DESSERTS

No-Added-Sugar Milk Tea

It’s refreshing no-added-sugar drink goes beyond cow’s milk with non-dairy options, plant-based milk.

By Vickypee  I  Published on February 18, 2025

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Milk tea is a beverage that any tea drink that has milk incorporated. Milk tea can be a regular cup of black tea topped up with milk or it can be a more complex tea type such as bubble or boba tea from Taiwan or the iced Thai milk tea.

Iced tea is a delicious drink to sip on during the summer. Brew tea to your preferred strength, though it’s a good idea to use strong tea. It will water down the tea with milk and ice cubes.

Easily in this iced tea recipe, all you need is tea, milk, and ice cubes. This is a versatile recipe. You can vary the tea and milk you use and your favorite nut-plant-based milk you prefer.

I enjoy making my own milk tea at home, being able to customize the ingredients. It can save me some serious gram of added sugar. More satisfied by my homemade drinks.

Here’s my best version of iced milk tea, no add sugar with plant-base milk. Adding nondairy alternatives options made with almond, soy, or oat, go for the goodness that suits your taste and make your own drinks at home.

Tea Bases

The most important aspect of milk tea is the tea base. Different teas have their own flavor profile. Different parts of the pliant and processing methods the type of tea it will become.

British tea takes bold and robust. As milk is normally made with a black tea base, especially in the British version. The best kind of tea to use are those that have a robust flavor, a strong tea will work such as black tea.

Milk tea is sweet and creamy taste. The classic milk tea from any tea shop, most likely had black tea. It’s the most common tea to be combined with milk.

Black Tea

Black teas are robust, with its rich flavor, it’s a daily ritual, and a way to bring moments of calm and energy into your life. Black tea is produced in Kenya and many Asian countries, including Sri Lanka, China, and India. The world’s black tea is grown for the tea bag industry. The characteristics of black tea’s processing methods allow the tea to brew at higher temp to become smoky, bold blend, so the steeping temperature for black tea, 212 °F (100 °C). Here are the type of black tea to enjoy.

Assam tea is a classic black tea with their robust flavor, full-body, and rich color can hold own amongst milk and sugar are the deep aroma. Assam tea is the mains ingredients in most of the breakfast, including English Breakfast.

Oolong tea leaves, the strong flavors of oolongs tea are likely a welcome, which is a darker tea that is full of flavor and smooth on the finish, even a hint of the bitter of a black tea.

Cylon tea leaves is also known as Sri Lankan tea. Cylon tea is a popular type of black tea served as and iced tea or warm. Its flavor is bold and brisk, and some notes of citrus, chocolate, or spice.

Darjeeling tea is a Chinese tea that grows in India with flavors of French grapes. It can taste more like wine than other tea, so is frequently called the “Champagne of teas,” with musky-sweet tasting notes similar to muscat wine. But it can also have delicate fruit and citrus flavor.

Cook’s Tips:

I used assam tea for this iced tea recipe, but any other black tea or strong taste will also work. 4 tablespoons tea leaves to steep in 2 cups of water, the tea will be water down with milk and ice cubes, we want to start off with a strong taste. Substitute 4 tea bags for the loose-leaf tea if preferred. Use any kind of black or green tea you like. Serve your choice of goodness version.

Plant-and Nut-Based Milk

I got a chance to taste barista almond milk one day. A plat-based milk, with a flavor and texture that paired perfectly with tea. It is ability for it to froth and maintain its creamy texture when poured into tea. Most of time I just shake the bottle, and that works great.

Now, onto the actual taste test, I decided to try them all oat milk and soy milk, as well as mixed into tea. The tasting was, as mentioned, perfectly done.

I used barista unsweetened almond milk for this recipe. Using whole milk is rich in their flavor. Nowadays there are lots of non-dairy products available so always worth trying out different ones and see what you prefer.

With Unsweetened Oat Milk

Oat milk has a smooth texture, and a slightly sweet flavor. It is the best tasting non-dairy milk substitute in iced tea in general, it doesn’t’ taste as rich and you won’t get the cream topped effect but it still tastes great.

With Unsweetened Almond Milk

Almond milk has nutty flavor with a mind sweetness. It has a slightly thinner texture than soy milk, and more neutral taste than its sweetened counterpart. This can make it a great addition to beverage: coffee, tea, and smoothies.

With Unsweetened Soy Milk

Soy milk has a mild flavor and creamy texture. It’s sweeter than other milk alternatives. The fatty acid in the soybeans give soy milk a soft, luscious mouthfeel.

Brewing the Tea

You want a strong tea concentrate for the iced milk tea. I used 2 teaspoons tea leaves or tea bags of one glass: one serving. Bring the tea leaves in a cup of just-boiled water. Steep the tea bags until the water cools down to room temperature at least 15 minutes then refrigerate the base tea at least 30 minutes. Do not worry about it if the tea is cloudy, or you can’t see through it. Then add the cold milk to it. Fill a 16 oz. glass with ice cubes and pour in the tea mixture. The fewer ice cubes you add to your glass, the less diluted the tea will be.

Big Batch

You can steep the tea 1 or 2 days in advance and store in the refrigerator.

Steep the tea in hot water for 15 to 25 minutes, then pour the brewed tea through a fine mesh strainer.

If there’s a lot of tea dust left, you can strain it again through a finer mesh or paper coffee filter.