What Is Boba Tea
It is possible to add boba to Thai iced tea to make a pearl milk tea or boba milk tea.
Boba tea is actually a Taiwanese tea-based drink that was invented in Taichung City, the third largest city in Taiwan, in the 1980s. Most sources attribute the origin of boba tea to Chun Shui Tang Teahouse in Taichung, which eventually launched multiple chains throughout the country. Boba teas can be fruit-flavored or mixed with milk.
Tapioca pearls can be purchased white or brown. When using the white pearls, you can add flavorings and colorings to make your own. Most traditionally, brown pearls are used to make boba tea. Those brown pearls are prepared with tapioca starch, sugar and caramel flavoring. They become black after cooking them.
It is easy and affordable to make boba tea at home. The only thing to consider is that you cannot keep the cooked boba too long as it loses its chewiness and turns solid after a few hours.
The word boba in Chinese is a combination of the word for bubble and the one for big, but when put together stands for big breasts in slang.
Thai Milk Tea Vs Milk Tea
Milk Tea is a term that describes all teas that contain milk. Thai Milk Tea is a type of Milk Tea just like Oolong Milk Tea, Hokkaido Milk Tea or Tiger Milk Tea.
Its probably important to note that not all Milk Teas are Bubble Teas. Bubble Teas also contain tapioca pearls, acting as the bubbles. This recipe for Thai Milk Tea is both a Milk Tea and a Bubble Tea.
How Many Calories Does Thai Iced Tea Have
Unfortunately, Thai iced tea contains more creamer and sugar than traditional boba flavors. This makes it generally less healthy than other drinks.
The exact calorie range of Thai iced tea can vary greatly depending on how much sugar and cream are used. To put it into perspective, usually, Thai iced tea will have more calories than a can of Coca Cola. The number of calories per serving can get even higher if youre drinking Thai iced tea with boba pearls.
So if youre thinking about achieving that summer body soon Thai iced tea might not be so friendly.
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Video: Authentic Thai Tea Recipe:
The creamy goodness in this drink comes from half and half. If you want, you can use other creamers such as coconut milk, whole milk or sweetened condensed milk. What ever you use, make sure to consider the sweetness of those creamers because theyll change the sugar level of the overall thai iced tea once added to the brewed tea mix.
What Are The Varieties Of Tea
There are three overarching varieties of tea: China, Assam and Indo-China, and then 3,000 hybrid varieties of tea, each of them coming with their own specific characteristics.
There are five types of Assam, the light-leaved, the dark-leaved, the Manipuri, the Burma and the Lushai. The Indo-China variety is sometimes referred to as the Cambodian or Southern form.
Tea is harvested and processed into any of the four types of tea, which are black, green, oolong, and white. Experienced pickers can harvest around 60 lb of tea by hand per day.
Black tea is withered, fully oxidized and dried. Black teas, including English Breakfast and Darjeeling, yield a hearty, amber-colored brew.
Green tea does not include any oxidizing step. It is simply withered, then dried. Its taste is more delicate and its color is pale green and golden.
Oolong tea, which is popular in China, is withered, partially oxidized, and then dried. Oolong sits between black and green tea in terms of color and taste.
White tea is the least processed. It is a rather rare tea, which mainly comes from China, as well as Sri Lanka. White tea is not oxidized, but simply withered and dried by steaming.
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How To Minimize Tea Dust
Thai tea is traditionally steeped using a tea sock. Use one if you have one or just use a fine mesh strainer. Either way, you will still end up with a little bit of tea dust in your drink.
Tea dust is like the coffee sediment from French pressed coffee. Some of the tea is so fine that it passes through the sieve.
To minimize this, I like pouring the tea into a tall pitcher or measuring cup while it’s cooling in the fridge. The dust will settle to the bottom and when you pour, you will have a perfect glass of sediment free iced tea.
What Is Thai Tea
Thai tea is a tea beverage that originated in Thailand and is now popular throughout the world. This tea is notoriously known because of its orange color. Theres a whole lot of feisty in a cup of this tea, making it intriguing, to say the least.
It is unknown who invented this tea or where it came from. Many speculate that the tea culture of the Chinese came to Thailand back in the 1940s. It was around that time that the communist party took over the country leading to many Chinese fleeing the country, some of which ended up in Thailand. Since then, the tea culture of the Chinese has greatly influenced Thailands gastronomy.
Thailand was not a traditional tea nation, nor did they cultivate tea as China does. It wasnt until the 1980s that Thailands first tea crop was established in Chiang Mai Province. Various Chinese traditions of brewing tea caught on in Thailand, with street vendors serving up creative drinks with tea in them. One of which is Thai Tea.
The mysterious background of this drink fails to answer many questions people have about Thai Tea. So, why is it called Thai Tea? No one knows. Perhaps its because it is one of Thailands most popular drinks.
