Teh Tarik Recipe – Malaysian Pulled Tea

This Southeast Asian sweet drink, locally known as teh tarik or “pulled tea”, is a blast to make. Test your pouring skills to the max for the perfect froth on top of this amazing bitter sweet teh tarik recipe.

Why We Love This Recipe

Teh Tarik is pure bittersweet tea deliciousness whether you serve it hot or over ice. Hint hint: iced Teh Tarik in summer is the bessssst.

Either way, it’s the perfect sidekick to spicy Asian dishes like Nyonya chicken curry or Thai panang curry.

This morning we decided it was high time we recreated this recipe because:

• We love hot frothy teh tarik during our Southeast Asian adventures and we love the buzz
• Because we absolutely needed to have one again like right now.

What You’ll Need

Just three ingredients for this delectable drink – tea, condensed milk and water.

What is Teh Tarik?

Teh Tarik (aka “pulled tea” in Malay) is a strong, hot tea mixed with sweet and creamy condensed milk that’s repeatedly poured (‘pulled’) between two cups or mugs until it transforms into rich, frothy tea heaven.

This process of ‘pulling’ Malaysian tea between two containers is the key to creating that lusciously thick and silky smooth texture.

It’s similar in flavour to Malaysian 3 Layer Tea (Teh 3 Peng), except where Teh Tarik uses condensed milk, 3 Layer Tea is sweetened with gula melaka (palm sugar syrup).

How to Make Teh Tarik at Home

• Place teabags or loose tea in a strainer in a mug and pour over boiling water. Steep for a few minutes until tea is dark and intense, then allow to cool for a few more minutes. Strain through a cloth if necessary.
• Add 2 tbsp condensed milk and stir until spoon is clean.

To Pull the Tea:

(Caution: Please be careful with hot tea to avoid a nasty burn!)

• Pour the tea into a stainless steel jug, then pour into a mug or tea glass. Try to gain as much height as possible while pouring. Repeat until tea is frothy.
• Serve hot or over plenty of ice for a chilled summer drink.

Wandercook’s Tips

• Carefully increase the height as you pour the tea between the two jugs. This will help your aim get better as you go, but also help the tea become more and more frothy. 
• For a delicious winter drink, serve hot! For a refreshing summer alternative, serve over ice. 

FAQs

Variations

• Instead of using the traditional pulling method, you can get a similar frothy effect with a handheld milk frother or the steam wand on a coffee machine (which helps if you’re worried about messy kitchens or burnt hands). You can also use a tea infuser if you have one.
• Authentic teh tarik uses tea dust or loose leaf tea strained in a cotton tea strainer, however our homemade version uses tea bags for a quick, convenient alternative.

But seriously, however you go about achieving it, you NEED the frothiness guys. It’s what makes this drink so awesome.

Just promise us you won’t go pouring hot tea all over yourselves. 

And now it’s your turn! Go make your very own Teh Tarik and enjoy that frothy goodness. We want to see your photos, so snap away and tag us in @wandercooks. And most importantly, have fun!

Can you beat my awesome pouring pattern? 😉

Got a craving for more sweet Asian drinks? Give these a try next:

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★ Did you make this recipe? Please leave a comment and star rating below!