Thai Tea (also known as Thai Iced Tea) is a popular iced drink hailing from Thailand, commonly found in Thai restaurants across the US. The deep amber color of the tea and its milk-tinted upper layer make this beverage really stand out on your table, and the combination of strongly brewed tea, dairy, and sugar make it a perfect complement to hot weather and spicy food.
Thai Tea is made from strongly brewed black tea, often spiced with ingredients such as star anise, crushed tamarind, cardamom, and occasionally others as well (often making this beverage a favorite among masala chai tea fans). This brew is then sweetened with sugar and sweetened condensed milk and served over ice. For the sake of flavor, consistency, and visual appeal, glasses of Thai Tea are usually topped with additional dairies, such as evaporated milk, whole milk, half and half, or coconut milk (this last one, of course, is not actually dairy, but you get the picture).
Thai tea is usually known as a Thai drink made from Ceylon tea, milk and sugar, and served hot or cold. It is popular in Southeast Asia and is served in many restaurants[RX] that serve Thai food. When served cold it is known as Thai iced tea
Thai course is incomplete without ending it with a Thai iced tea also known as Thai milk tea. After a spicy Thai dinner, this icy dessert drink will soothe your burning gut. Although the beverage is called Thai iced tea by many, some prefer to have it without the ice calling it simply, Thai tea.
There are two ways of making Thai tea. One method is by using the Thai tea mix, which contains tea leaves and a variety of spices and herbs like cinnamon, vanilla, star anise, etc. This mix can be easily found online or in any grocery store. The second method gives you the liberty to make Thai milk tea without the Thai tea mix. However, it requires black tea and a bit more ingredients. Both would ultimately, taste equally yummy!
Health Benefits of Thai Tea
- Discourages Weight Gain – Drinking black tea regularly can be a great tool to combat weight gain. Research has shown that the polyphenols in black tea inhibit obesity by aiding in the absorption of lipids (fat) and complex sugars. Thai tea also helps suppress digestion. Reports indicate that these effects are even more pronounced in black tea than in green tea.
- Lowers Cholesterol – Drinking a couple of cups of black tea each day can help lower your cholesterol. High cholesterol levels can lead to several cardiovascular disorders, including heart attacks. Drinking at least three cups of black tea a day also increases a person’s antioxidant levels, another plus for good heart health.
- Reduces Stroke Risk – A meta-analysis of several studies found that regularly drinking black tea can significantly reduce a person’s risk of stroke. Strokes are usually caused by blood clots in the brain and can cause debilitating symptoms such as paralysis, weakness, and problems with balance and coordination.
- Decreases Chances of Heart Disease – Black tea has been shown to help reverse some of the arterial dysfunction associated with heart disease. It can also improve blood oxidation, an important indicator of heart health and other chronic medical issues.
- Anti- Inflammatory Effects – Like many forms of herbal tea, Thai tea is rich in antioxidants that can help you maintain a healthy immune system. Studies have shown that Thai tea has similar levels of antioxidants as green tea and other herbal teas popularized specifically for their anti-inflammatory benefits.
- Antimicrobial Properties – Some research has shown that there may be antimicrobial properties in black teas like Thai tea. Consuming beverages with antimicrobial elements can help promote healthy digestion and immune system functioning.
- Reducing the Allergic – Some people are quite sensitive to several kinds of food or any chemical ingredients. No worry, it can be healed now by consuming Thai tea as one of the benefits. What should you do then? Simply, drink two or three cups of Thai tea with no added sugar and add more milk instead. The flavonoid compound which is composed of Thai tea has a magnificent boost to protect your body from inflammation and poisoning. It would be much better if you drink Thai tea soon after you get noticed that you are suffered allergic to minimize the worse effect of the allergic on your body. Don’t forget to balance it with consuming much water to help your body has its own metabolism to exhaust the poison out of the way.
- Preventing from Asthma – What is worse than having breath trouble? It is so awful and none would ever do anything to avoid it. For some people with asthma, the world gets as hell when it comes. Why don’t you just prevent it before the nightmare happening? Drink two cups of original Thai tea with more black tea and star anise compounds will be great prevention from suffering asthma. The anti-oxide inhibits inflammation substances inside your body, thus whenever your immune is not so much good, you will still be resisted. Drink it regularly and see how it is going in one month.
