Published: by Pailin Chongchitnant · This post may contain affiliate links
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Thailand has one famous (non-alcoholic) drink, and this is it: Thai iced tea. The orange coloured sweet concoction is so good it feels like it should be dessert. A lot of times I find restaurants make it too sweet, so I actually prefer making my own so I can make it exactly how I want it. If you love Thai tea and you're a coffee drinker, you're also going to love this easy Thai iced coffee!
What is Thai Iced Tea?
Let's start with the tea leaves, what is Thai tea leaves? Thai tea leaves are black tea leaves, commonly assam tea, that has had artificial flavour added to it, most commonly vanilla.
The iconic orange colour is nothing but orange food colouring. I know...it's not the exotic tea made from secret Thai ingredients that you might have thought. But this is not a gourmet tea, it's supposed to be the cheap and cheerful tea for the average Thai!
So the popular Thai iced tea is brewed from Thai tea leaves, and has sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk added for creaminess and sweetness. There are other kinds of iced teas made from Thai tea leaves, such as this Thai lime iced tea that is super refreshing and is actually my personal favourite!
Thai Style vs American Style Thai Iced Tea
As I shared in the video tutorial, most Thai restaurants in N. America make their Thai tea differently from the way it's done in Thailand.
In Thailand, the tea is made milky and sweet by the addition of sugar, sweetened condensed milk, and evaporated milk. Sometimes, non-dairy creamer (like Coffeemate) is also added.
In most Thai restaurants in N. America, they use only sugar for the sweetness, and then top the tea with half and half. Not all restaurants do this; I have seen places that make a hybrid of the two styles, but this seems to be the most common way in my experience.
If you're wondering which style your local restaurant use, have a look at the video tutorial because they also look different before you stir the tea. If the tea in the cup starts out black with creamy dairy poured on top, it's American style!
The two styles DO taste different, and while both are good I prefer the Thai style because it tastes richer and milkier. But the American style is simpler and you may want to try it out anyway just to see which you prefer.
Ingredients
Here are ingredients you'll need to make yourself some Thai iced tea at home. For amounts, see the full recipe card below.
- Thai tea leaves. The most popular brand in Thailand is ChaTraMue. This company specializes in teas so I try to choose this brand if I can. But other brands such as Pantai and Sunlee are also fine.
- Sweetened condensed milk.Choose a brand with only a few ingredients, mostly milk and sugar, such as Longevity brand. Be aware of cheap non-dairy imitation condensed milk that I would not choose.
- Evaporated milk.Evaporated milk is used to add creaminess without adding extra sweetness. I always use full-fat evaporated milk for best flavour.
- Sugar. This can be added to taste, and any of your preferred artificial sweetener can also be used instead.
- Salt.A little salt helps brighten up the sweetness of the tea and prevents it from becoming cloying. It's a little trick that makes all the difference!
- A lot of ice. You should pack the cup with ice before adding the tea.
How to Make Thai Iced Tea
Here's a bird's eye view of how to make Thai style and American style Thai iced tea. I recommend you check out the full video tutorial so you can see how it's done and you can see my taste test between the two styles!
This recipe shows you how to make a Thai tea base without any dairy product as this will last you a long time in the fridge. Then you can add your dairy of choice when you're ready to drink, which also allows different members of the household to adjust creaminess and sweetness to their liking.
For maximum simplicity you can also make a big batch of the finished tea so it's ready to drink, but keep in mind that it will not last as long since the dairy products have been added.
- Steep the tea in hot water for 3-5 minutes. You can do this inside a French press for easy straining.
- Strain the tea through a fine mesh strainer.
- If there's a lot of tea dust left you and strain it again through a finer mesh or paper coffee filter.
- Add sugar and salt. Allow to cool to room temp.
- For Thai style Thai tea, combine the tea base with sweetened condensed milk.
- Pour over a glass of ice.
- Top with evaporated milk.
- For American style, add more sugar to the tea base to taste, then pour the tea over ice and top with half and half!
Hack: Making Thai iced tea without Thai tea leaves
If you can't find the Thai tea leaves in your local store, good news: there is a very good hack that produces a delicious tea that tastes very close to the original!
For 1 glass of Thai iced tea:
- Steep 3 tea bags of orange pekoe tea or another black tea with 1 cup (240 ml) of hot off the boil water for 5 minutes.