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How To Get The Perfect Orange Thai Iced Tea Coloring Without Food Dye
Turmeric! Believe it or not, this spice commonly used in Southeast Asian cuisines such a curry works equally well in Thai tea. Sprinkling the potent powder into your recipe will naturally dye the tea the delicious beautiful burnt orange color without the potential health consequences.
While turmeric does have a strong flavor it doesnt overpower this Thai tea mixture. It blends perfectly with the other flavorings.
Black Tea And Milk: Why You Need To Be Drinking Thai Tea
Thai tea is a vibrate, delicious beverage that originates from Thailand. Traditionally served over ice, Thai tea is made using black tea and milk. However, youre getting so much more than that with every sip.
About 84% of all tea consumed is black tea. Wondering why?
Why should you start drinking this vibrant Thai beverage? Keep reading to discover why we think drinking Thai tea is the best!
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Why Is Thai Iced Tea Orange: Thailand Vs Western Cultures
The Traditional Thai tea contains black tea, crushed ice, and condensed milk. If so, then why is the drink orange? And what’s up with all those spices?
The short answer is food coloring and marketing. The orange color and spices were added when Thai tea became prevalent in Westernized cultures. The intention was to differentiate it from other regular, plain black tea, hence marketing.
In the early years, chefs added orange food coloring to give the westernized iced Thai tea a bright orange color. Nowadays, you’ll find both the westernized and traditional versions in Thailand.
Keep in mind that when you brew the Thai tea mix, it becomes dark red. However, you get the signature bright orange color when you add milk. It turns orange because there’s food coloring in the Thai tea mix.
Thai Iced Tea In Thailand Vs Western Cultures
If traditional Thai tea consists of black tea, condensed milk, and crushed ice, then why is it orange? And what about all those spices?
The orange color and spices were added when Thai tea became more and more popular in Westernized cultures in order to set it apart from regular, plain black tea In fact, in the early years of westernized Thai iced tea, chefs would add orange food coloring to really give it a bright orange hue.
Nowadays, youll find both versions of Thai iced tea in Thailand- the traditional and the westernized version.
The following recipe is a less traditional version of the original Thai tea recipe.
- The ice isnt crushed.
- I used a tea mix rather than black tea with optional spices.
- I made it at home rather than buy it off the street.
- Rather than serving it in a plastic bag with a straw poking out, Im drinking it out of a shiny clean glass.
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Why Is It Orange
You can quickly identify Thai tea by its bright orange colour. However, black tea isn’t orange. So what gives it this distinctive hue? As it turns out, this may have something to do with its history as well.
The palace chefs used to brew the tea leaves for the king. After that, they used the same leaves again so that the domestic staff could have their fill. Since reused leaves lack aroma and flavour, they added spices to the drink. These include herbs such as turmeric and tamarind. These spices naturally tend to turn drinks orange.
Another reason could be that restaurant chefs in Thailand added orange colouring to differentiate Thai tea from Thai iced coffee, which has a similar appearance.
And finally, some sources state that when cooks adapted the drink to fit Western palates, chefs added the bright orange colour. The added colouring was mainly to attract people’s attention. However, they also loaded it with spices and flavourings to make it more exciting.
Regardless of the real reason, the orange colour is not necessary to enjoy the bold flavour of Thai tea. However, if the orange hue is essential to you, it is easy to achieve the colour without using food colouring. You can thank one unique spice: turmeric. Our recipe has a note on how much to add.
However, feel free to omit it if you’re only concerned with the tea flavour. If you don’t want to use natural colouring, we have listed the correct amount of food colouring in our recipe below.
The Best Thai Tea Brands
After consulting with some of my friends, I found a few types of Thai tea mixed packages online. I tried three popular Thai tea mixes for this recipe:
- Pantai Thai Tea Mix: Strong flavor without being too bitter. This mix is described as authentic restaurant style Thai tea, and I believe it!
- Thai Tea Cha Thai: Good flavor, but not as bold as the Pantai Thai Tea Mix.
- Cha Tra Mae brand Thai Tea Mix: Bitter and acidic notes. This tea was my least favorite.
Pantai Thai Tea Mix was hands down my favorite among the three because of its bold flavor. Since you will be adding ice to this Thai milk tea, you want to make sure your tea is strong enough that it wont be diluted by the crushed ice.
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A Thai Tea Recipe From Scratch Without The Unhealthy Ingredients
Published: by Aimee Mars · This post may contain affiliate links.
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This sweet and creamy Thai Tea Recipe from Scratch is a decadent chilly caffeinated drink recipe without the harmful dyes. Sip this beautiful beverage with a bold ombre orange color to cool off or cool down when eating spicy Thai foods.
What Is Bubble Tea
Bubble tea is an iced milk tea with tapioca balls created in Taiwan in the 1980s. Bubble tea is also called milk tea, boba tea, or just simply boba.