- Preventing and Fighting Cancer – Research done by Stanford University, USA found that early-stage breast cancer can be stopped out of cancer cells spreading by consuming Thai tea which has black and green tea mixed. Drinking a cup of Thai tea with original black and green tea will contribute much to block the cancer cells from spreading because Thai tea has polyphenol, anti-oxide, and vitamins which are good for stopping the worse cells spread out. Basically, everyone has cancer cells inside their body, but it is their lifestyle that decides whether the cells will be worse or not. So, why don’t you just wipe them all away and get the health benefits of thai tea?
- Healing the Stress – In Japan, some researchers have been done research to prove the function of Thai tea in order to heal and manage stress. It is caused by the caffeine composition in Thai tea which is good for reducing the sensation of tiring and stress. Caffeine has been known for ages as a magic substance that stimulates the human brain to produce hormones that create a calm and peaceful feeling. You don’t need to drink Thai tea every day, consume only when you feel not comfortable and in high-risk stress instead.
- Defeating Free Radical – Free radical is very dangerous since it is one of the main causes of diseases such as cancer. Tufts University has done research that proved that Thai tea with its green tea concentrate has been functioning well to kill free radicals which absorbed into our body by its high anti-oxide composition. Free radical comes through blood veins and spreads out of the whole organs, therefore, we need anti oxide to reduce the free radical rate and extinguish it out of the body. Consuming 3-5 cups of Thai tea in a week is very recommended if you are a typical person who is often outside and has a high risk to be contaminated by free radicals.
- Cleansing the Urinary Tract – Your urinary tract might have such risk to get infected by any viruses or bacteria. It leads to inflammation which is quite painful and stuck you on getting difficult to do your pee or pop. Drinking less water might get it worse. Thus, drink much water in a day and you may add to consume 2-3 cups of Thai tea every day. Anti-oxide-containing in Thai tea will help the urinary tract to clean itself from any kind of reside and lessen the inflammation. It will be great for your body to have such a cleansing and detoxing process without any complex process. Will you try it?
- Removing Your “Panda Eye – Herbalists do agree that green tea, in any kind of form, might be the best treatment to remove eye inflammation or more popularly called as panda eye. When you are lack sleep or life gets you into such a trouble situation which leads you to cry out loud, don’t show it to everyone! Compress your eye with Thai tea extract to lessen the inflammation and freshen your eye’s look. Natural and organic compositions in Thai tea will relax your eyes muscles and normalize their size into normal ones. Simply put Thai tea extract on wet linen and put it as a compressor on your eyes. Do it in the morning before you are getting ready to face another day. It works a lot!
- Supporting Your Diet Program – For those who are in a dietary program, drinking cups of Thai tea between their meals and snacks times is strongly recommended. Thai tea with its black and green tea extract can help your smoothly digesting system and normalize your metabolism. Furthermore, by having a good digest and metabolism, you can help yourself a lot to reduce weight. It is recommended to drink one up to two cups of Thai tea in the morning before breakfast and in the night before going to bed to get the approximate benefits of the tea. Paying yourself attention for at least one month and when you see the result, will you still dare to say no to this awesome thing?
- Creating a Smooth and Fluent Body Metabolism – Thai tea has many compositions like minerals, vitamins, polyphenol etc which contribute satisfyingly to your body’s health. One of the health benefits of Thai tea is for your smooth and fluent metabolism. You can get such a good metabolism every day when you regularize yourself to consume at least a cup of Thai tea every day. Great metabolism is not only matters for your weight, furthermore, but it will also help you to maintain your health way better!
- Reducing High Risk of Stroke – One of the most frightening diseases in the world after cancer and heart attack is getting a stroke. Stroke is caused by obstructions in blood veins mostly triggered by high cholesterol due to an unhealthy lifestyle. Therefore, black tea as the biggest composition in Thai tea has been known for ages by Asian people to reduce the amount of fat cholesterol in our blood circulation and automatically decrease the risk of getting suffer from cancer, diabetes, stroke, heart attack, and so on. Dr. Carrie Ruxton, a nutritionist from South Dakota Foundation mentioned that black tea has anti-oxide, theaflavin, and caffeine which are quite good to consume for humans in order to reduce cholesterol leads to several dangerous diseases.
