assam or Ceylon tea plus 1 star anise and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract. It comes out amber-brown instead of orange.
The sweetened tea keeps for up to five days in the fridge, so the whole jug can be made ahead.
Nutrition Facts
4 servings · 322 g per serving
- Calories
- 231 kcal
% Daily Value*
- Total Fat
- 5.8 g7%
- Saturated Fat
- 3.5 g18%
- Sodium
- 89 mg4%
- Total Carbohydrate
- 41.1 g15%
- Dietary Fiber
- 0 g0%
- Sugars
- 40.4 g—
- Protein
- 5.2 g10%
Recipe from veggierecipes.blog
When it goes wrong
Troubleshooting
It tastes watery once the ice melts
The tea was not strong enough, or it went over the ice hot. Brew it at the full strength in the recipe, half a cup of mix to four cups of water, which tastes too strong on its own and is meant to. Then let it cool before it meets the ice. Hot tea melts half the glass on contact and you lose the drink.
It is bitter and dries out my mouth
The tea was steeped too long, boiled, or squeezed. Thai tea mix is finely cut and gives up its flavor fast, so steep it off the heat for five minutes and no longer. Let it drip through the cloth on its own rather than wringing it out, since the last bitter drops are the ones you squeeze.
Mine came out brown, not orange
Your tea has no dye in it. Either the mix is one of the newer color-free blends or you used plain black tea. The orange in commercial Thai tea is food coloring, not the leaves, so a brown cup is the true color of the drink. It tastes the same.
There is gritty sediment at the bottom of the glass
Fine tea dust passed through the strainer. Line the strainer with a double layer of cheesecloth, or a paper coffee filter, before you pour. If the jug is already cloudy, let it settle in the fridge and pour the tea off carefully, leaving the last half inch behind.
The milk on top sank straight away
It is meant to sink, slowly. Evaporated milk drifts down through the tea in clouds, and those clouds are the look. If it vanished at once, the tea was still warm or the milk went in fast. Pour it over the back of a spoon onto cold tea, and serve the glass straight away.
It is far too sweet for me
Cut the granulated sugar first, down to 2 tablespoons, and keep the condensed milk, which carries the body of the drink. Remember that the ice dilutes it as you drink, so taste the tea cold rather than hot before you decide.
Before you serve
Serving & Storage
In Thailand cha yen is sold from street carts and coffee stalls, often poured into a plastic bag knotted round a straw, and drunk alongside food rather than after it. The sugar and milk are what make it so good with chili: serve it with a green curry, a plate of pad thai or anything with fresh bird’s eye chilies in it.
The same tea has two well-known cousins. Cha dam yen is the tea poured over ice with sugar and no milk at all, and cha manao adds a squeeze of lime to that for a sharp, almost lemonade-like drink. Both start from the same strong brew.
Making it ahead
The sweetened tea, before it meets the ice, keeps for up to five days in a covered jar in the fridge, which makes it easy to have ready for a whole week. Shake it before pouring, since the condensed milk settles. Add the ice and the evaporated milk only when you serve each glass. For undiluted drinks, freeze a tray of the tea into ice cubes and use those instead of plain ice.
Storing leftovers
A glass that has been poured over ice does not keep: within half an hour the ice has melted into it. Store the tea and the ice separately and assemble each glass to order. The open can of evaporated milk keeps for four or five days in a covered container in the fridge, and the opened Thai tea mix for months in a sealed bag away from light.
Still wondering
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Thai iced tea have caffeine?
Yes. It is black tea brewed strong, so a glass has about as much caffeine as a strong cup of black tea. For an evening glass, make the dye-free version with decaffeinated black tea; the star anise and vanilla still give it the right perfume.
Can I make Thai iced tea vegan?
Yes. Use 1/2 cup of sweetened condensed coconut milk, sold in cans, in place of the dairy condensed milk, and top each glass with 2 tablespoons of full-fat coconut milk or a creamy oat milk instead of the evaporated milk. Everything else stays the same.
Is this the same Thai tea that bubble tea shops sell?
It is the same drink, usually made from the same mix. Bubble tea shops add tapioca pearls and often sweeten with syrup instead of condensed milk, which is why theirs can taste sweeter and less of tea. Served hot rather than iced, the drink is called cha ron.
Thai Dishes To Drink It With
Made this?