Its usually made with tea, milk, sugar, and tapioca balls. While any kind of tea can be used to make bubble tea, black tea is the most popular.
The drink is served with a wide straw thats big enough for the tapioca balls to fit through. The tapioca balls are meant to be chewed, not swallowed whole.
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Watch The Video For Making Thai Iced Tea:
Fast forward about 7 years later as Im sitting in Chicago eating Thai food and sipping my Thai iced tea. My brain light bulb pops on: We need to make Thai tea! Auntie told me how easy it was to make and why havent we made it before? Here you have it. All I can say is that if youre a fan of Thai iced tea at $3.25 a pop, then you must make this now.
Not only will you be saving a big wad of cash on a yearly basis, but youll also have a bottomless pitcher of Thai tea. This huge party pitcher will allow you to savor, sip and share with friends. This Thai iced tea recipe is so easy. Pretty much every YouTube video you see uses the same brand and shows the same steps. As far as the creamy layer goes, many people use different ingredients such as half and half or whole milk. Other options include coconut milk, sweetened condensed milk and even low-fat milk. Choose your creamy poison.
How to Make Easy Thai Iced Tea. More Photos in Recipe Box Below:
What Does Thai Tea Taste Like
Thai tea is sweeter than regular tea due to sugar and condensed milk. And the milk makes it creamier and thicker. So the mouthfeel is cool and refreshing, but the spices make it warm simultaneously.
The dominant flavour is from the variety of black tea used in its preparation. However, we can also find several other flavours present.
Overall, this drink is great if you like tea, boba milk tea, or milkshakes. Also, since many serve the beverage over ice, it’s an ideal beverage for the summer.
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Tea And Infusions: White Tea
This is called the elixir of youth because of its wonderful properties. Its the most refined and exquisite of teas. Instead of the leaves, the smallest and most tender buds are harvested to make this tea. Thats why its been said that the person who consumes it is actually drinking the youth of the plant, or its vital energy.
The light color is due to a white hair that covers the leaves when they first emerge and is harvested by hand during a few days in the spring. Its produced in the high mountains of Fujian, China.
It has a delicious flavor and delicate aroma, provides vitamins C and E, and is also an antioxidant and diuretic. It should be drunk at a temperature of 75°C.
Whats In Thai Iced Tea
In general, Thai iced tea is made up of a tea mix thats steeped in hot water, then mixed traditionally with sweetened condensed milk and topped with crushed ice. However, you can also use regular white sugar or make your own simple syrup and add a milk of your choosing.
The Thai iced tea mix packets themselves have very limited labels from my experience. All of my test packets list some sort of tea , maybe sugar, and always some sort of food coloring.
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What’s The Best Way To Make Thai Tea
Cha yen, as it’s known in Thai, is famous at Thai restaurants around the world, it makes for a wonderful refreshing beverage. Watch the video recipe here. Take your tea sock and add about 1 tablespoon of black Thai tea. Its then easiest to put your tea sock into a bowl or big cup in order to steep the tea.
Authentic Thai Tea Recipe
Years ago, my Auntie Chung was telling me how easy it was to make Thai iced tea. She had worked in an Asian restaurant and one of the most popular items on the entire menu was Thai iced tea. She proceeded to tell me exactly how to make it and how profitable it was for restaurants to make. I didnt care too much about the profitability of Thai iced tea. But rather, Im more interested on how easily it was made and why we didnt make it more often. The version we have is as authentic as what most Thai restaurants in America are making. Our version really does taste like what we have ordered at most Thai restaurants.
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Thai Iced Tea In Culture
No matter how simplistic or fancy the spot, Thai iced tea is a ubiquitous menu offering at most Thai restaurants in the U.S.like pad Thai or green curry, it’s seen as an iconic part of the cuisine to Americans. That’s not the case in Thailand, according to Techamuanvivit. “There, it’s just another beverage,” she says. “It’s not this essential element of the culture, it’s not something you even necessarily drink every day. But somehow it managed to catch the imagination of Americans, so it seems more important to them.” Her theory as to its popularity here is that it’s the perfect counterbalance for those who aren’t used to all the heavy spices in Thai food. “It’s just not something you would say, proudly, that you love in Thailand,” she says. “Like in America, if you like Cheetos. That’s not something you say out loud.”
Still, Thai iced tea remains an incredibly beloved standalone flavor across North America, inspiring many a variety of dessert. In New York alone, you’ll find everything from Thai Iced Tea Ice Cream at OddFellows Ice Cream Co. to Thai Iced Tea Crème Brulée at Spot Dessert Bar. At Kin Khao, Techamuanvivit is experimenting with a Thai Iced Tea soft serve with caramelized condensed milk and puffed brown rice”It’s cheeky, but yummy,” she says.