What is Thai Iced Tea?
Thai iced milk tea or just Thai iced tea is a popular, refreshing orange-colored tea drink. It also goes by the name Cha Yen, Cha Thai, or Trà Sữa Thái in Vietnamese.
The tea is a unique blend of heavily brewed black tea, often dyed orange, sweetened with condensed milk and sometimes additional sugar, then finished with a creamy splash of evaporated milk.
It’s served over ice, making it especially refreshing on a hot day.
Thai iced tea isn’t bitter. It’s sweet, rich, and creamy, and I consider it more of a dessert than a tea.
Whenever I make it at home, I like to make a large batch so we have a pitcher ready in the fridge to enjoy throughout the week.
What You Will Need to Make Thai Tea
To make this large batch of Thai tea, you will need the following ingredients:
- Thai Tea Leaves: Authentic Thai tea uses Assam black tea enhanced with vanilla flavor and orange food coloring. The most popular brand is Cha Tra Mue, which you can easily find in most Asian supermarkets here in the States. This blend gives Thai iced tea its distinct flavor and signature vibrant orange color.
- Water: For steeping the dried tea leaves.
- Sweetened Condensed Milk: An absolute must. It adds both sweetness and milky creaminess. Once stirred into the brewed tea, it lightens the dark liquid so that the iconic bright orange color shines through.
- Granulated White Sugar (Optional): If you use too much condensed milk to sweeten the tea, it can wash out the beautiful dark orange color and turn the drink pale. If you want to keep the color darker, replace half of the sweetened condensed milk with sugar instead. American Thai restaurants tend to keep their tea very dark orange, so they rely more heavily on sugar.
- Evaporated Milk (Optional): The use of this milk originally stemmed from a lack of refrigeration, but now it is completely synonymous with authentic Thai iced tea. The drink is typically topped with a splash of it to create a stunning layered effect, as evaporated milk tends to stay more at the top because its water content has mostly evaporated off. If you don’t want to use canned evaporated milk, you can substitute it with your fresh milk of choice or half-and-half.
- Ice: You simply can’t have Thai iced tea without crushed ice.
Why You Will Love This Recipe
In the recipe below, I’m keeping things simple and skipping the additional sugar and evaporated milk. Instead, I’m relying entirely on sweetened condensed milk for both sugar and milk.
I’m also making a large batch, so I’m simply using a standard pot to steep the tea, then straining the leaves with a fine-mesh strainer.
If you’re making a smaller batch, like half the recipe, you can use a fancy French press for easier filtering.
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Thai Iced Milk Tea (Tra Sua Thai)
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
Description
A refreshing, vibrant orange iced tea that is an absolute must-order at any Thai restaurant. This authentic batch recipe captures that unique blend of robustly brewed black tea and creamy condensed milk, perfectly scaled so you can easily make a large pitcher at home.
Ingredients
- 9 cups water
- 2 cups Thai tea mix
- 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
- Crushed ice (for serving)
- Choice of milk (evaporated milk, half and half, or cream top for serving)
Instructions
- Steep: Bring the water to a boil in a medium pot. Remove the pot from the heat, carefully stir Thai tea leaves until saturated, and let it steep for 15 minutes.
- Strain and Sweeten: Pour the steeped tea through a traditional cloth strainer (tea sock) or cheesecloth or paper liner into another container or pitcher. Discard the tea leaves. While the tea is still warm, stir in the can of sweetened condensed milk until it is fully dissolved.
- Transfer: Pour the sweetened tea mixture into a 2-quart pitcher, if you haven’t already, then transfer it to the fridge to chill completely.
- Serve: Fill a tall glass with crushed ice and pour in the chilled tea. For an optional creamy, layered effect, leave a little room at the top and add about 2 tablespoons of evaporated milk or fresh milk. Alternatively, top with a layer cold foam/cream top for a trendy finish.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Category: drink
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Asian, Thai