How to Make Thai Iced Tea
Ingredients
Using Thai tea mix
- 1 tbsp thai tea
- 1 cup water (filtered)
- 2 tsp sugar (granulated)
- 2 tsp condensed milk [3] (or half and half)
- 3 tsp evaporated milk [4]
- 1/2 cup ice (crushed or cubes)
Using black tea
- 1 bag black tea [5]
- 1 cup water (filtered)
- 2 tsp sugar (granulated)
- 2 pieces anise stars
- 1 pod cardamom (smashed)
- 2 whole cloves [6]
- 2 tsp condensed milk [7] (or half and half)
- 3 tsp evaporated milk [8]
- 1/2 cup ice (crushed or cubes)
Instructions
Using Thai tea mix
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Bring 1 cup of water to boil in a saucepan or a pot.
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Add 1 tablespoon of Thai tea mix to a tea sock.
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Pour the hot water over the tea and allow it to steep for 30 minutes.
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Pour the tea into a glass and add 2 teaspoons of sugar.
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Add 2 teaspoons of condensed milk (or half and half) and stir.
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Add 2 teaspoons of evaporated milk and stir.
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Professionally made Thai iced tea usually contains a little froth or bubbles on top. If you wish to give that professional look to your Thai tea then, take two pitchers and pour the tea from one pitcher to another with a little elevation. You may choose to skip this step but we suggest you try it, it’s fun!
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Fill another cup halfway with crushed ice, then pour the tea on it.
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Finally, you may give it a creamy touch by sprinkling some more evaporated milk on top.
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Enjoy your Thai iced tea with some cookies!
Using black tea
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Bring 1 cup of water to boil in a saucepan or a pot.
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Add black tea bag, sugar, anise starts, cardamom pod, and cloves to the boiling water, as measured.
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Stir the mixture until all the sugar gets dissolved and then remove from heat.
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Allow it to steep for 30 minutes and strain the tea using a cheesecloth or remove the teabag and other condiments using a spoon.
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Add 2 teaspoons of condensed milk (or half and a half) and stir.
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Add 2 teaspoons of evaporated milk and stir.
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Professionally made Thai iced tea usually contains a little froth or bubbles on top. If you wish to give that professional look to your Thai tea then, take two pitchers and pour the tea from one pitcher to another with a little elevation. You may choose to skip this step but we suggest you try it, it’s fun!
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Fill another cup halfway with crushed or cubed ice, then pour the tea on it.
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Finally, you may give it a creamy touch by sprinkling some more evaporated milk on top.
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Sit back and slurp it down.
Restaurant-Style Thai Iced Tea Recipe
In the US, Thai Iced Tea is often “discovered” in Thai restaurants, and an immediate love affair begins. It complements spicy Thai food beautifully and provides a wonderfully refreshing (and sweet!) cold drink. To recreate restaurant-style Thai Iced Tea at home, follow this easy step-by-step guide! Here’s what you’ll need
- tep One: Measure – Start by measuring 2 teaspoons of Arbor Teas loose leaf Organic Thai Tea blend for every 8 oz. you’re making. This is a single serving but can be cut down to 1 teaspoon of tea per 8 oz. if you do not intend to add dairy.
- Step Two: Steep – Place the tea in a do-it-yourself paper tea filter or an infuser, and then place the paper filter or infuser in your heat-resistant glass or iced tea pitcher. Next, heat your water to boiling. Use fresh water whenever possible – water that has been sitting in your kettle overnight may impart a flat or stale taste to your tea. Be careful not to boil your water for too long. Over-boiled water can impart a flat, undesirable taste. Pour 1/2 cup of boiling water over the tea-filled paper filter or infuser. Be sure the tea is covered completely with water. Steep for 3-5 minutes, then remove the T-sac or infuser. For a stronger brew, don’t steep longer, just use more tea. It’s important to make the tea very strong since it is ultimately diluted with ice and dairy.
- Step Three: Sweeten – For traditional Thai Iced Tea, add sugar to the hot Thai Iced Tea and stir until dissolved. We recommend adding one 1 teaspoon of sugar per serving but feel free to adjust to your taste.
