Find solution
How do you make Iced Green Tea?

How can I make restaurant-style Thai iced tea?

  • I need your help making Thai iced tea like that served in Thai restaurants! Can you help? Hello folks, I would like to be able to make the same kind of Thai iced tea at home that I order in Thai restaurants. Typically, the Thai iced tea I have in Thai restaurants is tan to almost orange in color and has a float of white cream (of some sort) on top. It's sweet, full tea-flavored, and sometimes a bit spicy. I Googled Thai iced tea recipes and in the common recipes I've found, there are these ingredients: - Thai tea (I purchased Thai tea bags from an Asian grocer) - Water - Sugar - Sweetened condensed milk - Evaporated milk or cream I have purchased all of these ingredients and have tried several recipes with slightly different directions and steep times. Unfortunately, my Thai iced tea is still not coming out right. Its watery, bland, and not nearly close to the same flavor or color as the iced tea served at Thai restaurants I've been to. I'm starting to think that I either have the wrong kind of tea or I need to purchase some sort of super-secret Thai iced tea concentrate that maybe the restaurants are using. Can you help me sort this out? BTW, I'm in the Seattle area if that helps. Thanks!

  • Answer:

    Here is a rock solid method. Toss out those puny tea bags. You will need: 1/3 cup of LOOSE Thai tea 4 cups of water 2/3 cup of sugar half-half for topper. Evaporated milk can also be used. Combine tea, water and sugar into one pan Bring to the mix to a boil then lower the heat to a simmer and then brew for 20 minutes Pull off heat and let it cool completely After it is cooled then strain out the leaves you now have a very strong concentrate that will be poured over ice. Top with 2 tablespoons of half and half or to taste. Be sure that it is Thai tea that you have gotten and not something else. Just be aware that o liang is the coffee.

karizma at Ask.Metafilter.Com Visit the source

Was this solution helpful to you?

Other answers

I've seen it made with some resembling a coffee maker at a Thai lunch stand. They used a *lot* of tea. I don't know any more details than that though, but the result was what I expect Thai ice tea to be.

Emanuel

Thanks for all the responses, folks! The loose tea was definitely the key, along with the sweetened condensed milk as the sweetener. Finding the tea proved a bit more difficult than I expected, but the nice folks at the Thai restaurant I frequent offered to sell me some. Thanks again!

karizma

Your need to brew your tea extra strong. You can try boiling water and tea together and letting it simmer for ~5 minutes (this is how I make HK style milk tea which has the same ingredients).

wongcorgi

http://www.instructables.com/id/Thai-Iced-Tea/ recipe suggests not using tea bags, but whole leaves.

MaryDellamorte

Also, are you pouring the hot tea over ice? It needs to be cooled in the fridge before mixing with the milk.

MaryDellamorte

I also had to brew the tea several times stronger than the box indicated for it to taste right. I think we ended up using the entire box of tea bags for one batch, using color (and taste/smell) to gauge the right steeping time.

jquinby

I was checking out a bag of Thai tea at the store recently (it was very authentic looking, lots of Thai writing, ect.) and the only ingredients were tea and annato color, so if you don't care about your tea having that red color, you probably could just use regular black tea.

genmonster

http://cakewardrobe.blogspot.com/2008/03/thai-iced-tea.html seems to have had success using a tea sock and loose tea rather than tea bags. [on preview: what jadepearl said]. She also says, "If I allowed myself to have a third try, this is what I would have done: To make a huge color contrast and a stronger tea flavor, I probably wouldn't mix sweetened condensed milk into it. I would just sweeten it with regular sugar (as I was told by my friend who makes this daily for the [Thai] restaurant) and just add evaporated milk over the top."

hurdy gurdy girl

I've had success with jadepearl's approach. Make sure you find the loose tea (I've been able to find it at almost every medium sized or larger Asian grocery in the bay area I've been to). I use condensed milk myself which lets you skip having to mix in the sugar.

MillMan

Load more

Related Q & A:

Just Added Q & A:

Find solution

For every problem there is a solution! Proved by Solucija.

  • Got an issue and looking for advice?

  • Ask Solucija to search every corner of the Web for help.

  • Get workable solutions and helpful tips in a moment.

Just ask Solucija about an issue you face and immediately get a list of ready solutions, answers and tips from other Internet users. We always provide the most suitable and complete answer to your question at the top, along with a few good alternatives below.