Thai Iced Tea

I was so keen on eating stir fried noodles and curry and street food in Thailand that I almost forgot about Thai iced tea so we didn't even have it until we were almost out of the country. Our first taste of Thai iced tea abroad was at a Hainanese chicken rice place in Chiang Mai. It was just so good and though the flavor was certainly the most significant part, one of the things that made it memorable was the pebbly ice that was used to chill it.

So when we were in the Chiang Mai airport about to make our way to Vietnam, I was looking around at the souvenir shops trying to find something worthwhile to use up our remaining Baht on and I found a bag of Thai tea mix. The shop girls didn't speak much English but I confirmed with them that this was the best tea mix for making Thai iced tea and they encouraged me to buy it. I was a bit skeptical and I thought they were just trying to make a sale but when I came home and made the tea, I was so excited because it's delicious. And luckily for you, the mix I purchased is available on Amazon.

Ingredients [yields 6 to 8 servings]:

tea concentrate
¼ cup loose Thai tea mix
½ vanilla bean
5 cardamom pods
cinnamon stick
6 cups water

sweetener
14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
12 oz. can evaporated milk

Start by crushing the cardamom pods and add them to a bowl along with a half vanilla bean split in half. Toss in the cinnamon stick and add the loose leaf tea.

Allow a kettle to come to a boil and then let it cool for a couple of minutes. You don't want the water to actually be boiling hot or you'll bring out all the bitter notes in the tea. Pour the not-quite-boiling water over the tea and let it steep for 10 minutes.

I really like this tea mix because it's got a wonderful deep orange color but it's not artificial. You can read on the ingredients list that it has red assam tea and that's what you can attribute the color to. A lot of the Thai tea mixes available in the States contain food coloring and often times, that's what lesser quality restaurants will try and serve you. There's nothing wrong with that per se, I just prefer natural coloring.

In a jar, combine the evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk and shake up until completely combined.

When the tea has finished steeping, strain and cool. Then, pour into a jar and chill.

Store both the tea and sweetened milk in the fridge so it's ready and cold whenever you want to have some delicious iced tea.

To serve, fill a glass with ice and fill up to about three-quarters full with tea and then top off with the sweetened milk. Make sure to pop a straw or stirrer into the glass so you can mix everything up. But make sure to serve it unstirred so the people enjoying it can see the beautiful separation between the colors.

This tea is sweet and creamy and has the most beautifully rich tea flavor. The spices add a lovely warmth and makes the tea smell amazing. And if you've never had Thai iced tea before, I highly recommend you go out to the best local Thai restaurant ASAP and try it because it's life changingly refreshing and delicious.

Here's the recipe page: