As a fan of mung bean milk, I wonder if I can make mung bean milk tea. After searching for a while, I discovered that mung bean milk tea is sold at 7 Leaves Café in the US, which surprised me. In Vietnam, I haven’t found any stores selling mung bean milk tea, which is why I was excited. I got the recipe from a YouTube video and remade Mung bean Milk Tea with fresh ingredients without artificial food coloring and flavoring. Let’s make it!
What is Mung Bean?
Originating from India, Mung Bean is an irreplaceable ingredient in many Asian households, especially in China, India, Vietnam, and Thailand. As a Vietnamese, I know hundred dishes made with mung bean: Vietnamese Glutinous Rice Balls, Vietnamese green sticky rice cake (bánh cốm), Mung Bean Cake and Mung Bean Mooncake, Mung Bean Milk, Mung Bean Sweet Soup or Pomelo sweet soup. To talk about Vietnamese Cuisine, you must talk about Mung Bean.
Mung bean is also highly nutritious. It’s rich in protein, fiber, and vitamin B9, and low in fat and calories. As a gluten-free food source, you can incorporate it into specific diets, such as gluten-free, healthy, low-calorie, vegan, and vegetarian.
Ingredients for Mung Bean Milk Tea
In general, the ingredients for Mung Bean Milk Tea are similar to Mung Bean Milk, plus tea. You can choose your favorite tea, such as Oolong tea, Jasmine Tea, or Original Green Tea, as long as the tea’s color is light to maintain a beautiful green color for the final milk tea. This color is achieved with pandan leaves, another popular ingredient in Southeast Asia. Let’s prepare:
- 1/2 cup of mung bean paste or 4 tbsp peeled mung bean: To make mung bean milk tea, mung bean must be cooked and mashed very well to become a smooth paste. I wrote another article about making mung bean paste, you can refer to it to find the optimal method for you. In general, you’ll have to steam/boil the peeled mung beans, blend it in a blender or stir on low heat until the water almost evaporates.
- 1 cup of pandan juice: Use the juice to make tea, so you’ll don’t have to use pandan leaves artificial coloring and flavoring. To make pandan juice, you can refer to another article of mine, how to make pandan juice and pandan extract.
- 2 tsp of oolong/jasmine tea/ green tea (light-color tea): The tea serves as the base of your drink. A lightly bitter tea flavor will complement the sweet, creamy combination of milk, coconut milk, and mung beans.
- 1 cup of milk: Milk is an important ingredient in making milk tea. If you are going for vegan milk tea, substitute milk with soy milk or almond milk.
- 3 tbsp of coconut milk (optional): Coconut milk adds a tropical touch with a creamy, fatty texture to the milk tea. However, if you don’t have it at home, you can skip it or replace it with whipping cream/heavy cream. The aroma of the milk tea may vary a bit.
- 5 tbsp of sugar or more: For me, 5 tbsp of sugar are enough for 1L of mung bean milk. However, you can easily check the taste at the final step and adjust it to your preferred level of sweetness.
Instruction
Step 1. Preparation
If you haven’t had mung bean paste and pandan juice ready to use, you must make them first.
- Mung Bean Paste: Refer here. Another method is to boil/steam peeled mung beans and then leave there for step 3.
- Pandan Juice: Refer here. If you use pandan extract, mix 1 tbsp of pandan extract with 2 tbsp of water to have 1 cup of pandan juice.
Step 2. Making Pandan Tea
- Once you have your pandan juice, boil it to make pandan tea with 2 tsp of dried tea leaves. I used oolong tea leaves as it’s my favorite; you can use jasmine tea/green tea leaves. If you use a tea bag, use 2 tea bags to replace 2 tsp of tea leaves.
- Brew the tea for at least 10 minutes to extract all the flavor from the tea leaves. Remove the leaves/tea bag to get the pandan tea.
Step 3. Making mung bean milk
- Method 1 (using mung bean paste): In a pot, heat up the milk on low heat. Add mung bean paste to the mix of milk and coconut milk and stir them continuously until mung bean paste dissolves completely in the milk.
