Cha Yen: Thai Iced Tea for a Hot Madrid September
Cha yen, the creamy orange Thai iced tea, made at home with tea, condensed milk and lots of ice. My rooftop survival drink for September in Madrid.
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Vale, it’s the end of September and Madrid has decided it is still July. At four in the afternoon my little apartment is an oven, the shutters are half closed, and the only reasonable place to be is on the rooftop after the sun drops a bit, holding something very cold.
For me, that something is cha yen.
What cha yen actually is
Cha yen means “cold tea” in Thai, and it’s the orange one you see in street stalls all over Thailand, in a plastic cup with a lot of ice and a straw. It’s strong black tea, a little spiced, sweetened with condensed milk and finished with a splash of evaporated milk on top so it makes those slow creamy swirls. Sweet, strong, smooth. Mamá calls it dessert pretending to be a drink, and she is not wrong.
The famous orange colour comes from the Thai tea mix you can buy in Asian shops, which has colouring in it. If you can’t find it, I’ve added a version with normal black tea and a few spices. It comes out amber instead of orange, but it tastes wonderful and you probably have most of it in your cupboard already.
The two things that matter
First, make the tea stronger than feels right. It’s going to meet milk and a whole glass of ice, so if it tastes perfect when it’s hot, it will taste weak when it’s cold.
Second, chill it before it touches the ice. I learned this the impatient way. Hot tea over ice just melts everything and you end up with a pale, watery thing that makes you a bit sad. Make it in the morning, put it in the fridge, and it’s waiting for you when the heat hits.
Papá’s objection
Every time I post cha yen, papá sends me a message about papelón con limón. It’s the Venezuelan answer to a hot afternoon: raw cane sugar dissolved in water with a lot of lime and ice. He says it is more refreshing, less sweet and “more serious”. I say it’s a different mood. Cha yen is for sitting still. Papelón is for after you’ve been running around. We have agreed to disagree, which in my family means we’ll have the same conversation again next summer.
Rooftop rules
Tall glass. Ice all the way to the top. Tea to three-quarters. Evaporated milk poured slowly over the back of a spoon if you want to be fancy, straight from the tin if you don’t. Then you wait five seconds to watch it swirl, because that’s half the fun, and you stir.
Recipe below. Make a jug, keep it in the fridge, and tell me what your hot-afternoon drink is. Mai pen rai if it’s just water with ice. Honestly, same.
Recipe · Thai
Cha Yen: Thai Iced Tea for a Hot Madrid September
- Serves
- 4 glasses
- Prep
- 5 min
- Cook
- 10 min
- Total
- 15 min
Ingredients
Classic version (with Thai tea mix)
No Thai tea mix? Use this instead of the mix
Method
- Bring the water to a boil in a pot, then turn off the heat.
- Add the Thai tea mix (or the black tea and spices). Stir and leave to steep for 5 minutes. You want it much stronger than normal tea, because the milk and ice will soften it.
- Strain through a fine sieve lined with a coffee filter or clean cloth (or a tea sock) into a jug. Don't squeeze the leaves too hard or it turns bitter. If you used the black-tea version, stir in the vanilla now.
- While the tea is hot, stir in the sugar and the condensed milk until completely dissolved. Taste: it should be sweeter than you think, because the ice will dilute it.
- Let it cool, then chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour. It keeps for up to 3 days.
- To serve, fill tall glasses to the top with ice, pour in the tea until about three-quarters full, then slowly pour 2 tbsp evaporated milk over the top of each glass so it swirls down. Stir with the straw just before drinking.
Notes
- The bright orange colour of classic cha yen comes from the commercial Thai tea mix, which usually contains food colouring. The homemade black-tea version is a warm amber-brown instead and tastes just as good.
- You can swap the evaporated milk for whole milk or a little single cream. For a dairy-free version, use a coconut or oat condensed milk and oat or coconut milk to top.
- Pouring hot tea straight over ice waters it down. Chilling it first is the difference between creamy and sad.
