BANGKOK, Nov 29 — It may be hard to pick a favourite among Bangkok’s many food offerings, but when it comes to quenching one’s thirst, little is more satisfying than the ubiquitous cha yen, or Thai iced milk tea. Concocted from black tea, star anise, orange blossom water and crushed tamarind seed, it’s strong, silky, creamy and always an intense shade of orange. The brewed tea is mixed with a generous amount of condensed milk, poured over a tall cup of crushed or tiny ice cubes, and topped with evaporated milk. In Bangkok, cha yen is widely available in its original form and as a variety of desserts. Here’s a guide to finding your cha yen cheer in the Thai capital, in more ways than one.

A small shot of hot tea is poured through a tall glass of crushed ice.

Cha on the move

Cha Tra Mue proudly calls itself the Number One Brand Thai Tea (it even says so on their product packaging), and those who have tried their beverages will tend to agree. The brand has its roots as Chinese tea shop Lim Meng Kee in Yaowarat, Bangkok’s Chinatown, as early as 1925. Several incarnations (and a bombing, during World War II) later, the family business renamed itself Cha Tra Mue and repositioned its tea drinks to cater to local taste buds.

The move is still paying off. Their products are available at supermarkets and convenience stores, while takeaway kiosks selling their freshly prepared beverages can be found at every corner of Bangkok — they’re at a number of malls and BTS stations. Cha yen is their top selling drink, prepared upon order and packed in a hardy plastic cup with a handy holder slipped over it. While the cup is quite tall, the tea itself is no more than a shot glass worth as the rest of it is ice. The copious amount helps cool the tea down instantly so that by the time you take your first sip, it’s refreshingly icy. For a list of all Cha Tra Mue kiosks, go to http://chathai.herokuapp.com/

Also try McDonald’s serves a cha yen float with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream, while Hokkaido Milk’s bottled dairy drinks comes in several flavours including cha yen, Ceylon tea, Earl Grey and lavender.

Find Cha Yen Mania at food bazaars on weekends.

An artisanal touch

Traditional medicine bottles make for handsome packaging at Cha Yen Mania.

Popping up at food festivals, weekend markets and lifestyle bazaars, Chayen Mania offers homemade brews packaged in old school glass medicine bottles. Those are meant for you to buy home, whereas if you choose to drink it on the spot, your cha yen will be served in an extra large plastic cup and topped with a thick layer of freshly whipped milk for that extra creamy kick. The tea itself is fragrant and silky, which makes this artisanal label worth tracking after. Find out where their next appearance is on their Instagram feed (@Chayen_Mania).

Pull and froth

There’s cha yen, and then there’s cha yen tarik (pulled tea), not unlike our teh tarik. At Eathai, the swanky food court at posh mall Central Embassy, every order is also an exercise in showmanship. There’s a bit of theatrics thrown in as the server deftly ‘pulls’ the tea between two containers, turning and twisting on the spot until a frothy consistency is achieved. For a real performance, order a green milk tea and a cha yen at the same time and watch as the two differently coloured rivers of milk tea are tossed neatly between four containers, simultaneously.

Issaya successfully marries Thai flavours with French pastries.

Make mine a macaron

Their sweet creations for Issaya Siamese Club have won them awards but chefs Ian Kittichai and Arisara Chongphanitkul wanted to push the envelope further. For Issaya La Patisserie (5th Floor, Central Embassy), they combine Thai flavours with French pastry techniques to produce desserts that are truly unique to the city. Their macarons boast familiar and popular local tastes such as tab tim krob (water chestnuts), salted egg (looks like a sunny side up) and tamarind (and shaped like a pod of it too). While not all flavours are successful, the cha yen variant works wonderfully, the familiar fragrance translating well into nutty shells and creamy centres.

Petit Audrey’s Thai Tea mille crepe is one of their most popular cakes.

Have your cake and drink it

Inspired by Audrey Hepburn by name and design, fusion cafe Petit Audrey also captures her aura well in their decor that’s laced with elegance and a touch of vintage charm. Regulars keep returning for their unique signatures such as tom yam kung pizza, deep-fried mashed potatoes with cheddar cheese, and crispy pork knuckle with chilli and basil. Rich as the food can be, they make sure to leave room for desserts, particularly the Thai Tea Crepe Cake that sandwiches cha yen-flavoured cream in between paper-thin layers of crepe. But that’s not all the tea loving it offers; the cake is served with a cha yen crème anglaise that has all the aroma and richness of a regular cuppa, minus the usual sweetness so it balances out the cake’s sugar levels. You may want to leave enough stomach space for two slices. Petit Audrey is at 4th Floor, Siam Centre and 5th Floor, Central Embassy.

Fucheer Lounge’s Pang Cha Royal is a sweet feast not to be missed.

Nice ice

Thai-Chinese family recipes passed down through the generations is the premise of one of Bangkok’s most successful high-end restaurants, Luk Kai Thong. There’s a good spread of savoury dishes that pair well with rice at their flagship diners, while their Fucheer Lounge serves the best of their sweet offerings. Thai tea features several ways on Fucheer’s menu: You can have it as an Iced Cha-puccino or a Taiwanese-style bubble tea, for example.

Snobar’s shaved iced comes in various refreshing flavours, including cha yen (left). Hakone at Gateway Ekamai offers up a Slurpee-style cha yen (right).

The piece de resistance, however, is the Pang Cha Luk Kai Thong Royal, a mountain of cha yen-flavoured shaved ice garnished with almond flakes, tapioca pearls and bread cubes that’s almost a meal on its own. The tea itself is a blend of five types of leaves, namely Southern Thai, Red, Leaf Black, Emperor Oolong, and Ceylon. If you like it really creamy, ask for extra evaporated milk and they will make sure it rains down the snowy mountain. Fucheer Lounge is at 6th Floor, EmQuartier and 4th Floor, Siam Paragon.

Also try Snobar at Siam Paragon does a much simpler version of cha yen shaved ice (they also have many other flavours), while Japanese restaurant Hakone at Gateway Ekamai serves an ice-blended cha yen topped with colourful tapioca pearls.

Read more of Vivian Chong’s food and other adventures at her travel and lifestyle website http://thisbunnyhops.com