On muggy, hot days in Bangkok there is nothing more refreshing that a cold drink. Some people go for icy cold lemon tea, known as cha manow (cha, meaning tea and manow meaning lemon) while others make a beeline for tea stands selling a bright orange, milky-looking drink. This is the Thais most popular street tea – cha yen(thai iced tea).
We’ll explore the history of thai iced tea in this article and share some truly delicious recipes that can be made at home, with the correct ingredients.
Table of Contents
Thai Iced Tea versus Milk Tea
Cha, the Thai word for tea, comes in many forms these days and while bubble teas and artisanal dessert teas have taken over the city, Bangkokians still gravitate to the one they have lived with the longest, the bright orange cha yen.
For a long time tea stand operators have used Ceylon tea from Sri Lanka, however, because of its popularity, Ceylon tea has become too expensive for many of the little tea stands in Bangkok. Many are now using Assam fermented black tea leaves from India.
Both, Thai iced tea and Thai milk are very popular in Bangkok and Thailand as a whole, the only major difference is one is hot and one is cold. However, both are made with evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk, and both can certainly add on the pounds of weight if a person drinks too much.
How to Make Thai Iced Tea with Tea Bags
Organic ‘black tea’ tea bags can be bought at large retail stores, health stores and online. The process is pretty easy since the tea is ready and prepared to be made in a cup.
One brand is Authentic Thai Iced Tea that contains 20 black tea tea bags, and that already have the correct amount of spices added to flavor your tea.
You just pop it into your cup, top it up with hot water and leave steeping for ten minutes while the tea leaves release their flavor. After this, you can sweeten it with condensed milk and regular dairy or nut-based milks to your taste.
The Best Thai Tea Bags
Recipe With fresh tea bags from Amazon
- Making authentic Thai Iced Tea is easier than ever.
- 20 Individual Tea Bags
- Great tasting Thai Iced Tea just like the way restaurants makes it.
- Three quick and simple steps to great tasting Thai Iced Tea.
- Sugar Free!
How to Make Thai Iced Tea with Milk
Iced tea with milk is a firm favorite with the Thai population and has really caught on all over the world.
Ingredients
- Loose, black leaf tea such as the Assam or Ceylon. Another brand that works well is Keemun, which comes from Anhui in China.
- cardamom seed, 1-2 pods
- a stick of cinnamon
- a chunk of star anise
- a few drops of vanilla essence or real vanilla bean
- ground tamarind
- 1 cup of boiled water
- two tablespoons of condensed milk and a little evaporated milk or nut milk you prefer
- a drop of orange food coloring
- extra sugar, if you want it sweeter
Method
- Step 1: Steep the ingredients, except the orange food coloring and the evaporated / nut milk, in the boiling water for 5 to 6 minutes
- Step 2: Strain the tea then stir in the sugar and condensed milk, making sure both are fully dissolved.
- Step 3: Wait for the hot tea to cool down then add a few drops of the orange coloring.
- Step 4: Fill two big glasses with ice, and pour the hot tea over it, leaving enough space on top for the additional milk.
Decaf Thai Iced Tea
Most Thai iced tea and milk tea vendors have only caught on in the past few years that there is actually something like a caffeine-free drink.
When I first arrived in Thailand more than 15 years ago, and being extremely allergic to caffeine, I casually asked for my coffee to be “caffeine free, please.” The waitress smiled politely and in her best English said: “Café free? Okay.” She then proceeded to tell her colleague at the till that the farang wanted ‘free coffee’ and they fell around laughing.
At the time I did not know enough about the Thai language to realize that there had been a monumental misunderstanding. After the first sip, my head was spinning and I looked like the wire-haired, spiral-eyed, caffeine cat cartoon we all know so well from social media sites.
So, I learned how to say, “Mai aw ca fe een, ka.” It means: “without caffeine, please,” only to be to stared at in horror and told all tea and coffee must have caffeine, otherwise it is not authentically Thai.
That was more than ten years ago, and I am happy to report that healthy living has definitely become a focus for millennial Thais in the last ten years and that decaf and caffeine-free are now included in their beverage vocabularies!
Here is a great Decaf Iced Tea Recipe you can make at home. This recipe provides two servings.
