Thai Iced Tea Recipe

With its eye-catching orange hue and daring taste, Thai iced tea (ชาไทย)— normally referred to as cha yen (ชาเย็น or iced tea) or typically cha nom yen (ชานมเย็น or iced milk tea)—is a staple of each day life in Thailand. Stroll down any busy avenue, and also you’re sure to discover a cart or gap within the wall the place distributors take black powder from a banged up tin and churn out glass after glass of the terracotta-hued beverage. It’s an anytime, wherever sort of drink: Locals sip it within the morning with pa tong koh (the Thai equal of Chinese language youtiao), have it as a palate cleanser between bites of fiery pad kra pao, and use it to chill down after steaming bowls of boat noodles. My favourite strategy to get pleasure from it, although, is by itself. On a scorching day, a sip of the chilly, candy beverage appears like a luxurious. 

A Temporary Historical past of Thai Iced Tea

Thai iced tea is solely sturdy black tea—normally Ceylon, Assam, or a regionally grown assamica varietal—combined with milk and sugar and served over ice. There’s no single strategy to creating the drink; the kind of dairy and sweeteners used, and the way a lot, can fluctuate significantly from vendor to vendor. Whereas sweetened condensed milk isn’t obligatory, it’s a frequent sufficient addition that many Thais, myself included, contemplate it a vital ingredient for cha yen. 

Although camellia sinensis assamica is native to the area, the leaves of the indigenous plant had been historically eaten (normally within the type of fermented tea leaves referred to as Miang), somewhat than brewed. Tea consuming tradition seemingly arrived a while throughout the Sukhothai interval between the thirteenth and sixteenth century by commerce with China. One of many first written information of tea tradition in Siam will be traced to a 1691entry in French diplomat Simon de la Loubère’s travelog Du Royaume de Siam, the place de la Loubère mentioned the observe Ayutthaya’s elites had of serving scorching tea within the Chinese language model to friends of their properties. 

Though the Siamese continued to serve tea in formal settings equivalent to authorities and temple capabilities, the beverage’s consumption and recognition remained restricted till the twentieth century, when the arrival of two essential merchandise—sweetened condensed milk and ice—laid the groundwork for the appearance of cha yen.  

In 1893, Nestlé launched its Milkmaid model of sweetened condensed milk to Siam, kicking off a nationwide love affair with the dairy product that continues to this present day. Its shelf-stable nature and concentrated taste made sweetened condensed milk a staple at espresso and tea retailers, because the ingredient provided prospects a handy strategy to mood their bitter brews with one thing candy and creamy.  By the Thirties, the product had develop into so standard that the federal government made efforts to extend home manufacturing. 

In 1903, businessman Lert Sreshthaputra, generally referred to as Nai Lert, based Bangkok’s first commercial ice manufacturer, a transfer that made ice and chilly treats extra accessible to the lots. (Previous to Nai Lert’s ice works, ice was imported by boat from Singapore, so it was an costly good reserved for the rich.) By the Nineteen Twenties, espresso homes serving scorching and iced drinks had gained recognition throughout the Kingdom.

Why Is Thai Iced Tea So Orange?

Whereas the Ceylon, Assam, and locally-grown assamica leaves sometimes used for cha yen do yield a reddish-brown brew, the long-lasting orange shade we affiliate with Thai tea comes, most of the time, from meals coloring. Anticlimactic, I do know.

Nobody is aware of precisely how and when Thai tea picked up its pretend tan, however hypothesis abounds. One theory posits that artful distributors within the late nineteenth to early twentieth century began including fillers like safflower and tamarind to decrease high quality tea leaves in an effort to mimic the deep mahogany hue of pricier imported Ceylon tea. One other theory credit resourceful Siamese servants who, horrified that their English employers had been throwing away completely good tea leaves after only one brew, began doctoring spent tea leaves with coloring in an effort to make second and third brews extra visually interesting. Others suspect that espresso homes began amplifying the reddish hue of their tea to assist differentiate between espresso and tea, for the reason that two drinks look related as soon as sweetened condensed milk is added.

3 Suggestions for Making the Finest Thai Iced Tea

1. Use the proper tea. You may, in fact, make completely good cha yen with good high quality Assam or Ceylon tea (see Swetha Sivakumar’s chai recipe for an in-depth primer on tea leaves), however that strategy is slightly like serving a elaborate tomato relish with fries when store-bought ketchup might be higher suited to the job. 

As an alternative, for cha yen harking back to a Bangkok beverage cart auntie’s, I go for a ready-made Thai tea mix, which usually accommodates tea leaves, vanilla extract and different flavorings (whereas labels are sometimes obtuse, my educated guess is that these embody cinnamon and star anise, amongst different substances). And naturally, these blends normally embody colorants for that excellent burnt sienna hue. I desire the assertive taste and deep shade of ChaTraMue’s “Extra Gold” mix, however be at liberty to make use of one you want or can discover extra readily. I like to recommend skipping the three-in-one or instantaneous mixes, since these already embody creamer and/or dried milk powder.

2. Stir and pressure nicely. Due to its finer particles, Thai tea powder tends to clump up in water. To make sure the tea is satisfactorily and evenly uncovered to scorching water, it’s important to agitate the tea by stirring it. This enables for the discharge of extra water soluble polyphenols referred to as flavonoids, producing a stronger, extra flavorful brew—and is why many distributors pour tea forwards and backwards by a material strainer a number of occasions earlier than eradicating the solids. At house, I go for a less complicated technique: completely stirring the tea proper after including water and once more proper earlier than straining. This second stir additionally helps transfer extra tea powder into the strainer.

Since most Thai tea mixes are finely floor, a cloth tea strainer like those avenue distributors use helps filter out tea particles which are too small for normal mesh strainers. In case you can’t discover one, use cheesecloth, a clear, flat dish towel (one you don’t thoughts staining orange), or a espresso filter fitted over a mesh strainer as an alternative.

3. Go for Canned Milk. What dairy yields the creamiest, dreamiest Thai iced tea? Recipes run the gamut, calling for substances starting from synthetic creamer to half and half. After rounds of testing, my favourite is finally a one to at least one mixture of sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk. 

Invented within the 1850s by American newspaperman Gail Borden as a strategy to protect cow’s milk, sweetened condensed milk has, over the course of practically two centuries, develop into an ubiquitous ingredient in Southeast Asia. Made by cooking down milk and sugar, sweetened condensed milk offers Thai iced tea its satisfying sweetness. Moreover, it offers the tea base a extra syrupy texture, making it much less watery when ice is added. Go for the canned model, or strive making your individual utilizing former Critical Eats editor Stella Parks’ sweetened condensed milk recipe. 

Much like its sweetened sibling, evaporated milk (typically referred to as unsweetened condensed milk) is made by cooking down milk to take away 60% of its water content material—simply with out added sugar. Due to its lengthy shelf life, it’s the most handy strategy to retailer and transport fluid milk in Thailand’s scorching local weather. Evaporated milk’s low water content material and concentrated taste offers the tea extra physique with out making it too cloyingly candy. Its barely caramelized taste additionally provides one other layer of complexity.

Thai iced tea is an extremely nostalgic beverage for me. Each sip conjures up childhood recollections of scorching afternoons spent outdoor with a plastic bag of cha yen—adorned with a neon staw and slick with condensation—in hand. These days, Thai iced tea can simply be bought in Thai eating places throughout the nation. However for a very scrumptious Thai iced tea that’s flavorful and full-bodied, I’d a lot somewhat make it myself…and I believe you’ll, too.