food

Chinese Almond Tea

Celebrate Chinese New Year in style, with this traditional Beijing sweet drink.

food

Chinese Almond Tea

Celebrate Chinese New Year in style, with this traditional Beijing sweet drink.

Supplies

  • 1 1/3 cups Chinese sweet almonds (Southern almonds)
  • 1/3 cup washed glutinous (sticky) rice
  • 3 cups water
  • 1/3 cup rock sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon sesame seeds

Steps

  1. Soak almonds and washed sticky rice overnight in the fridge (the longer it soaks, the richer the milk will be).
  2. The next day, take it out of the fridge and discard the water.
  3. If using skinned almonds, proceed to the next step. Otherwise, skin the almonds by placing them in boiling water for a minute. Then drain, rinse with cold water, and use your fingers to squeeze off the skins.
  4. In a blender, add drained rice, almonds, sesame seeds, 3 Cups of water and blend until finely ground.
  5. Line a colander in a pot with cheesecloth and pour mixture through. Lift up cheesecloth and squeeze remaining liquid out into pot.
  6. Add pot to stove on low/medium heat.
  7. Add sugar, and vanilla extract mix, and a pinch of salt and mix everything together until sugar is dissolved.
  8. Cook until simmering, around 8-10 minutes.
  9. Serve immediately.