- Remove the tea bags and add ½ teaspoon artificial vanilla extract, and if you wish you can add a few drops of orange food colouring to mimic the colour.
- Add 1 ½ tablespoon sweetened condensed milk, 2 teaspoons sugar (or to taste) and stir to dissolve.
- Pour it over a pint glass packed full of ice and drizzle 2-3 tablespoon evaporated milk over top. Enjoy!
How to Make Vegan Thai Iced Tea
If you're not concerned about making a healthy drink, you can make a simple substitution with non-dairy evaporated milk and condensed milk which get their richness from vegetable oil of some kind. You can also use non-dairy creamer such as Coffeemate to help with creaminess.
I tried using Let's Do Organic brand coconut condensed milk, but the coconut fat congealed into little bits in the iced tea and it was not pleasant, and it didn't have nearly the richness of regular condensed milk. This may not be the case with different brands that contain more binders that would prevent this separation, but just FYI that it could happen.
If you want a healthier version, what I do is I add more sugar to the tea base to achieve the desired sweetness, then add about ⅓-½ cup of oat milk per serving of Thai tea. My favourite for this is Oatly which I find to be the creamiest. Oat milk I find is the best tasting non-dairy milk substitute in Thai tea and teas in general. It doesn't taste as rich and you won't get the cream-topped effect but it still tastes great.
Nowadays there are lots of new non-dairy products available so always worth trying out different ones and see what you prefer!
Thai Iced Tea ชาเย็น (cha yen)
By: Pailin Chongchitnant
Two easy ways to make the iconic Thai drink at home. You can make it Thai style to try it the way it's done in Thailand, or make the American style to replicate the tea from your local Thai restaurant.
4.91 from 11 votes
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Prep Time 5 minutes mins
Cook Time 10 minutes mins
Cooling time 30 minutes mins
Course Drinks
Cuisine Thai
Servings 4 servings
Ingredients
Thai Tea Base
- ¾ cup Thai tea leaves (buy Thai tea leaves online), see note 1
- 4 cups hot off-the-boil water
- ¼ cup sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
Thai Iced Tea - Thai Style (for 1 glass)
Thai Iced Tea - American Style (for 1 glass)
- ¾ cup Thai tea base
- 1 Tablespoon sugar, see note 2
- a pint glass packed full of ice
- 3-4 Tablespoons half and half, (~12% cream)
Check Out Ingredients and Kitchen Tools I Use
Notes
- If you can't find Thai tea leaves, see my hacked trick in the blog post.
- I don't add all the sugar to the tea base to allow room for people to adjust sweetness to their own taste. But if you are making it just for yourself, increase the amount of sugar in the Thai tea base to ½ cup (or however sweet you like it) and skip the sugar when making individual glasses.
FULL VIDEO TUTORIAL
All my recipes come with step-by-step video tutorials with extra tips not mentioned in the blog post, so make sure you watch the video to ensure success. If you enjoy them, consider subscribing to the YouTube Channel to not miss an episode. Thank you!
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Instructions
For the Thai Tea Base (4 glass)
Steep the tea leaves in hot off-the-boil water for 5 minutes and then strain through a fine mesh strainer. If you have a french press, steep it in the french press and make the straining process easier!
¾ cup Thai tea leaves (buy Thai tea leaves online), 4 cups hot off-the-boil water
Add the sugar and salt and stir to dissolve. Allow to cool to room temp before making tea so it won't dissolve the ice too much. You can now store this base in the fridge it will last at least a couple of weeks.
¼ cup sugar, ⅛ teaspoon salt
For the Thai Style Thai Tea (1 glass)
Pour the Thai tea base into a mixing glass and stir in the condensed milk until dissolved. If the tea base is chilled, it will help to microwave it briefly and bring it to room temp so the condensed milk will dissolve more easily.
¾ cup Thai tea base, 1½ Tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
Pack a serving glass full of ice and then pour the tea on top. Drizzle with the evaporated milk on top and enjoy!
A pint glass packed full of ice, 2-3 Tablespoons evaporated milk
For the American Style Thai Tea (1 glass)
Pour the Thai tea base into a mixing glass and stir in more sugar to your taste, if needed. If the tea base is chilled, it will help to microwave it briefly and bring it to room temp so the condensed milk will dissolve more easily.
