Thai Iced Coffee
กาแฟเย็นgah-fae YEN
Strong, dark, grain-scented Thai coffee sweetened with condensed milk, poured over crushed ice and finished with a pale float of evaporated milk. It is sweeter and creamier than Vietnamese iced coffee, with a toasty edge from the roasted grains in the blend.
At a glance
- Powder : water
- 1:8
- Active time
- 3 min
- Total time
- 13 min
- Makes
- 2 glasses
- Serve
- Over ice
- Kit
- Cloth sock + pan
Ingredients
Note: No oliang powder? Use 40 g of dark roast coffee with a teaspoon of ground cardamom. It will lack the toasted grain note but is a good drink.
Method
-
Brew in the sock
Put the powder in the cloth sock over a pot, pour the boiling water through, and let it steep for five minutes, dunking now and then. Pour it back through the sock once more.
Steep 5 minutes -
Sweeten while hot
Stir the condensed milk and sugar into the hot coffee until dissolved.
It will taste too sweet. Ice and cold will bring it down.
-
Pour over crushed ice
Fill two tall glasses with crushed ice and pour the sweet coffee over, leaving a little room at the top.
-
Float the evaporated milk
Pour the evaporated milk slowly over the top of each glass so it floats as a pale layer, then let it drift down. Stir before drinking, or not.
Why this works
Thai coffee is built on oliang powder, a blend of roasted coffee with roasted grains and seeds, usually corn, soybeans and sesame, sometimes rice. The grains began as a way to stretch expensive coffee and stayed for their flavour. Roasted, they add toasty, nutty, cereal notes and body from their starch without adding more bitterness. That is the taste that sets Thai iced coffee apart from the Vietnamese version, which is pure robusta.
The cloth sock, the tung tom, suits the blend. Its loose cotton weave lets through more oils and fine particles than paper, giving body, and it does not clog with starchy grain powder the way a paper filter would.
The two milks do different jobs. Condensed milk is the sweetener and the body. It dissolves fully in hot coffee and gives a thick, caramel richness. Evaporated milk is unsweetened and lighter, and it floats on top for a moment because the iced coffee below is dense with sugar. As it sinks it softens the drink without adding more sweetness. That layered pour is how the drink looks on every street cart.
Sweetening while hot is essential. Sugar and condensed milk dissolve quickly in hot coffee and barely at all in cold. Thai street coffee is very sweet because cold dulls sweetness, and a glass that tastes right hot would taste thin once iced. The black, sweetened version without milk is oliang.
Variations
- Oliang: the black version, sweetened but no milk. See oliang.
- With cardamom: a crushed pod in the sock, as some Thai blends include.
- Less sweet: half the condensed milk and no sugar.
- Thai iced tea style: the same build with Thai black tea, the famous orange cha yen.
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Questions
What is in Thai iced coffee?
Strong Thai coffee, often blended with roasted grains, sweetened with condensed milk and sugar, poured over ice and topped with evaporated milk.
What is the difference between Thai and Vietnamese iced coffee?
Vietnamese iced coffee uses pure robusta brewed in a phin with condensed milk. Thai iced coffee uses a coffee and grain blend brewed in a cloth sock, with both condensed and evaporated milk.
What is oliang powder?
A Thai coffee blend that includes roasted corn, soybeans, sesame and sometimes rice. It gives Thai coffee its toasty, nutty flavour.
Can I make Thai iced coffee without a coffee sock?
Yes. Steep the powder in boiling water for five minutes, then strain through a fine sieve lined with a paper towel or a clean cloth.