- Step Four: Chill – If you plan on drinking your Thai Iced Tea immediately, pour the infusion directly over an equal amount of ice. To drink later, allow the concentrate to cool gradually to room temperature, then place it in your refrigerator. Cooling the teas slowly helps avoid clouding caused by chilling tea too rapidly.
- Step Five: Add Dairy and/or Lime – To complete your Thai Iced Tea, add lime or dairy before serving. Restaurant-style Thai Iced Tea is traditionally served with dairy, but don’t underestimate the wonderful simplicity of serving this tea with lime alone. It’s delicious! Dairy, such as sweetened condensed milk, whole milk, or half and half, can be added directly to the cool tea and stirred. We recommend adding 2 tablespoons of your preferred dairy per serving, again adjusting to your personal taste. For those avoiding dairy, it’s just as delicious with various dairy-free milk – we recommend coconut milk. Thai Iced Tea can also be “topped” with dairy. To top your Thai Iced Tea with dairy, you must have ice cubes in the glass. Using a spoon, slowly pour your preferred dairy over the ice cubes. The ice cubes will hold the dairy at the top of the glass and create a gorgeous layered effect! Do not stir.
Making Your Thai Tea In Advance
You can make a large batch of the sweetened tea concentrate in advance and keep it in the refrigerator. Just stop at Step 3, above. When you’re ready, you can simply pour pour the concentrate over ice, add your dairy, and top with evaporated/whole/coconut milk to serve.
Looking for Our Original Thai Tea Recipe? Here It Is!
Ingredients:
- 3/4 C black tea leaves (approximately 3 oz.)
- star anise, ground tamarind, cardamom and/or other spices, to taste (optional)
- 6 C boiling water
- 1/2 C sugar
- 1/2 C sweetened condensed milk
- 1 C evaporated milk (most traditional), whole milk, half and half, or coconut milk
Directions
- Steep the tea leaves (and any optional spices) in the water for 5 minutes, then remove the tea leaves from the water (either by removing the infuser you’re using or by straining the water to remove the leaves if loose).
- While the tea is still hot, stir in sugar until dissolved, then stir in condensed milk.
- Allow the tea mixture to cool to room temperature or colder.
- Fill tall iced tea glasses with ice, and pour in tea mixture until glasses are roughly 3/4 full.
- Slowly top off glasses with evaporated milk, whole milk or coconut milk, but do not stir (final dairy should remain primarily as its own layer at the top of the glass).
Makes 6 glasses of Thai Tea.
Notes
You can skip adding ice if you wish to serve the tea hot.
If you’d like to maximize the concentration of tea, allow it to steep for about 2 hours.
Thai Tea Side Effects
Along with Thai tea benefits come Thai tea side effects. To begin with, Thai iced tea is high in sugar content. The Better Health Channel of the Victoria State Government, Australia, explains that sugar should be consumed in moderation. Eating too much sugar can lead to weight gain. Sugar is also closely linked to tooth decay. Sugars produce acid, which penetrates the enamel and eventually result in the breaking down of the tooth.
While condensed milk is beneficial for most, it can be highly aggravating for those with a milk allergy or lactose intolerance. Those individuals may experience symptoms, such as diarrhea, bloating, vomiting, stomach cramps and rashes. In some cases, says Nidirect, milk allergy cases can be severe and require immediate attention. If you’re lactose intolerant, you can substitute coconut milk for condensed milk.
The side effects of black tea are mainly due to its caffeine content. Too much caffeine can cause nervousness, headache, insomnia, diarrhea, vomiting, muscle tremors, and more. Moreover, those who regularly drink black tea can ultimately develop caffeine dependence, says the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Potential Risks of Drinking Thai Tea
There are several health benefits to enjoying Thai tea and no credible evidence is that drinking black tea can have adverse health risks. Thai tea contains caffeine, so anyone who avoids caffeinated beverages for heart issues or other reasons should avoid Thai tea.
From Where To Buy
- Relieves occasional constipation generally within 6-12 hours.*
- Non-GMO verified. All Ingredients Certified Organic. Kosher. Caffeine Free.
- Consistently high quality herbs from ethical trading partnerships.
- Taste: Fresh and earthy with notes of sweet peppermint.
- Case of two boxes, each box containing 16 sealed tea bags
References
