Thai Iced Tea (Cha Yen)
Cha yen is the Thai street tea built on condensed milk. Strong tea is sweetened while hot, chilled, poured over a glass packed with ice and finished with a float of evaporated milk. Sweet, strong and layered: orange below, cream on top.
Ingredients
- 45 gThai tea mix
- 1000 mlwater
- 4 tbspsugar
- 8 tbspsweetened condensed milk
- 120 mlevaporated milk
- 1 pinchsalt
- 800 gice cubes
Method
- Bring the water to a boil, take the pot off the heat, then stir in the tea mix. Steep for 8 minutes and no longer, or the tannins turn the brew bitter.
- Strain the tea through a cloth tea sock or a fine sieve into a heatproof jug. Press the leaves lightly and discard them.
- While the tea is still hot, stir in the sugar, the condensed milk and the pinch of salt until nothing is left undissolved. Sweeteners only dissolve evenly in hot tea.
- Taste the concentrate. It should read too strong and too sweet on its own, because the ice will dilute it by roughly a third.
- Cool the concentrate to room temperature, then chill it in the fridge for at least 2 hours or in an ice bath for 15 minutes. Hot tea poured over ice melts it instantly and waters the drink down.
- Fill tall glasses to the brim with ice and pour the cold tea in to about three quarters.
- Pour the evaporated milk over the back of a spoon so it settles on top in a pale layer. Serve with a straw and stir before drinking.
FAQ
It is strong black tea, usually Assam or Ceylon, blended with spices and food colouring. Cha Tra Mue, Pantai and Number One are the common brands in Asian shops. Any strong black tea brewed double strength works, but the drink comes out brown rather than orange.
The colour comes from food colouring in the commercial mix, not from the tea or the spices. Mixes without colouring are sold too, and they make the same drink in a plain amber shade.
Swap the condensed milk for coconut milk plus palm or cane sugar syrup, and top with more coconut milk instead of evaporated. Oat milk works as well and stays creamy over ice. Sweeten the hot tea first, then taste before chilling.
Watery usually means hot tea went straight onto ice. Chill the concentrate first, then pour it over a full glass of ice. Bitter means the tea steeped too long — 8 minutes is the ceiling.
Yes, and it is the better way to do it. Brew and sweeten the concentrate, cool it, and keep it in a sealed bottle in the fridge for up to four days. Pour over ice and top with evaporated milk when you serve.
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