¾ cup Thai tea base, 1 Tablespoon sugar
Pack a serving glass full of ice and then pour the tea on top. Drizzle with the half and half on top and enjoy!
a pint glass packed full of ice, 3-4 Tablespoons half and half
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Reader Interactions
Comments
Angelo
Followed the blog post and made the tea base myself using some Assam & Orange Pekoe tea, some vanilla extract, and a natural food dye that uses annatto seed. Pretty good stuff!Reply
Walter Ian Kaye
After poisoning myself multiple times and considering giving up on this drink, it finally occurred to me to google "decaffeinated assam tea". I'm going to order B09WNFZ41C on Amazon.
Reply
Dorine
I bought the thai tea you recommended but in tea bag form, thinking I could skip the straining part. How many tea bags would you suggest to equal your recipe above for 3/4 cup leaves? Thinking it might be a lot of tea bags now & I should have bought the loose tea instead!
Reply
Dorine
I used 4 tea bags to the 4 cups of water & followed your directions for the Thai tea version. It was so so delicious! Great that we can adjust sugar levels to taste. Thank you for the great detailed recipe ❤️❤️❤️Reply
Pailin Chongchitnant
Glad you figured it out! And thank you!
Reply
Walter Ian Kaye
I found a Yellow #6 that's free from gums, emulsifiers, HFCS, etc. It's Lorann Oils liquid food color (orange), and its only ingredients are Water, PG, and FD&C Yellow 6. Available on Amazon, 1 ounce (29.5 mL) for $5.52 (ASIN: B0000VYODS).
Reply
Shaun Cerborino
I would like to recommend Nature’s Charm! It is company owned by 2 Thai women and they make evaporated and sweetened condensed coconut and oat milk products. I used both of these and they came out great, preceded the sweetened condensed oat milk and the evaporated coconut milk combo. The subtle coconut flavor I guess makes me think Thai.
Reply
Walter Ian Kaye
I made this twice; first time was with the tea in a fine nylon net, and the second time with the leaves directly in the water and subsequently strained through a fine wire mesh. I had thought the wire mesh strained it well, but after it cooled I saw that it had turned clouded-opaque and I realized there must have been invisible leaf particles left over, resulting in over-steeping and it tasted tart and seemed to have a ton more caffeine which I'm still trying to recover from several hours later. So, people, make sure you strain it VERY completely after steeping, to ensure that nothing will be left behind to make it over-steep.
Reply
Walter Ian Kaye
I made this with the 4 cups of water and 3/4 cup of assam tea, but the tea leaves stubbornly held onto a full cup of water, leaving me with 3 cups of tea. Is this correct and expected? Or do I add an extra cup of water, or adjust the sweetener and vanilla downward, or...?
PS. I bought imitation vanilla for the first time in my life, specifically for this, lol.
PPS. I'm happy being able to make this vegan and zero fructose!Reply
Pailin Chongchitnant
Hi Walter! You do not need to add any water. The recipe anticipates 1 cup of water loss after steeping. As you can see, the recipe for making the tea itself calls for ¾ cup of brewed tea base per glass. The recipe is for 4 servings so that's 4x 0.75 cup = 3 cups of tea base. You're right on track 🙂
Reply
Alex
Hi Pailin,Long time Fan! Keep up the amazing work!
In your expert opinion and experience, what would be good fruit pairings with Thai iced tea? I'm thinking of using Thai tea as the main flavour in a cake and want to add fresh/dried fruits in it that will help cut the richness/sweetness.Thanks in advance!
Reply
Pailin Chongchitnant
Hmmm, i've not seen Thai iced tea paired with fruit....but if anything mangoes would probably work. You'll need something sweet and not too tart or it'll be weird with the tea. Melons could also work?
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Jack Hammer
Thanks so much for putting this together! We've (my Thai wife and I) tried this method a few times, and we always felt like the Thai Tea flavor was too weak. We've modified the recipe a few times by 1) increasing the steeping time and 2) the amount of Thai tea leaves but still not what we hoped for. We just can't get that Thai Tea flavor punch we're seeking. Any tips for maximizing that flavor? Thanks again. We love your content!
