About this recipe
Strong black tea and sweetened condensed milk, poured repeatedly between two vessels held far apart — the pulling that gives the drink its name — until it is aerated, smooth and capped with a thick head of foam. The pulling is not decoration: it cools the tea to drinking temperature, mixes the milk thoroughly and changes the texture. It is the standard drink of Malaysia's mamak shops and is drunk at every hour, though the tea itself is brewed far stronger than most people outside the region expect.
Recipe facts
- Yield
- 2 glasses
- Prep
- 5 minutes
- Cook
- 10 minutes
- Total
- 15 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy–Moderate
- Spice
- None
Allergens Contains dairy (condensed and evaporated milk). Vegetarian. Halal.
Development draft. This is an untested development recipe from the cookbook project. It has not been kitchen-tested, and the quantities and timings are the author’s working draft rather than a verified result.
Ingredients
The tea
- 3 tbsp (18 g) strong loose black tea, or 4 tea bags of a robust Ceylon or Assam blend
- 2 cups (475 ml) water
To finish
- 4 tbsp (75 g) sweetened condensed milk, or to taste
- 3 tbsp (45 ml) evaporated milk (optional, for a rounder result)
Equipment
- Small saucepan
- Fine strainer or a cloth tea sock
- Two tall heatproof jugs or mugs, at least 16 oz (475 ml) each
- Two glasses
Method
- Bring the water to a rolling boil in the saucepan. Add the loose tea or tea bags, lower the heat and simmer 4-5 minutes — genuinely simmer it, not steep it, which is how the strength is built.
- Strain the tea through the sock or fine strainer into one of the tall jugs, pressing the leaves to extract everything.
- Stir the condensed milk into the hot tea until fully dissolved, then the evaporated milk if using. Taste and add more condensed milk if you want it sweeter.
- Now pull it. Hold one jug in each hand. Pour the tea from the full jug into the empty one in a steady stream, raising the pouring hand as high as you comfortably can while lowering the receiving hand.
- Pour it back the other way. Repeat 6-8 times, going higher and faster as your confidence grows. The stream should stretch into a thin ribbon and the liquid will visibly lighten in colour.
- Stop when a thick, stable head of pale foam has built up on the surface and the tea has cooled to drinking temperature.
- Pour into two glasses, making sure the foam is divided between them, and drink straight away while the head holds.
The Complete Edition
Teh Tarik sits in the Malaysia chapter
The book carries this recipe in full alongside the rest of the Malaysia chapter, the pastes and dips it is built on, and the twenty-seven pantry studies that open the collection.
In review with Amazon KDP
Both editions have been submitted to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and are currently in review. Submitted prices are $9.99 for the kindle edition and $49.99 for the paperback. Neither is on sale yet, and prices are as submitted rather than final.