Raw/Vegan THai Ice Tea

[johnbarnesiii]

Hello,

I've always LOVED Thai Ice Tea, but I know its not the healthiest drink in the world (still beats Coke, though).

I had an idea to try making a healthy raw/vegan version of the classic Thai Ice Tea that tastes just as good as the original.

Any ideas? What type of tea do they use? As far as I know, its just some type of black tea, condensed milk, sweetner and crushed ice.

Any ideas to make this raw/vegan and taste very close to the original?

[Cinnamon Kitty]

I am not sure if there is a non-dairy condensed milk, but I know that Silk makes a soy half and half that may be a comparable substitute. If not that, then any of the nut-based non-dairy milks seem to be a little creamier than rice or soy milk. Sugar in the Raw or something similar to that may work for the sweetener. I am not sure how honey would change the flavor, but that or stevia or agave nectar could be other options. It all depends on the taste that you are looking for so it might be best to try a bunch of different non-dairy milks (soy, rice, almond, hazelnut, hemp, etc) in combination with any of the more natural sweeteners to see if any of them come close to what you are looking to create.

[Beidao]

What do you mean with RAW? Tea is seldom raw and unprocessed, especially not black tea.

[devites]

What do you mean with RAW? Tea is seldom raw and unprocessed, especially not black tea.

"Raw" food is food that has never been heated over 115ºF (46ºC). By not cooking the food, all of the nutrients remain intact.

I would suggest almond milk and agave nectar.

[Beidao]

Yes I know, that's why I wonder if the questioner really wanted to have the tea raw. I guess some white teas are raw in that sense (only sundried) but otherwise they all are heated up, aren't they? And making tea with 46ºC water would not taste very good, but of course one can always do ice-tea with cold water.

[shardy53]

I guess that you could call sun tea raw, and the creamer would have to be unpasturized.

[Herb_Master]

You could possibly use 'Horchata' instead of dairy products

I thought it might only be available from Valencia in Spain (where it is made from Chufas [Tiger Nuts])

But googling shows it can be made from rice (as in Mexico)
http://www.xmission.com/~dderhak/recipe/horchc.htm
and that

there's a mail-order company in California that sells it. The name of the store is La Española, Inc. Their number is (310) 539-0455.

for more info
http://spanishfood.about.com/od/spanish ... echufa.htm

For your purposes it would be better to obtain the nuts and process them yourself!

[silvermage2000]

Almond milk,stevia or splenda.

[GeoffK]

I'm vegan and so I get coconut milk in my thai iced teas, some places put 'coconut cream' in them. quite tasty.