This refreshing Thai Iced Tea with Milk is perfect to accompany a spicy Thai food dinner. This homemade recipe uses palm sugar and coconut milk in place of evaporated and sweetened condensed milk to make it dairy free and vegan.
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We spend the last 8 months living in Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. The city is also called the coffee capital of the country. Being close to the mountainous areas, it has immediate access to locally grown coffee. And being a University city with many students from all over the country, coffee shops can be found at almost every corner.
We used the coffee shops not for studying but for working on our online businesses. As I told you in our 8 months update, Konrad and I took turns watching Olivia at home or going out to one of our favorite coffee shops to work. It was in Chiang Mai’s coffee shops that I learned about another favorite local beverage: Thai Iced Milk Tea!
A strong brew of spiced black tea is served cold over ice. Sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk are added to sweeten and lighten the tea.
As much as I enjoyed the iced milk tea at local coffee shops, I wanted make a homemade version without refined sugar and canned milk.
In my search for Thai tea mix I came across instant powders that already have the tea, sweetener and milk as part of it, but I definitely wanted to brew my own. Number ONE Brand (Cha Tra Mue) is the most common variety of Thai tea mix here, so that’s what I want I went with.
When I made Vietnamese iced coffee at home, I used homemade vegan sweetened condensed milk. For my homemade Thai Iced Tea I didn’t go through the trouble of cooking down the coconut sugar and coconut milk into a condensed milk, but simply added them to the tea.
The result is absolutely delicious Thai iced tea that is perfect to accompany a spicy Thai dinner.
However, it is still not a healthy/clean eating alternative. When I tried to find out which spices are added to the black tea to create the unique Thai tea flavor, I discovered that a little sugar and even yellow colorant are part of this tea mix (and pretty much any other Thai tea mix I could find) 🙁
And the ingredients list gives no specific information on the spices. I can taste some vanilla and cardamom, but I would need to do more testing and research before I can recommend how to make Thai tea mix from scratch.
- 1 teaspoon (2 g) Thai tea mix
- 1 cup hot water
- ice cubes
- coconut milk and palm sugar (or sweetened condensed coconut milk) to taste
- Steep the Thai tea mix in hot water for a few minutes (3-5). Use a tea ball for easy removal of the loose leaf tea (traditionally this tea sock is used).
- Fill a tall glass with ice cubes and pour in the Thai tea. Add coconut milk and palm sugar to taste. Sweetened condensed milk is traditionally used, but palm sugar and coconut milk produce a really tasty alternative that is dairy free and refined sugar free.
Products used for this Thai Iced Tea with Milk Recipe:
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I loooved the Thai iced tea in Thailand – although a home made version with the condensed milk is definitely healthier! Happy to be hosting this giveaway with you!! Yumming and pinning this recipe
Yay I love hosting giveaways with blogger friends! Thais really know how to make good food and drinks 🙂