Thai Iced Tea and Hong Kong Milk Tea: Recipes, Ratios and Sugar

Thai iced tea (cha yen) and Hong Kong milk tea are both strong black tea plus canned milk. They differ in three places: the tea, the dairy and the sweetener. This page lists what is actually in the packets, compares seven published versions from five recipe pages, and gives a 4-serving batch for each drink with the sugar counted in grams.

What makes Thai tea orange

Food coloring. The orange is not from the leaf. Pailin Chongchitnant of Hot Thai Kitchen puts it plainly: Thai tea leaves are black tea, commonly Assam, with artificial flavor (usually vanilla) added, and "the iconic orange colour is nothing but orange food colouring."

The labels agree. We checked ingredient lists recorded on Open Food Facts:

Sources: product pages linked in each row, checked October 1, 2026.

• Yellow 6 is a certified color. FDA permits it in food at good-manufacturing-practice levels, and every batch must be certified (21 CFR 74.706).
• It must be named on the label. Certified colors are declared by name, such as "Yellow 6" (21 CFR 101.22(k)). If a mix lists only "color added," it is using an exempt color such as annatto.
• It is on FDA's phase-out list. On April 22, 2025, HHS and FDA said they would work with industry to remove Yellow 6 and five other synthetic dyes from the food supply "by the end of next year" (FDA). The release describes working with industry, not a ban.

Spices are optional. None of the dyed mixes above lists a spice: Wangderm lists vanilla and ChaTraMue lists artificial flavor. The annatto-colored Republic of Tea mix adds star anise. The Woks of Life builds a dye-free version from black tea bags with star anise, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, vanilla and optional turmeric for color.

Four Thai iced tea recipes compared

The recipes agree on strong tea and canned milk. They disagree on how much sugar goes in.

Sugar math: sweetened condensed milk carries 22 g sugar per 2 tbsp (Eagle Brand label); evaporated milk 3 g per 30 ml (Carnation label); one spoonful of sugar weighs 4.2 g (Keenan et al.).

BBC's version is the sweetest per glass because the whole 397 g can goes into 6 servings. Pailin's is the most adjustable because the sugar sits in the base and the condensed milk is added per glass.

Thai iced tea for 4: the worked batch

This batch uses BBC's leaf-to-water ratio (6 g per 100 ml) and Pailin's sweetening method.

1. Pour 1,000 ml of water just off the boil over 60 g of Thai tea mix.
2. Steep 5 minutes (Pailin); BBC goes to 8.
3. Strain through a fine cloth or a French press. Expect about 760 ml back, because tea leaves hold about 4 times their weight in water (MAFF).
4. Stir in 1/4 cup sugar (50 g) and a pinch of salt. Cool to room temperature.
5. Per glass: stir 1.5 tbsp sweetened condensed milk into about 190 ml of base, pour over a pint glass of ice, then float 2–3 tbsp evaporated milk on top.

To cut sugar, drop the base sugar first. That removes 12.6 g per glass and keeps the condensed-milk texture.

No Thai mix on hand: Pailin steeps 3 orange pekoe bags in 1 cup (240 ml) of water for 5 minutes, then adds 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and, optionally, a few drops of orange food coloring.

Hong Kong milk tea: blend, cloth and pulling

Hong Kong milk tea is a blend, not one tea. The Woks of Life calls Ceylon "the undisputed common thread across Hong Kong Milk Tea recipes" and rounds out its own blend with Lipton and Earl Grey.

• The cloth bag. Hong Kong's first intangible cultural heritage inventory, issued in June 2014, lists item 5.36: tea "made by repeatedly pouring water into the cloth colander which contains tea leaves, and then pouring the hot tea into a cup of evaporated milk" (LCSD inventory, inventory page). The bag's brown stain gives the drink its nickname, silk stocking milk tea.
• Representative List. On August 14, 2017 the Leisure and Cultural Services Department named its first Representative List of 20 items, and "Hong Kong-style Milk Tea Making Technique" is one of them (LCSD, item page). The listed steps: blending, boiling and infusing, force-pouring the tea, brewing, and force-pouring the milk.
• Pulling. The tea is drawn through the stocking 4 times (SCMP, 2017). China Sichuan Food gives the same count for its traditional method.
• Evaporated milk. It adds creaminess without much water, so it does not thin the strong tea (SCMP, 2015). Many tea makers name Black & White as the smoothest brand (SCMP, 2017).
• Scale. Industry estimates put Hong Kong at 2.5 million cups a day, at roughly HK$20 (US$2.66) a cup (SCMP, 2024).

Yuenyeung is item 5.37 on the same inventory: tea, coffee and evaporated milk mixed in one cup (LCSD).

Hong Kong milk tea for 4: the worked batch

Our batch takes the traditional 2 g per 100 ml ratio and The Woks of Life's volume.

1. Bring 28 g of a Ceylon-led black blend and 1,400 ml of water to a boil. Simmer 10–15 minutes. The Woks of Life reports 6 cups going in and about 4 1/2 cups of tea coming out.
2. Pour the tea through a cotton tea sock or a cheesecloth-lined strainer into a second pot. Repeat for 4 pours.
3. Per mug: about 250 ml tea, 1/3 cup (79 ml) evaporated milk, 1 tsp sweetened condensed milk.

Evaporated milk has no added sweetener (China Sichuan Food), so its sugar is the milk's own lactose. For an unsweetened mug, skip the condensed milk and you are at 7.8 g.

What the leaf costs per drink

We priced the tea for both batches from our tea catalog as of October 1, 2026 (Tea Explorer catalog, 7,306 teas from 40 vendors, fetched 2026-10-01). Thai tea mix is not in the catalog, so the Thai row prices plain Assam at the same weight.

Median Assam is $17.54 per 100 g across 9 vendors; median Ceylon is $30.17 per 100 g across 4 vendors. For milk tea, the recipes above reach for broken grades: The Woks of Life uses "tea leaves or fannings" and China Sichuan Food uses bagged tea. That points to the cheap end of the Assam list rather than whole-leaf tippy grades. See Assam vs Ceylon vs Kenyan black tea for how the three origins differ, and the tea cost calculator to run your own price.

Related: masala chai from scratch uses the same Assam at a much lower dose, and cold brew tea ratios covers iced tea without sugar or milk.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Thai iced tea orange?

The mix is dyed. ChaTraMue, Pantai and Wangderm all list FD&C Yellow No. 6 on their labels. Mixes that skip synthetic dye, such as The Republic of Tea's, use annatto or nothing, and the drink comes out tan.

How much sugar is in a Thai iced tea?

About 32.1–33.6 g per glass in our 4-glass batch: 12.6 g from sugar in the base, 16.5 g from 1.5 tbsp condensed milk and 3–4.5 g from evaporated milk. BBC Good Food's version carries about 37.3 g per glass from condensed milk alone.

What tea do I need for Hong Kong milk tea?

A strong black blend with Ceylon in it. Broken grades and fannings work best because they extract fast in a 10–15 minute simmer. Use about 28 g for 1.4 L of water, which gives 4 mugs.

Is Hong Kong milk tea a cultural heritage item?

Yes. The technique was item 5.36 on Hong Kong's first intangible cultural heritage inventory in June 2014, and it joined the 20-item Representative List on August 14, 2017.

Can I make either drink with tea bags?

Yes. Pailin uses 3 orange pekoe bags per 240 ml for a single Thai iced tea. China Sichuan Food uses about 4 bags in 1.5 cups of water for one Hong Kong milk tea.