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Another way to experience Thai food culture is to try our snacks! Snacks make up a big part of our diet. Thai people LOVEEE to snack! These are super delicious treats from Thailand you can buy on Amazon.com. All products in this video ship to the US, and If you don't live in the US, like me, be sure to note them down as things to look for on your next trip to Thailand!
Special thanks to Amazon Thailand for sponsoring this video!
Also see: 7 Must-TryThai Supermarket Snacks
*Extra Goodies for Patreon Members: In this episode's "Show After The Show" I share a few more of my favourite Thai snacks that I currently have stocked in my "junk food cabinet!" Click here to find out more about becoming a Patreon member!
1. MezzoX Thai Tea & Thai Coffee Kit
Making Thai tea traditionally might be a bit of a hassle, but MezzoX has made it super easy so all you need is some hot water and ice! The tea leaves that come in the bag are the same tea leaves that come in the big bag of loose-leaf tea you might be more familiar with. Each serving requires 2 tea bags, but if you just want a small glass, of course, you can just one 1 bag, which is super convenient!
If you want to customize the creaminess and sweetness simply add your own milk, condensed milk, evaporated milk, or sweetener. You can also use a milk-substitute for those who are lactose intolerant, but I would choose something that is quite rich (like Silk coffee creamer) because Thai tea really needs that creaminess that you won't get from regular soy or almond milk.
HOT THAI TEA: It's not commonly done, but you can make a hot tea out of this kit as well, and it is quite nice! As the instructions indicate, you will need to add more water than if you were to make Thai iced tea, because you won't have any extra water from melted ice.
MY TIP: In the instructions it tells you that after the tea steeps for 5 minutes, you can pour it over ice immediately. You will need a FULL glass of ice for this (like in the video). I personally prefer to use more water, let it steep for longer than 5 minutes so it's not as hot, and then I can use less ice. This method will extract more tea flavour from the leaves, giving it a stronger tea flavour which I prefer.
MezzoX Coffee
The most important thing to note is that the coffee in this kit is 100% coffee beans. This is NOT "oliang" Thai coffee, which is the old-school coffee made from a combination of coffee beans and other roasted things (corn, tamarind seeds, soybeans, etc.). Oliang powder what I used in my Thai Iced Coffee and Thai Coffee 4 Ways videos. If you've ever had "Thai iced coffee" at a Thai restaurant, they will most likely use oliang coffee. Oliang has a different, darker, smokier flavour than regular coffee.
What makes the Mezzo coffee "Thai" is a little more subtle than that. In recent years, oliang has become harder to find in Thailand. Now most of the coffee available in coffee shops are made from 100% coffee beans. But we still like to add a ton of milk, condensed milk, and sugar! So it's a sweeter, creamier (more delicious, one might argue) iced coffee than what you can get in N. America. So if you use the MezzoX coffee and the creamer mix given, you will get exactly the kind of iced coffee Thai people like.
If you're in Thailand and you want to get Thai iced coffee made from oliang powder, you'll have to look for shops, most likely old school carts, that sell what we call "Gafae Boran" which means "vintage coffee". These are the places that will use the long "coffee socks" to make their coffee. You won't find it in nice coffee shops in shopping malls!
Note: Mezzo is actually a chain of coffee shops you can find in Bangkok. So if you're there, you can also stop by the shop and try out their coffee.
2. Freeze Dried Durian & Sticky Rice
Durian and sticky rice is a lovely traditional Thai dessert. It's a simple combination of coconut sticky rice, fresh durian, in a sweet coconut broth. Check out my video here for the recipe! Well, Rozocha has simply taken that dessert and freeze-dried it into a crunchy snack. The flavour remains amazingly like the dessert. They also make freeze dried durian meat if you want to try it out, but I personally prefer the sticky rice version!
Buy Rozocha Freeze Dried Durian & Sticky Rice
Buy Rozocha Freeze Dried Durian
3. Suan Dusit Milk Tablets
Made simply of milk powder and sugar compressed into tablets, these were the obsession of my childhood years! These milk tablet candies are a product of the late King Rama the 9th's milk powder factory which he created to help deal with milk surplus in Thailand almost 50 years ago.
The milk tablet also comes in chocolate flavour, though I was only able to find the original flavour online.
Buy Suan Dusit Milk Tablet Candies
4. Honey D Dried Longan
Fresh longans, solar dried into sweet, fragrant, chewy little nuggets. No sugar, no preservatives added. Though you can find dried longans at many Chinese grocery stores, these are different. What you most likely find in Chinatown are made specifically for adding into soups, desserts or tea. They're not meant for eating straight up. And for good reason as they don't taste great (and might not be clean enough). These Honey 😀 longans are totally snackable. Naturally sweet with the flavour of fresh longans still intact. Honestly I don't know how they're processed differently from the soup ones, I just know that with these, I can just eat them like candy!
To make longan iced tea: You can boil them in water just for 5 minutes or so until the fruits look fully rehydrated. Add more sugar or honey to taste, then you can serve it iced or hot. There's no need to drain the longans out of the tea, but you will find that they don't have much flavour left by the time they're done.
To use them as a natural tea sweetener: Simply add a few fruits (I do about 3 per cup) to steep along with your tea and they will add a subtle sweetness and a unique fragrance.
5. Cheva Vacuum Fried Mangosteens
A product made by my own childhood friend! Vacuum frying allows fruits to be fried at a much lower temperature, which means that you can use riper, sweeter fruit. And it also results in less oil absorbtion in the end product. These mangosteens are crunchy, with a sweet/tart flavour. I love the spicy shrimp salad flavour, but you can also get the original as well.
6. Banana Joe Banana Chips
Banana chips you can get anywhere...but not like these! These are thin, crispy, and made from Hom Tong bananas which grow well in Thailand. They don't have the same flavour as the supermarket banana variety, and they are just so addictive! My favourite is the Sriracha flavour, which has just the right about of heat and tartness. But the other flavours are all good too. My only complaint is there isn't enough in one bag to satisfy me!
Note: In the video the packaging of the ones I received doesn't have the brand name "Banana Joe" on it for some reason, but when you buy it on store shelves you should find ones that say "Banana Joe Banana Chips" on it.
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