Reply
Pailin Chongchitnant
Hi! Which brand of tea leaves are you using? There are two options: Chatramue makes a GOLD version of THai tea leaves which are finer and stronger tasting. If you can get that, that would be the best option. Otherwise keep increasing the amount of leaves until it gets there, and make sure your water is very very hot. Oh another thing to dry is to let the tea leave simmer in the water for a minute before turning off the heat and steeping. You can also put the leaves through a coffee grinder to get it finer. Also letting the tea chill before pouring it over ice will make less of the ice melt and the tea stronger.
Reply
Seph
You mentioned in the video that both the condensed and evaporated milk can last a long time. How long can they last and what is the Thai secret to keeping it alive and safe to drink for so long? (e.g., do you transfer it to an airtight jar, or keep it in the can?) As a person living solo, I always hesitate buying and cracking open either product because it's just so much for one person to use.Reply
Pailin Chongchitnant
Condensed milk, once open will last at least a few months in the fridge in an airtight container. Evaporated milk lasts a shorter time but it should be 3-4 weeks in the fridge in an airtight container. Push it to the back of the fridge where it's colder and it'll last longer.
Reply
Laurinda Conyers
Hi Pailin,
Thank you for the amazing recipe and sharing your knowledge with us. I have tried several different recipes for Thai Tea like you get from restaurants. I had to buy many different spices and none came close. I found the Tea you recommended (on Amazon of course), and followed your directions exactly. It was perfect. Just what I was looking for. I am so happy to have found you. I love your Char Sui recipe and your tutorial on rice noodles has given me the confidence to try them again. Keep up the the great cooking.
You rock it,
LaurindaReply
Pailin Chongchitnant
Aw, so glad to hear! Thank you so much!
Reply
Jay
I make extra tea to freeze (tea only) and use as the ice cubes in my next batch.Reply
Pailin Chongchitnant
Brilliant.
Reply
Jack Yuen
How to be more find it ?Reply
Chloe
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Chloe
Reporting the above comment to adminReply
Chloe
Hello! Sorry, it may be because I'm new to cooking but - what does "off the boil" mean? I couldn't find a consistent answer by googling it.Reply
Adam from HTK
Hi Chloe, Adam here, and "off the boil" means that a liquid has cooled down from boiling and is no longer actively bubbling. It is often used in recipes to indicate a step where ingredients are added or the liquid is simmered after reaching its boiling point. Cheers!
Reply
Pailin Chongchitnant
I mean that the water should have just finished boiling. So temp as close to boiling as possible. This is to prevent ambiguity because "hot water" can mean any temperature that's hot, but it may not be hot enough to properly brew tea.
Reply
AMRIT
I don't like artificial vanilla extract so can I would use real vanilla extract and use saffron for colour?
Reply
Pailin Chongchitnant
For sure!
Reply
Valerie
Hi Pai!
How long do you think it can last in the fridge? Do you think there is a point in the recipe where we could freeze in order to have some rapidly on hand?
Thank you so muchReply
Dianne
The base should be fine to freeze. I wouldn't freeze it with any dairy products added to it though. The freezing and thawing can cause the milk to separate and you might end up with lumpy tea.
Reply
Pailin Chongchitnant
What Diane said is correct 🙂
Reply
Laura
If i want to make many servings at once is it better to do the same recipe many times or can i steep it all at once in a pitcher? If so is there a ratio to follow or do i simply increase quantity of tea and water based on number of guests? Thanks
Reply
Pailin Chongchitnant
Hi Laura, simply multiply all ingredients proportionally and make a big batch all at once.
Reply
Sejal
So simple! Being lazy about washing dishes, I did all the steps in my Yeti travel mug and it turned out great. I love being able to customize the level of sweetness - restaurant versions tend to be overly sweet. Any suggestions for the leftover evaporated milk? I have read that it does not freeze well.Reply
Sandra Rosenblum
You could use sweetened condensed milk to make fudge.
You could use evaporated milk to make pumpkin pie.Reply
Pailin Chongchitnant
Here are a couple of recipes that use evaporated milk on my site: https://hot-thai-kitchen.com/creamy-tom-yum/
https://hot-thai-kitchen.com/curry-crab/Or you can use it to make soups, add it to smoothies, or use it instead of milk in baking for extra richness.
Reply
S
I use evaporated milk (diluted with water) to make porridge (America term: oatmeal) instead of using milk from the fridge. Even with diluting to can instructions, evaporated milk is much creamier than 100% milk porridge so if you don't like creamy, dilute it more than the can says 🙂
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