Thai Iced Tea Recipe

With its eye-catching orange hue and daring style, Thai iced tea—usually known as cha yen (iced tea or iced tea) or usually cha nom yen (ชานมเย็น or iced milk tea)—is a staple of day-to-day life in Thailand. Stroll down any busy street, and in addition you’re sure to find a cart or hole inside 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 kind of drink: Locals sip it inside the morning with pa tong koh (the Thai equal of Chinese language language youtiao), have it as a palate cleanser between bites of fiery pad kra pao, and use it to sit back down after steaming bowls of boat noodles. My favorite choice to get pleasure from it, though, is by itself. On a scorching day, a sip of the chilly, sweet beverage looks as if an expensive.

A Transient Historic previous of Thai Iced Tea

Thai iced tea is solely sturdy black tea—usually Ceylon, Assam, or a regionally grown assamese varietal—blended with milk and sugar and served over ice. There’s no single technique to creating the drink; the form of dairy and sweeteners used, and the way in which rather a lot, can differ vastly from vendor to vendor. Whereas sweetened condensed milk isn’t compulsory, it is a widespread adequate addition that many Thais, myself included, ponder it a essential ingredient for cha yen.

Though camellia sinensis assamica is native to the realm, the leaves of the indigenous plant had been traditionally eaten (usually inside the kind of fermented tea leaves known as Miang), moderately than brewed. Tea consuming custom in all probability arrived some time all through the Sukhothai interval between the thirteenth and sixteenth century through commerce with China. One in every of many first written knowledge of tea custom in Siam is perhaps traced to a 1691entry in French diplomat Simon de la Loubère’s travelog From the Kingdom of Siam, the place de la Loubère talked about the apply Ayutthaya’s elites had of serving scorching tea inside the Chinese language language mannequin to firm of their homes.

Although the Siamese continued to serve tea in formal settings resembling authorities and temple options, the beverage’s consumption and recognition remained restricted until the 20th century, when the arrival of two important merchandise—sweetened condensed milk and ice—laid the groundwork for the arrival of cha yen.

In 1893, Nestlé launched its Milkmaid mannequin of sweetened condensed milk to Siam, kicking off a nationwide love affair with the dairy product that continues to at the present time. Its shelf-stable nature and concentrated style made sweetened condensed milk a staple at espresso and tea retailers, as a result of the ingredient offered prospects a useful choice to temper their bitter brews with one factor sweet and creamy.  By the Thirties, the product had turn into so commonplace that the federal authorities made efforts to increase residence manufacturing.

In 1903, businessman Lert Sreshthaputra, usually known as Nai Lert, based mostly Bangkok’s first industrial ice producer, a switch that made ice and chilly treats additional accessible to the tons. (Earlier to Nai Lert’s ice works, ice was imported by boat from Singapore, so it was an expensive good reserved for the wealthy.) By the Nineteen Twenties, espresso houses serving scorching and iced drinks had gained recognition all through the Kingdom.

Why Is Thai Iced Tea So Orange?

Whereas the Ceylon, Assam, and locally-grown assamese leaves typically used for cha yen do yield a reddish-brown brew, the enduring orange coloration we affiliate with Thai tea comes, more often than not, from meals coloring. Anticlimactic, I do know.

No one is conscious of exactly how and when Thai tea picked up its fake tan, nonetheless speculation abounds. One idea posits that clever distributors inside the late nineteenth to early twentieth century started together with fillers like safflower and tamarind to lower prime quality tea leaves in an effort to imitate the deep mahogany hue of pricier imported Ceylon tea. One different idea credit score resourceful Siamese servants who, horrified that their English employers had been throwing away utterly good tea leaves after just one brew, started doctoring spent tea leaves with coloring in an effort to make second and third brews additional visually attention-grabbing. Others suspect that espresso houses started amplifying the reddish hue of their tea to help differentiate between espresso and tea, given that two drinks look comparable as quickly as sweetened condensed milk is added.

3 Ideas for Making the Best Thai Iced Tea

1. Use the most effective tea. Chances are you’ll, in spite of everything, make utterly good cha yen with good prime quality Assam or Ceylon tea (see Swetha Sivakumar’s chai recipe for an in-depth primer on tea leaves), nonetheless that technique is a little bit of like serving a elaborate tomato relish with fries when store-bought ketchup is perhaps larger suited to the job.

In its place, for cha yen reminiscent of a Bangkok beverage cart auntie’s, I’m going for a ready-made Thai tea combine, which usually incorporates tea leaves, vanilla extract and completely different flavorings (whereas labels are typically obtuse, my educated guess is that these embrace cinnamon and star anise, amongst completely different substances). And naturally, these blends usually embrace colorants for that glorious burnt sienna hue. I need the assertive style and deep coloration of ChaTraMue’s “Additional Gold” combine, nonetheless be joyful to make use of 1 you need or can uncover additional readily. I wish to suggest skipping the three-in-one or instantaneous mixes, since these already embrace creamer and/or dried milk powder.

2. Stir and strain successfully. As a consequence of its finer particles, Thai tea powder tends to clump up in water. To ensure the tea is satisfactorily and evenly uncovered to scorching water, it’s essential to agitate the tea by stirring it. This allows for the discharge of additional water soluble polyphenols known as flavonoids, producing a stronger, additional flavorful brew—and is why many distributors pour tea backwards and forwards through a cloth strainer plenty of events sooner than eradicating the solids. At home, I’m going for a neater methodology: completely stirring the tea correct after together with water and as soon as extra correct sooner than straining. This second stir moreover helps switch additional tea powder into the strainer.

Since most Thai tea mixes are finely flooring, a cloth tea strainer like these street distributors use helps filter out tea particles which is perhaps too small for regular mesh strainers. When you may’t uncover one, use cheesecloth, a transparent, flat dish towel (one you don’t ideas staining orange), or a espresso filter fitted over a mesh strainer instead.

3. Go for Canned Milk. What dairy yields the creamiest, dreamiest Thai iced tea? Recipes run the gamut, calling for substances ranging from artificial creamer to half and half. After rounds of testing, my favorite is lastly a one to not less than one combination of sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk.

Invented inside the 1850s by American newspaperman Gail Borden as a possibility to guard cow’s milk, sweetened condensed milk has, over the course of virtually two centuries, turn into an ubiquitous ingredient in Southeast Asia. Made by cooking down milk and sugar, sweetened condensed milk offers Thai iced tea its satisfying sweetness. Furthermore, it offers the tea base a additional syrupy texture, making it a lot much less watery when ice is added. Go for the canned mannequin, or try making your private using former Extreme Eats editor Stella Parks’ sweetened condensed milk recipe.

Very like its sweetened sibling, evaporated milk (usually known as unsweetened condensed milk) is made by cooking down milk to remove 60% of its water content material materials—merely with out added sugar. As a consequence of its prolonged shelf life, it is essentially the most useful choice to retailer and transport fluid milk in Thailand’s scorching native climate. Evaporated milk’s low water content material materials and concentrated style offers the tea additional physique with out making it too cloyingly sweet. Its barely caramelized style moreover offers one different layer of complexity.

Thai iced tea is a particularly nostalgic beverage for me. Every sip conjures up childhood recollections of scorching afternoons spent out of doors with a plastic bag of cha yen—adorned with a neon staw and slick with condensation—in hand. Today, Thai iced tea can merely be purchased in Thai consuming locations all through the nation. Nonetheless for a extremely delicious Thai iced tea that’s flavorful and full-bodied, I’d rather a lot moderately make it myself…and I imagine you will, too.

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