recipe request: Thai tea

[JJG]

I absolutely love this stuff and I was hoping to try and make it at home.

What I'm looking to make is the sort of rust-orange colored tea you get at restaurants that has what I think to be sweetened condensed milk in it. It's more like iced coffee.

anyhow, I've searched google but all the recipes seem to involve lots of work. steeping anise, tea leaves, spices in a muslin bag, etc..

I'm hoping to find something easy like, pre-made teabags I can just throw in the coffee maker and add the condensed milk to.

Does such a thing exist? I'm not really interested in putting much effort into this because frankly it would be easier to just continue calling it in to-go at the neighborhood Thai restaurant.

thanks guys!

[Smoke Naked]

I love this stuff as well, a couple of years ago I tried to duplicate it at home and it never was "right", decided to just accept that is is better to be enjoyed every so often from my favorite Thai restaurant.

[mastershogun]

love the stuff as well but have no luck actually making it.
I just cheat now and use the powder... still pretty good

[Mugen910]

Buy the actual Thai Tea leaves...strain it through a cheese cloth (wear gloves unless you want your hands to look like oompa loompa hands) , let it cool, and just add a bit of half&half in your glass with ice

the best way is to steep the tea leaves 2 times the first is garbage it will be strong but the second will be what you want and if you warm the condensed milk not to hot just warm i think the best method is in a bowl over water in a pot but just get it hot enough so it wont change the temp in the tea i like to add a little fresh mint and fresh ground pepper in after you add the milk and beleve me its good

I know most restaurants and coffee shops use a chai tea concetrate then just add milk. The best chai tea I ever had comes from a chai tea concetrate at a local coffee shop here in charleston. And the concetrate is made locally. I want to try the traditional way of doing it though.

[Snake Hips]

Originally Posted by Steelergar

I know most restaurants and coffee shops use a chai tea concetrate then just add milk. The best chai tea I ever had comes from a chai tea concetrate at a local coffee shop here in charleston. And the concetrate is made locally. I want to try the traditional way of doing it though.

Thai tea, not chai tea. Very different things. I love them both equally.

[mastershogun]

Originally Posted by Snake Hips

Thai tea, not chai tea. Very different things. I love them both equally.

Both are great but the orange stuff is awesome on a hot day

Here is a recipe in one of my cookbooks.
1 black tea bag
1 3inch piece of cinammon stick
2 cups of milk
2 tablespoons of raw sugar or honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon cardamon
combine tea cinammon and 1/2 cup of water in saucepan and bring to boiling. remove from heat, cover and let stand for 5 minutes. discard tea and cinammon, then add remaining ingredients and stir over medium heat(do not let it boil).
I know that I've seen recipes with nutmeg too.

[T.G]

I've found a number of the other recipes on this site to be quite good:

http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/recipes/thaitea.html

The author gives some specific brands and talks about how to make it with a coffee filter if you don't have the traditional tea steeper.

don't forget that you make a dirty chai too. I don't know what the official alcohol they use is though. maybee Jamison.

[TanithT]

The orange stuff you get at restaurants is the powder. I know, because I always ask if it can be made with Splenda and not sugar, and the answer is always that they use a pre-mixed powder. You can order it online.

To make it at home, I do an *extremely* strong infusion of any well spiced Thai style tea or Indian chai, and add half and half and Splenda to taste.

[kelmac07]

I love me a Tazo Chai latte...mmmmmmmmmmm!!!

Oh,I love it so much!