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The Fabled Pour
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Thailand

I have 3 sourced drinks connected to Thailand. The label on each card says how: where it began, what the country is known for, what people drink there, or where the origin is disputed.

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Thailand on the world map. Boundaries are generalized Natural Earth data.

Drinks of Thailand

Signature drinks and regional ones, with the evidence behind each. A drink marked non-alcoholic has no alcohol in the traditional serve.

  • Illustration of Sabai Sabai (Mekhong Collins): clear pale amber with rising bubbles, in a tall straight Collins glass.

    Sabai Sabai (Mekhong Collins)

    IconicSignature drink

    Thai-made Mekhong spirit shaken with lemon juice and simple syrup, topped with club soda and finished with Thai basil. Hotels and cocktail bars in Thailand offer it as a welcome drink.

    Sources call it a traditional Thai welcome cocktail and give no inventor or date. The name draws on sabai, a Thai word for relaxed or comfortable, and Mekhong has been bottled since the 1940s.

    Made with: Mekhong spirit, lemon juice, simple syrup, club soda, Thai basil.

    Confidence: mediumEvidence: tastingtable.com (opens in a new tab), theglobeandmail.com (opens in a new tab)

  • Illustration of Thai Iced Tea (Cha Yen): orange tea with creamy white milk poured over it, in a tall straight glass.

    Thai Iced Tea (Cha Yen)

    IconicSignature drinkNon-alcoholic

    Strongly brewed Ceylon tea, or a local Assam variety called bai miang, sweetened with sugar and condensed milk and served chilled, with evaporated or whole milk poured over the tea and ice before serving. Restaurants serve it in a tall glass, and street and market stalls use tall plastic cups or crushed ice in a plastic bag.

    Wikipedia gives no inventor or date and notes that ChaTraMue is the dominant brand of Thai tea. A Lion Brand article says the orange color comes from food dye and that its origin is unknown.

    Made with: strongly brewed Thai tea, sugar, condensed milk, evaporated milk, ice.

    Confidence: lowEvidence: en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab), lionbrand.com.au (opens in a new tab)

  • Illustration of SangSom Bucket: dark brown and cola-colored with a light fizz, in a small plastic beach bucket with two plastic straws.

    SangSom Bucket

    Tourist beach areas such as Koh Phangan

    PopularRegional drink

    A small plastic beach bucket filled with cheap Thai spirit and a mixer such as cola, soda or non-carbonated Thai Red Bull, drunk through a straw. It is a tourist-area serve, and Wikipedia ties SangSom to the buckets served at the Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan.

    SangSom was introduced in 1979, is made primarily from molasses and is often called a rum-type spirit. No source found dates the bucket serve or says which spirit the first buckets used.

    Made with: Thai rum-style spirit such as SangSom, cola or soda, Thai Red Bull, ice.

    Confidence: lowEvidence: en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab), aminearlythereyet.com (opens in a new tab)

Map data: Natural Earth, public domain.