A Must-Have Thai Tea Ice Cream Recipe to Make at Home

What is in Thai tea?

Tea is the second most widely consumed beverage across the globe, after water. It is engrained in Asian and African cultures in countries like India, China, Sri Lanka, Kenya, and Indonesia. Although Thailand is not often associated for having as large of a tea production as these other countries, the Thai do have their own native tea that has become popular in America.

Thai tea is a blend of black tea with added spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, and turmeric, mixed with sugar, condensed milk, and evaporated milk. It is often served iced and is a popular item at Thai restaurants in the US.

What does Thai tea taste like and are there differences between Thai tea and Chai tea?

Thai tea is extremely sweet. Like many of our favorite Thai food recipes, such as Pad Thai and Thai chili sauce, Thai tea is a refreshing mix of sweet and slightly spicy flavors with earthy and nutty undertones. Thai tea has a bit of a vanilla scent to it and is also known for its orangey color, which is added with food coloring.

While Thai tea is very different from Indian chai tea, there are similarities. Chai tea has become an essential part of Indian culture and its ingredients are mixed with different spices depending on personal preferences and which region you are in. The most popular spices used in its black tea are cardamom, cinnamon, and ginger. Chai is then blended with milk and sugar.

While there are similarities between both teas, there are also some major differences. For one, Thai tea uses condensed milk while chai calls for whole milk to bring out the richness of its blend. Thai tea is also known to be much sweeter. Indian chai tea is often made using loose leaf black tea that is often called CTC tea, named after the method used to “crush, tear, curl” black tea leaves, which makes stronger tea with a bold and bitter taste. Thai tea typically calls for loose leaf black tea that follows an Orthodox processing method that makes tea leaves look much smaller and tends to be lighter in taste and body.

Does Thai tea have caffeine and how much is in this recipe?

Thai tea uses black tea with an average caffeine content of 47 mg. If you plan to make our Thai tea twist for your blend needed to top the ice cream recipe below, 1 tea bag of our Cardamom Chai Tea will be needed. The amount of caffeine per tea bag of our Chai tea is 60 to 90 mg.

Try these Thai Tea Ingredients for your ice cream

Thai tea mix:

• 1 Cardamom Chai Tea tea bag
• hint of Cinnamon
• hint of turmeric
• 1 cup hot boiling water
• 2 teaspoon sweetened condensed milk
• 2 teaspoon evaporated milk
• 2 teaspoon sugar

Vanilla heavy cream mix

• 1 ½ cups of heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ½ cups of sweetened condensed milk
• ½ teaspoons salt

Equipment Needed:

• Hand mixture or stand mixer
• 2 Medium to large bowls
• Loaf pan
• Parchment paper

How to make Thai tea ice cream

1. Make cup of boiled water and steep tea bag.
2. Mix rest of ingredients in. Place in refrigerator for about an hour.
3. Once tea is cooled, pour heavy cream and vanilla extract into bowl. Whip until you see stiff peaks appear within a few minutes.
4. Add ½ cups of sweetened condensed milk and salt.
5. In a different bowl, pour the Thai iced tea mix and whip until you see stiff peaks form. May take about 5 minutes.
6. Pour the mixture of vanilla heavy cream into the bottom of a loaf pan lined with parchment paper.
7. Add the Thai tea mix on top of the loaf pan. Make a figure 8 pattern in the ice cream mixture.
8. Cover the loaf pan tightly and freeze overnight.

**Add chocolate chips or bright orange food coloring if you wish. Want to try to make a vegan version? Try using coconut milk instead.