Nam bai toey (น้ำใบเตย) is one of the drinks you find everywhere in Thailand and almost nowhere else: pale green-gold, faintly sweet, served over a mountain of ice. Every recipe online assumes you have a bundle of fresh pandan leaves. If you have dried, the method changes a little — here is the version that works.
What it is
Pandan leaves simmered into water, lightly sweetened, chilled and poured over ice. That is the whole drink. It is sold from carts, served free with meals in some restaurants, and made at home in large jugs. Nothing about it is complicated; what makes it good is not over-sweetening it and not boiling the life out of the leaf.
Ingredients (makes about 1.5 litres)
- 15g dried pandan leaf (about 5–6 heaped teaspoons)
- 1.5 litres water
- Sweetener to taste — palm sugar is traditional; 1g of dried stevia leaf works if you would rather not use sugar
- A squeeze of lime, optional but recommended
- Plenty of ice
Method
- Bring the water to the boil, then take it off the heat.
- Add the dried pandan, cover, and let it steep 15 minutes. Do not boil it hard. Fresh leaves need simmering because they are waxy; dried leaves have already been broken down by drying, and hard boiling just sends the aroma into the room.
- If you are using stevia leaf, add it now, while the water is hot — it will not release its sweetness once the liquid cools.
- Strain. A fine mesh strainer is easier than trying to fish pieces out.
- Sweeten to taste while still warm, so it dissolves.
- Cool, then refrigerate. Serve over a lot of ice, with lime if using.
Why yours might not be green
It probably should not be. The vivid green in Thai pandan cakes and in some cafe versions of this drink is added colouring, and even fresh-leaf nam bai toey is usually a modest pale green at best. Brewed dried pandan comes out closer to pale gold. The colour is not the point — the aroma is.
Variations worth trying
- With lemongrass. The most common Thai pairing. Use the lemongrass and pandan blend and treat it exactly the same way; the citrus lifts the whole thing.
- With coconut water instead of half the plain water — richer, and very good in hot weather.
- Cold-brewed. 15g in 1.5L of cold water, overnight in the fridge. Cleaner and sweeter-tasting, though remember stevia will not work cold; sweeten separately.