- Method 2 (using cooked peeled mung bean): This will be the faster method, but you need a blender to do it. After cooking the mung beans, add all the cooked beans to the milk & coconut milk and blend them well until they unify into mung bean milk. Then, transfer them into a pot on low heat, ready for the next step.
Step 4. Mixing pandan tea and mung bean milk
- Now, gradually pour the pandan tea into the mung bean milk. Stir them well until you get a creamy green color for the mung bean milk tea.
Step 5. Serving
- Serve it warm or cold. If you don’t add toppings, simply pour the mung bean milk tea into a bubble tea cup, including ice cubes if desired.
- In case you have some toppings, such as black grass jelly, add them after adding ice cubes, and then pour the milk tea later. With Black Grass Jelly, you can try the opposite order: pour mung bean milk tea into the cup with ice first, then add black grass jelly and its juice on top; you’ll get a brown-green ombre color like my cup below.
Store Mung Bean Milk Tea
As a fresh milk tea without preservatives, you must let it cool down and then immediately store it in the fridge in an airtight bottle/container. Store it separately from the toppings to prolong its duration. Always remember to use a clean spoon/ladle to scoop out the milk tea.
Test if your milk tea is still good by smelling the aroma. If you smell a sour scent, discard it. Try to consume it in no more than 3 days.
Mung Bean Milk Tea
I got the recipe from a YouTube video and remade Mung bean Milk Tea with fresh ingredients without artificial food coloring and flavoring.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup of mung bean paste or 4 tbsp peeled mung bean
- 1 cup of pandan juice
- 2 tsp of oolong/jasmine tea/ green tea (light-color tea)
- 1 cup of milk
- 3 tbsp of coconut milk (optional)
- 5 tbsp of sugar or more
Instructions
Step 1. Preparation
If you haven’t had mung bean paste and pandan juice ready to use, you must make them first.
- Mung Bean Paste: Refer here. Another method is to boil/steam peeled mung beans and then leave there for step 3.
- Pandan Juice: Refer here. If you use pandan extract, mix 1 tbsp of pandan extract with 2 tbsp of water to have 1 cup of pandan juice.
Step 2. Making Pandan Tea
- Once you have your pandan juice, boil it to make pandan tea with 2 tsp of dried tea leaves. I used oolong tea leaves as it's my favorite; you can use jasmine tea/green tea leaves. If you use a tea bag, use 2 tea bags to replace 2 tsp of tea leaves.
- Brew the tea for at least 10 minutes to extract all the flavor from the tea leaves. Remove the leaves/tea bag to get the pandan tea.
Step 3. Making mung bean milk
- Method 1 (using mung bean paste): In a pot, heat up the milk on low heat. Add mung bean paste to the mix of milk and coconut milk and stir them continuously until mung bean paste dissolves completely in the milk.
- Method 2 (using cooked peeled mung bean): This will be the faster method, but you need a blender to do it. After cooking the mung beans, add all the cooked beans to the milk & coconut milk and blend them well until they unify into mung bean milk. Then, transfer them into a pot on low heat, ready for the next step.
Step 4. Mixing pandan tea and mung bean milk
- Now, gradually pour the pandan tea into the mung bean milk. Stir them well until you get a creamy green color for the mung bean milk tea.
Step 5. Serving
- Serve it warm or cold. If you don't add toppings, simply pour the mung bean milk tea into a bubble tea cup, including ice cubes if desired.
- In case you have some toppings, such as grass jelly, add them after adding ice cubes, and then pour the milk tea later. With Grass Jelly, you can try the opposite order: pour mung bean milk tea into the cup with ice first, then add grass jelly and its juice on top; you'll get a brown-green ombre color like my cup below.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 5 cups Serving Size: 1 cupAmount Per Serving: Calories: 360
Other Mung Bean Dishes
As a Vietnamese, I had a bunch of Mung Bean Recipes. Let’s try:
- Mung Bean Mooncake
- Fresh Mung Bean Cake
- Mung Bean Milk
- Vietnamese Tapioca Dumplings (bánh bot loc)
- Vietnamese Glutinous Rice Balls (Che troi nuoc)
- Banh com (Vietnamese Green Rice Cake)
Other Vegan Milks:
