Mung Bean Milk Tea

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, am familiar with hundreds of dishes made with mung beans, such as 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, mung beans are one of the most popular ingredient.

Mung beans are also highly nutritious. They are rich in protein, fiber, and vitamin B9, and low in fat and calories. As a gluten-free food source, they can be incorporated into specific diets, such as gluten-free, healthy, low-calorie, vegan, and vegetarian diets.

Ingredients for Mung Bean Milk Tea

In general, the ingredients for Mung Bean Milk Tea are similar to those for Mung Bean Milk, with the addition of 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 beans: To make mung bean milk tea, the mung beans must be cooked and mashed very well to become a smooth paste. I have written another article about making mung bean paste; you can refer to it to find the optimal method for you. In general, you will have to steam or boil the peeled mung beans, then blend them in a blender or stir them on low heat until the water almost evaporates.
• 1 cup of pandan juice: Use the juice to make tea, so you won’t have to use artificial coloring and flavoring from pandan leaves. To make pandan juice, you can refer to another article of mine on how to make pandan juice and pandan extract.
• 2 tsp of oolong/jasmine tea/green tea (light-colored 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 aiming for vegan milk tea, substitute regular milk with soy milk or almond milk.
• 3 tbsp of coconut milk (optional): Coconut milk adds a tropical touch with its 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 or heavy cream. The aroma of the milk tea may vary slightly.
• 5 tbsp of sugar or more: For me, 5 tbsp of sugar is 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 don’t have mung bean paste and pandan juice ready to use, you must make them first.

• Mung Bean Paste: Refer here. Another method is to boil or steam peeled mung beans and then proceed to step 3.
• Pandan Juice: Refer here. If you use pandan extract, mix 1 tbsp of pandan extract with 2 tbsp of water to make 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 they are my favorite; you can use jasmine tea or 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 or tea bag to get the pandan tea.

Step 3. Making mung bean milk

• Method 1 (using mung bean paste): In a pot, heat the milk over low heat. Add the mung bean paste to the mixture of milk and coconut milk and stir continuously until the mung bean paste completely dissolves in the milk.

• Method 2 (using cooked peeled mung beans): This will be the faster method, but you will need a blender. After cooking the mung beans, add all the cooked beans to the milk and coconut milk and blend them well until they combine into mung bean milk. Then, transfer the mixture 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 achieve 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 toppings, such as black grass jelly, add them after adding ice cubes, and then pour the milk tea. 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 the one in 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 or container. Store it separately from the toppings to prolong its duration. Always remember to use a clean spoon or ladle to scoop out the milk tea.

Test if your milk tea is still good by smelling the aroma. If you detect a sour scent, discard it. Try to consume it in no more than 3 days.

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:

• Pumpkin Milk