Thai Iced Tea

Happy Wednesday, you guys. Feel depressed it's hump day? Feel awkward about the term "hump day"? Yeah, me too. Lets move on.

Lets move right on to a delicious, sugary drink. First lets acknowledge, I love beverages. All beverages. Coffee? Yep. Tea? Definitely. Lemonade? Limeade? Yes and yes. Fizzy cocktail? For sure. And summer brings out all sorts of possibilities.

One of my often forgotten favorites is Thai Iced Tea. I generally forget about it until I go get Thai food and see it sitting there on the back page. I promptly order one and am super happy I spent the $3 for a sugary, caffeine hit while eating my pad thai.

However, I don't often get thai food and sometimes remember I like Thai iced tea. Now I can enjoy one at home! WIN!

You can too with a few basic black tea bags, spices and either cream or sweetened condensed milk. After steeping the tea and spices for awhile in boiling water (i.e. an hour until it cools), you just pour it over ice and add your creamy dilutent of choice. (Yeah, I just used a science word)

Side note: did you know that Trader Joes sells sweetened condensed milk in a squeeze bottle?? No more wasting one can for a glass of this stuff. 

Anyway, I realize this is not super authentic but it gets the job done and I hope you like it to. If you happen to have a more authentic recipe that doesn't involve me going to more than 2 grocery stores, give me a shout out. 

Thai Iced Tea 

(sort of based on this, this and this)

Ingredients

• 5 cups water
• 5 bags black tea
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3-4 whole cloves
• 2 star anise pods
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp cream or sweet condensed milk
• Ice

To Make

1) In medium saucepan, bring brown sugar, star anise, cloves and cinnamon to a boil.

2) Remove from heat and let tea bags steep until the whole mixture has cooled to room temperature. Once it's cooled, remove spices and tea bags. 

3) Pour tea over ice, then stir in cream or sweet condensed milk. Enjoy!