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of dried rooibos tea leaves, 1-2 sticks of stevia or about ¾ of a teaspoon of stevia liquid, 16 ounces or two cups of boiling water, ½ a cup of almond milk or coconut milk
Method:
- Step 1: Put the tea leaves and stevia into a glass container.
- Step 2: Pour the hot water over it and allow the leaves and stevia to steep for fifteen minutes.
- Step 3: Prepare a glass or two filled with ice cubes
- Step 4: Strain the tea and allow it to cool down to room temperature
- Step 5: Stir it and pour it over the ice
- Step 6: Add your choice of dairy-free milk (coconut, almond, etc.)
- Step 7: Enjoy!
Thai Iced Tea Health Benefits
It is believed that the antioxidants in Thai iced tea can reduce the risks of certain types of cancer such as stomach, pancreatic, colon, prostate and even breast cancer.
Because black, fermented, tea leaves contain antioxidants call catechins, a chemical compound from the family of flavonoids, not only is there a decreased risk of cancer but it is also believed to play a vital role in preventing strokes or heart attacks as catechins helps arteries expand and improve blood flow.
While caffeine is being avoided by many health-conscious tea drinkers, it still has some significant benefits, such as with weight loss. The combination of antioxidants and caffeine, drunk in moderation, increases your metabolism and helps your body burn calories faster.
How to Make Vegan Thai Iced Tea
If you’re a vegan and worried about what goes into your tea, here’s a quick and easy recipe to put your mind at ease and allowing you to enjoy tea you made yourself.
Ingredients
two tables spoons of ChaTraMue black tea leaves, two table spoons of brown sugar, 2 cups of boiling water, ice cubes, ½ cup of coconut milk
Method
- Step 1: Pour the hot water over the black tea leaves.
- Step 2: Stir in the sugar until dissolved allow the tea to steep.
- Step 3: Fill a glass with ice cubes.
- Step 4: Pour over the tea mixture.
- Step 5: Then, pour over the coconut milk.
- Step 6: Enjoy!
The History of ChaTraMue, Thailand’s Oldest Tea Brand
In the 1920s the third eldest brother of a Chinese immigrant family arrived in the Kingdom with his 8 siblings and started a tea shop in Yaowarat Road, Chalermburi. Unfortunately, they had to change the shop’s location when it was hit by a bomb in World War 2.
It was not all bad news, however, as the move inspired Sa Pae, the founder, to begin importing red teas, along with his Oolongs and green teas to Thailand.
Realizing that their hot tea variations were not going down well with the Thai population, they started to serve iced red and black tea to satisfy the Thais.
Loosely translated, the words ‘ChaTraMue’ mean ‘original tea’ or ‘number one tea’. Either way, it truly became the number one selling tea brand in Thailand in 1945, and remains the ‘go to’ brand of tea whenever people think of a nice, tall glass of the brightly orange, iced, drink.
Thai Iced Tea Alternatives
Thai Iced Tea is Thai Iced Tea. There is no alternative, yet people are trying all kinds of combinations to make a version of Thai iced tea that tastes like anything but the original.
If you’ve been used to Thai tea blends with a rooibos base, along with black tea, coconut milk, vanilla bean and almonds, you’d already know that iced tea has grown into a diverse industry.
For example, the Sri Lankan Adagio brand tea blend is light in tea flavor and contains lemongrass that makes this a delicious alternative.
Another is the Persimmon Tree coconut based tea, but it is a white tea rather than a black tea. There are also various Ceylon black teas flavored with coconut shavings, ginger, vanilla and lemongrass to satisfy tastes.
Some people also prefer a totally milkless tea in Thailand called cha manow, which is a lemon-flavored tea over ice, and can be sweet or plain, according to your preference. Furthermore, many people prefer a Thai iced coffee as an alternative to tea.
Finally, here’s an interesting note on the history of Thai Iced Tea. Apparently, aside from its humble beginnings in the 1940s, tea growing was encouraged in the 1980s by the Thai government as an alternative cash crop to opium.
It is believed that a military man, Field Marshall Pibulsongkram, might’ve been the one to encourage the sweet tea’s popularity with his own penchant for black, western, condensed milk tea with ice.
While there is no evidence of this leader’s penchant for iced tea being the real starting point, it has become a staple of Thai street food culture, and with its spices of star anise, orange blossom and other flavors, not to mention the recent addition of boba bubbles, will remain a practically indelible part of Thai food culture the world over.
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