Oliang, the strongest iced coffee of Thailand

The Asian coffee culture, largely unexplored for Westerners, we know that holds in store surprises and special, special recipes ... one of them is definitely Oliang!

The story of Oliang (meaning "black" and liang means "cold" in Thai) begins in the years of World War II. International unrest has caused shortages of coffee stocks, which were distributed by bulletin to many countries, including Thailand. Thus, on the one hand, the coffee was of increasingly poor quality, on the other hand, the Thais were forced to falsify it by as much as 50% with other seeds, mainly corn and soybeans. In order to make this strong and bitter coffee easier to drink, they generously added condensed milk and sugar and preferred to enjoy it cold, habits common in Southeast Asia.

Of course, with the return to normalcy, there were many who loved the special taste of this "emergency coffee", which, after all, remained significantly cheaper than regular coffee and therefore more accessible to the average Thai - and somehow, Oliang became an integral part of Thai coffee culture!

Traditionally, Oliang is extracted in a "sock", an improvised device with a handle and an elongated, loose fabric filter, which looks like a small abstention, but we can also extract it in a dripper or a Pour Over device without significant differences. Of course, it is almost impossible to find oliang in our country - so, we will use strong Robusta and employ various "tricks" in order to achieve a satisfactory result.

How do we prepare Thai Oliang?

In a Pour Over device or a Dripper, put four tablespoons of strong Robusta.
Extract with a cup of hot water and let stand for 4-5 minutes
In 100ml of coffee, add 1 tablespoon of sugar and a tablespoon of evaporated milk
Add ice and mix
Add 1 tablespoon of sweetened condensed milk
Serve in a glass, filling with milk and ice at will


Tips for Enjoyable & Strong Thai Oliang?

We use a really strong Robusta coffee, which will approach the character of the authentic Oliang. Espresso Caffè Lab Java Coffee from Asia is a good choice, while African robusta such as Caffè Lab Tanzania AB or New York Monorigini Camerun also have the intensity and sturdiness required.
The authentic Oliang mix has 50% coffee, 20% soy beans, 20% corn and 10% spices, such as cardamom. As it is difficult to find soy beans, we can resort to the following trick: roasting sesame and cardamom and grinding them together with coffee, we will get the exotic note and smoky aromas of Oliang. Sesame and cardamom can participate in the mix at a rate of 20-30%.
Coffee can be too sweet for our data. We can skip or reduce the sugar and let the sweetened milk give the sweet character that is required.
It is drunk cold, as its warm version (especially with the original mix) remains bitter even for the Thais.
If we want to use soy beans or corn, we roast them well, grind them together with the coffee and experiment for the percentage we want to use in our oliang mix.
Coffee is a pleasure, but it can also be experimentation - a strange coffee from faraway Thailand is the best proof of this.