Iced tea is not a luxury drink and doesn’t have a rich history in Vietnam. However, it has gradually become a familiar drink for Vietnamese people, especially in big cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, etc. Hanging out with friends in a small tea shop at a roadside corner is an interesting activity. In this article, FGC will introduce you with Vietnamese iced tea culture and the best recipe to make a cup of iced tea in Vietnamese style.
Contents
1. What is Vietnamese Iced tea?
Iced tea is a beverage made from cold tea with crushed ice. The type of tea has been popular in Vietnam in recent years. Hundreds of small tea shops sell iced tea in Vietnam, and its cost is very cheap (approximately 20 cents per cup). Iced tea is popular because of its affordable price, convenience, and refreshing taste.
Besides green tea iced tea, there are other two types of leaves also very popular in Vietnam to make iced tea. They are Voi leaves tea (English name Cleistocalyx operculatus) and Nhan Tran leaves (English name adenosma caeruleum).
Voi leaves are a familiar tea tree type in the life of Vietnamese people. The leaves and buds can create a beverage having a delicious taste, freshness, and many health benefits. Nhan Tran leave has a slightly spicy, bitter taste and is good for refreshment and popular for many benefits of preventing leprosy and anti-inflammatory.
In daily life, iced tea is considered a daily refreshment drink for Vietnamese people. Sidewalk shops are popular gathering places where people hang out and chat, sharing about their daily life activities. Iced tea has been becoming morw famous than any soft drink in Vietnam.
Vietnamese iced tea is not only a refreshing drink, but it also has many health benefits. Some studies have shown that iced tea has the following benefits:
- Drinking unsweetened iced tea is better than drinking soft drinks. If you are addicted to sweet drinks, you can drink a cup of iced tea to control your sweet cravings.
- Drinking iced tea helps to fresh your mind, especially good for those who do mental work or manual labor work. Drinking iced tea helps to quench thirst and make you more awake.
- It is also good for people with high blood pressure to drink iced tea because it acts as an antibiotic.
However, when drinking iced tea or tea in general, you should not drink it with an empty stomach. People with stomach diseases should limit drinking green tea because of the caffeine in the tea.
Nowadays, iced tea appears in many restaurants, hotels, and homestays as a complimentary drink.
Besides traditional iced tea made from green tea, Vietnamese people also like to drink tea from instant tea bags, instant powder tea, and RTD bottle tea mixed with fruity flavors. Coming up with this new trend, the FGC R&D center researched and developed many instant tea types, serving various demands of consumers.
2. How to make original Vietnamese Iced tea (Trà Đá)
Making a cup of iced tea is quite simple. In this part we will find out how to make a delicious cup of iced tea. Most iced tea shops often use green tea to make traditional iced tea, so let’s take an example of how to make iced tea with green tea in Vietnamese style.
Ingredients:
- Ingredient selection: Good quality Vietnamese green tea
- Quantity: Depending on people’s interest, it should be 6 – 7gram green tea for a standard iced tea cup
Directions:
- Put green tea in a teapot, pour hot water and wait 3 – 4 minutes.
- After 3 – 4 minutes, drain all hot tea liquor in another kettle, drop 2-3 small ice cubes into the tea liquor to slow down the reaction of the tea with outside air. We can make it for the 2nd time with the same procedure before leaving the tea.
- If the tea liquor is too strong, we can add some boiling water to the tea. It will help to dilute the tea and keep the green color longer.
- Keep the tea in a hot pot. Once you want to drink, just pour it out into a cup and add ice and enjoy.
- You can add some lemon, sugar, or some piece of fruit to make the cup tastier.
Remember:
- Just using boiling water from 85-90 degrees Celsius is suitable for any type of green tea, especially making iced tea from green tea.
- Do not use boiling water right from the stove as the tea will become hot and stale quickly and lose the green color liquor.
- In addition, making tea with boiling water is easy to lose good substances in the tea and reduce tea quality.
Please see below video how to make a delicious cup of kumquat ice tea from Cozy:
For more Vietnamese iced tea recipes, click here!
3. Vietnamese famous iced tea products
Recently young people also like to drink some new types of iced teas. They are iced teas made from black tea or green tea in filter tea bag types with fruity flavors or made from instant powder tea.
Instead of green tea in loose type, people can make a cup of iced tea from a filter tea bag with the same procedure but much more convenient, and these filter tea bags are often mixed with fruity flavor, making the cup tastier.
Instant powder tea is tea extract mixed with sugar and fruity flavor. On summer days, the type of iced tea becomes a beloved beverage. People also can add some pieces of fruit to this cup.
Below are some recommended fruity instant teas good for iced tea cups from FGC. For more options, please contact us at info@vietnam-tea.com. Here are some our products you can choose from.
Product name | Description |
Strawberry black tea | Black tea with strawberry flavor in filter tea bag type 2 gram. Each filter tea bag in a heat seal bag, 20 bags in a box. |
Peach black tea | Black tea with Peach flavor in filter tea bag type 2 gram. Each filter tea bag in a heat seal bag, 20 bags in a box. |
Mint black tea | Black tea with Mint flavor in filter tea bag type 2 gram. Each filter tea bag in a heat seal bag, 20 bags in a box. |
Jasmine green tea | Green tea with Jasmine flavor in filter tea bag type 2 gram. Each filter tea bag in a heat seal bag, 20 bags in a box. |
Pure Green tea in filter tea bag type 2 gram. Each filter tea bag in a heat seal bag, 20 bags in a box | |
Winter melon instant tea | Black tea extract with winter melon flavor and sugar
17gram in a stick, 20 sticks in a box |
Lemon instant tea | Black tea extract with lemon flavor and sugar
17gram in a tick, 20 sticks in a box |
Peach instant tea | Black tea extract with Peach flavor and sugar
17gram in a tick, 20 sticks in a box |
4. Things should be known when drinking Vietnamese Iced tea
Vietnamese iced tea is a delicious beverage and considered a healthy drink. However, there are still some things you should know when choosing the drink.
- Green tea contains quite a high amount of caffeine, and the recommended caffeine intake daily is up to 400 milligrams for healthy adults. Therefore people should not drink too many iced tea cups in a day.
- 3 – 4 cups per day are enough.
- Teenagers should limit themselves to no more than 100mg of caffeine per day. Therefore do not drink too strong an iced tea and do not drink in the evening.
Moreover, selecting good quality green tea will help to increase the taste of iced tea cups and be good for health.
People also can choose instant powder tea or filter tea bags from FGC for more convenience during their busy working days. Please refer to the previous parts of this article for more information about our products.
So, how can you purchase our Vietnamese iced tea products? Feel free to email us at info@vietnam-tea.com or directly email to huongmaifgc@vietnam-tea.com. We will revert to you within hours.
Here is an infographic to help you understand our process to contact and cooperate with our customers.
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