Thai Iced Coffee! Gafe Yen! (Thai food)
Thai Iced Coffee! Gafe Yen! (a Thai food favorite…)
Gafe Yen means “Coffee – Cold” but we call it “Thai Iced Coffee”.
When I first got to Thailand I drank the coffee from the shops. I avoided Thai Coffee since I hadn’t tried coffee from a different country that I ever liked except Canada… which is same as USA coffee. I had tried Korean and Cuban coffee before and they aren’t that great.
When I went to Laos I tried their coffee which was EXCELLENT! They have lattes and others that were really nice.
Thai coffee – iced Thai coffee is a real favorite of the Thais. There are special stores that make it and usually there is only one or 2 favorite places among the people of the whole town so they sell a LOT of Thai Iced Coffee. In Thailand they sell it in a baggie. A clear plastic baggie and they give you a straw that you can use. There are handles on the baggie. The coffee is STRONG and SWEET. It also has a lot of ice so it’s very cold. I enjoy it – but if I had a chance I’d be drinking Starbucks or something similar! I’m American and I’ve never lost the craving…
Gather:
1/2 cup of dried roasted ground Thai coffee
5 cups of boiling water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Half & Half cream or 1 cup Evaporated Milk (Thais use this)
small ice cubes (preferred)
Instructions:
Add boiling water to coffee grounds.
Add sugar and drain coffee through a screen or strainer.
Add the cream / milk and leave to cool.
Pour over ice cubes and top with more half and half.
Put it into a plastic bag for the more authentic experience!
Enjoy!
Category: thai refreshments
Peanutbrittle Diaries said…
question, how do you make your thai iced tea? what tea do you usually use?
July 18, 2007 10:54 AM
Good question… usually we don’t! Just joking, but we usually buy it from a vendor that comes around on a motorbike through all the housing areas. On the bike is an attached section with another wheel. It’s like a tea bar. They have 10-15 kinds of flavored drinks. One of them always being, Chai yen or Chai Yen, Thai iced tea. We may do a blog post here about Cha Yen in the future, we need to learn how to make it first!