How to Make Thai Iced Coffee at Home (Kafae Yen and Oliang)

Thai iced coffee is strong, dark coffee poured over crushed ice and sweetened with condensed milk, often with a little evaporated milk floated on top. What makes it taste different from an ordinary iced latte is the coffee itself: in Thailand it is usually brewed from a blend of coffee and roasted grains and seeds, which gives it a deep, toasty, almost smoky flavor.

Here is how to make it at home, with or without the traditional coffee blend, plus the difference between the milky version and the black one Thais call oliang.

Thai Iced Coffee vs Oliang vs Vietnamese Iced Coffee

“Thai iced coffee” on an American menu almost always means the milky version, called kafae yen in Thailand. Oliang is the same coffee served black and sweet over ice. Its neighbor, Vietnamese iced coffee, looks similar but is made differently.

For the Vietnamese version, see our Vietnamese iced coffee recipe.

What Is in Thai Coffee?

Traditional Thai coffee powder, sold as oliang powder in Asian grocery stores and online, is not pure coffee. It is mostly dark-roasted Robusta mixed with roasted grains and seeds such as corn, soybeans, rice and sesame, and sometimes cardamom. The blend began as a way to stretch expensive coffee, and it stuck because people liked the flavor: rounder and more cereal-like, with less bitterness than straight dark-roast coffee. Because part of the powder is grain, a cup has a little less caffeine than the same amount of pure coffee.

If you cannot find oliang powder, use a dark roast, ideally a blend with some Robusta, ground coarse for a French press, and brew it extra strong. It will taste more like a classic sweet iced coffee than true Thai coffee, but it is still very good. Our guide to Arabica vs Robusta explains why Robusta suits sweet milk drinks.

Ingredient	Amount for one 16 oz glass	Notes
Thai coffee powder or dark-roast coffee	3 tablespoons	Coarse grind if using regular coffee
Water, just off the boil	1 cup (240 ml)	Strong brew, because the ice will dilute it
Sweetened condensed milk	2 to 3 tablespoons	Start at 2 and adjust
Evaporated milk	1 to 2 tablespoons	Or half-and-half or whole milk
Crushed ice	To fill the glass	Crushed ice chills faster than cubes

How to Brew It

Thai street vendors brew in a tung tom, a cloth bag on a metal ring and handle. They put the coffee in the sock, pour boiling water through it, and often pour the coffee back through a second time for strength. A coffee sock costs a few dollars and works well at home. A French press is the easiest substitute: steep for 5 minutes and press slowly, since oliang powder is fine and can clog the mesh. A paper filter in a pour-over cone also works, but expect a slow drain with the fine powder.

Where Thai Iced Coffee Comes From

The word oliang comes from the Teochew Chinese dialect, spoken by many Chinese immigrants who settled in Thailand: o means black and liang means cold. Their coffee shops served strong, sweet coffee brewed in cloth bags, using grain-stretched blends that kept costs down. Condensed and evaporated milk became standard because they kept without refrigeration in a hot climate, long before fresh milk was easy to find. The same history explains the family resemblance to Malaysian and Singaporean kopi, which is also brewed in a cloth sock and sweetened with condensed milk.

Variations

• Oliang: skip the milk and sweeten with sugar or simple syrup.
• Dairy-free: use sweetened condensed coconut milk and top with a splash of coconut milk.
• Less sweet: cut the condensed milk to 1 tablespoon and top with more evaporated or whole milk.
• Spiced: some American Thai restaurants add a pinch of ground cardamom to the coffee before brewing.
• Cold brew version: use strong cold brew concentrate, and dissolve the condensed milk in a splash of hot water first.