Your shopping cart is empty!
FREE SHIPPING OVER 35€
WELCOME COUPON €5 "CIAO5"
Thai iced tea (ชาดำเย็น or Cha dan yen) is one of the most requested items in Thai cuisine restaurants, and many may know it for its typical appearance and bright orange color, due to the mixing of the black tea's brown and the cream color of the milk.
Thai tea is a drink originating from Thailand, whose fundamental ingredients are tea, milk, and sugar. In fact, it is a tea, usually a very concentrated and sweetened Indian black tea, to which spices can also be added, served with the addition of ice and milk in various variations, from coconut milk to evaporated milk, to condensed milk, making it a creamy and sweet tea. The basic version is not the iced Thai tea, as it is served both hot (Cha rorn) and cold, but it is the cold version, called Cha yen or Thai iced tea, that has become popular and is served almost like a dessert in Thai cuisine restaurants and throughout Southeast Asia, being a sweet and indulgent drink, but also refreshing, excellent for summer. It is offered in various variations, using different types of milk and adding more varied ingredients, from spices infused with tea, to mint, to lime.
As often happens, you will surely find ready-made mixes on the market to simply mix with water, but actually preparing Thai iced tea at home is very simple and requires very few ingredients. Let's see together how to do it.
Below we propose the traditional recipe for Thai iced tea, as served in restaurants and on the streets of Thailand. At the base of the recipe, and its strong orange color, is the preparation of a very concentrated spiced tea. To obtain it, you just need to keep the water ratios you use for your usual cup of tea, doubling the amount of loose tea leaves, letting them infuse for a few minutes longer than usual. You can discover other ways to prepare iced tea in our article: Iced Tea: How to Make It at Home or try another iced tea recipe by making a bubble tea.
Discover Terza Luna's selection of iced teas: blends rich in flavors to enjoy even on the hottest days.
Terza Luna Iced Teas
In the proposed recipe, we used condensed milk. You can choose a good quality condensed milk (there are also vegan options available in stores) or make it from scratch. To do this, you will need:
Put all the ingredients in a saucepan and cook over low heat for 20 minutes until you get a thick consistency typical of condensed milk.
In Thailand, this recipe also uses evaporated milk, which is essentially condensed milk without added sugar. To make it, you boil the milk until it becomes thick and creamy: you can use this variation if you want to reduce the prominent sweetness of Thai iced tea but maintain its creaminess.
As we mentioned, there are different variations of the Thai iced tea recipe. The base will always be a very concentrated black tea, spiced, diluted with milk, and sweetened in various ways, with a sweet yet bitter taste, refreshing and pleasant for summer days, but the preparation and ingredients vary. We also offer a version with coconut milk, for those following a vegan diet or lactose intolerant.
You can purchase tonka beans online at Terza Luna: Discover them among our online spices
It is recommended to use a very strong tea to prepare Thai iced tea: an Indian black tea, an English Breakfast, or a spiced blend like Chai, Nepal Masala, or Milky Chai. You can use more aromatic black teas, but they must still be strong and flavorful. For example, a vanilla tea is perfect for this purpose since Thai iced tea is often flavored with vanilla. In the recipe provided, we used Milky Chai, but if you don't have it, you can use your favorite black tea and enrich it with spices to create your own Chai. You can also find the Chai Tea recipe on our blog.
One of the characteristics of iced Thai tea is the tea: black tea is usually used, for example, Assam tea or Ceylon Tea available at Terza Luna, which is prepared using a higher quantity of leaves and long infusion times to make it very concentrated, and spiced with vanilla, cardamom, tamarind, and other flavors that give it a unique taste. We wanted to try a version with green tea, very suitable for summer, with a refreshing and herbaceous flavor. Here's how to prepare it:
Discover the selection of Terza Luna's iced teas: blends rich in aromas and flavors to enjoy even on the hottest days.
Cold Tea Third Moon
The Thai cold tea is rich in benefits, as it combines the properties of tea, therefore antioxidants and energizing, with those of coconut, if you choose the version with coconut milk. Black tea is rich in polyphenols and tannins, counteracts free radicals and aging and is beneficial for cardiovascular health. The caffeine content also makes it an excellent drink for summer mornings, to give the body the right boost to face the day. Coconut is rich in vitamins, just like tea.
Although this tea is an extremely delicious snack or after-meal, it is important not to overdo it: black tea contains a lot of caffeine, so if consumed in excess it could cause side effects such as anxiety, agitation, and insomnia: you can learn more about the effects of caffeine in our article "Is Drinking Too Much Tea Bad? Here's How Much Tea to Drink a Day". Thai cold tea is also known to be a very sweet drink, so it is important to be careful about the sugar consumption that follows. To prepare a less sugary version, you can replace condensed milk with evaporated milk or coconut milk.
