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What is Thai Tea?

Thai Tea is a blend of black tea drank by the Thais either in hot or cold form. It’s a popular drink among the Thais and they have it in almost every meal. Cold Thai tea, however, is the most popular because the weather in Thailand is very hot. It’s generally made by adding in spices native to Thailand along with milk and sugar to create a tasty cold refreshment. There is also dark Thai tea which is without milk and similar to a chai tea, and lime Thai tea, which has lime instead of milk.

The Best Thai Tea Recipe

Luckily we don’t have to go to Thailand to enjoy this refreshing drink. Here’s a recipe you can try at home:

Ingredients List:

Golden Monkey Paw Tea

Crushed Tamarind Seeds

Star Anise

Coconut Milk

Ice

Yellow and Red food coloring

Sugar

How To Make Your Own Thai Tea with this easy Thai Tea Recipe

You can adjust our suggestions to fit your tastes. Essentially what you want to do is brew your Golden Monkey Paw tea along with a teaspoon each of crushed Tamarind Seeds and Star Anise. After your tea has been brewed you can sweeten it with sugar and pour your tea into a shaker full of ice, then shake to chill. Pour your cold tea mixture into a tall glass until it is half full and add in your red food coloring. Take your coconut milk, and add yellow food coloring into the milk, then add the coconut milk to the tall glass.

There are other varieties you can make as well, for example to create a Dark Thai Tea you only need to remove the coconut milk. You can still pour your tall glass half full, then add your red food coloring. After doing so, you can fill the glass full and add your yellow food coloring in. This adds fun to the process.

Lime Thai Tea only involves adding in lime juice in place of milk to Dark Thai Tea. You can cut up a lime, crush it into a shaker glass and shake it with your tea as you are chilling it. Hot Thai Tea, for hot Thai tea you can have it with or without milk as well. You just remove the step of shaking the tea with ice but all the other steps remain the same.

What To Do If You Don't Have Coconut Milk

If you don't have coconut milk you can substitute it with other varieties of such as cow milk or soy milk. The flavor and viscosity of the tea will change as you alter the milk type and quantity. If you are using a viscous milk like whole milk, then consider using less of it if you don’t want it to be too thick. Likewise if you're using a thinner milk like coconut or soy milk then adding more wont change the viscosity of the tea by much.

Finding the right flavor and taste of Thai tea that suits you is a bit of an art form. In the beginning first taste your tea mixture and see how it's flavor suits you. If it is too strong you can always water it down, or add in lots of milk to balance out the flavor. It is hard to do the opposite, if you water your tea down too much in the beginning you cant dilute it further later. When in doubt, start with a strong tea and dilute it with water, milk and sugar until you have the right balance.

What if You Don't Have Black Tea

Simply go to our online tea shop and get the best black tea choice for home-made Thai tea.

Putting It All Together

Thai tea is a great thing to share with friends. Test our your tea mixture first and get used to adding the food coloring for a fun and exciting presentation. Consider adding a slice of orange on the side of the cup, or garnishing with a lime to allow your guests to add further acidity to the tea blend. Acidity in a tea adds a sense of freshness and lightness, which is one reason for Thai Lime Tea. You can also garnish with a little slice of coconut hanging on the glass to add a little extra something to it's appearance.