Iced milk tea is a way of serving tea that originated in Southeast Asia. Creamy and sweet, thick with condensed or evaporated milk and served in tall, frosty glasses with crushed ice, it's about as far from English tea as you can get. In the West, it's popular as the base for bubble tea, and Thai restaurants serve their own delectable version of the drink as Thai iced tea. This recipe tells you make iced milk tea with ingredients you can find in any Western grocery store. Add this to my Recipe Box.
Instructions
1. Boil the water and steep the tea for three to five minutes. Use as much tea as you would use for a whole cup of tea, even though you are using only half as much water. If you're not sure how strong to make the tea, err on the stronger side. The cream and sugar will overwhelm weak tea.
2. Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of ice. This will melt and bring the tea down to room temperature or colder.
3. Use condensed milk if you want a sweeter drink, and evaporated milk if you want a less sweet drink. Add the condensed or evaporated milk to taste. Traditionally, creamier is better--the milk in iced milk tea isn't a flavoring like it is in English tea, it's an essential ingredient.
4. Add as much crushed or regular ice as you like. Because ice waters down the flavor of milk tea, traditional milk tea is cooled in a refrigerator or served at room temperature, but if you want the chill of iced tea without waiting for your drink to cool, you'll need to add more ice and drink it rather quickly.
5. Adjust the sweetness with sugar or simple syrup to taste.
6. Serve immediately or chill in the refrigerator. Iced milk tea will keep for several days in the refrigerator.
7. Experiment. There's no one way to make iced milk tea, so play with the strength of the tea and the proportions of tea to milk and ice. Try using different types of tea, or add flavorings such as cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, rosewater, or hazelnut syrup.
Tags: evaporated milk, condensed evaporated, condensed evaporated milk, iced milk, make iced, make iced milk