Getting to know traditional Thai coffee
We do not claim to be Thai coffee experts, but we found this article from Wongnai to be very insightful.
Traditional Thai coffee makes use of coffee mix. Typically non-premium coffee beans are used to mix with a bit of grain like corn or millet – producing a more coarse dark coffee ground with a unique aroma. Traditional Thai coffee is usually made by putting ground Thai coffee into a large filter bag then poured over by boiling hot water, the coffee is then poured through the filter bag multiple times – producing very strong black coffee.
For this reason, Thais do not typically drink black traditional coffee. And this leads to multiple variations of Thai iced coffee where different ingredients like sugar, evaporated milk or condensed milk is added to the coffee. Having said that, you might also start thinking about Thai iced coffee calories.
Thai iced coffee
This is the most popular among all types of coffee, and quite likely the only one that you would find outside of Thailand. Thai iced coffee is the richest and creamiest of all coffee types we will introduce in this article.
Recipes:
- 2 tablespoons of ground traditional Thai coffee
- 1.5 cup of boiling hot water
- 1 teaspoon of sugar
- 2 teaspoons of condensed milk and evaporated milk (depending on how milky you want the coffee to be, we typically add around 1+ tablespoon)
Thai iced coffee calories: About 77 Calories, the 2nd highest among all the entries we will be introducing today
Oiliang

Oiliang is iced traditional Thai coffee with sugar. While Oliang is sweet, it has no milkiness or creaminess to help mask black coffee bitterness. Therefore, you might find the coffee bitterness and aroma more prominent.
Recipe: 3 tablespoons of ground traditional Thai coffee, ¾ cup of boiling hot water, 3 teaspoons of sugar, and a lot of ice
Oiliang calories: 47 Calories, this is lower compared to the other coffee types given there is no condensed/evaporated milk
“Front-wheel lift” or "Yok Lor" Oiliang

This is a variation of Oliang where milk is added to the black coffee, making it more milky/creamy.
Recipes: same as Oiliang but with ~1 tablespoon of evaporated milk
“Front-wheel lift” Oiliang calories: 67 Calories – this is just a bit lower than Thai iced coffee calories despite the lack of condensed milk as Oiliang typically contains more sugar
"Kopi"

If you are from Singapore or Malaysia, you are already familiar with the term Kopi. This is basically black coffee mixed with condensed milk.
Recipes: 3 tablespoons of ground traditional Thai coffee, ¾ cup of boiling hot water, 5 teaspoons of condensed milk
Kopi calories: ~100 Calories. This is much higher than Thai iced coffee calories due to higher condensed milk content (condensed milk has 630 Calories per 180g)
Thai iced coffee calories and different beverage types
Do you like your coffee black or with some milkiness? There are many types of local coffee drinks that will cater to both black coffee and milk coffee lovers.
Which one do most Thais love? Thais do take sweetness and milkiness in their coffees to the extreme. So, kopi and Thai iced coffees are generally very popular among Thais. If you are trying them out, do watch out for the kopi and Thai iced coffee calories (Check out other Thai drinks if you wish to cut on calories and caffeine!)
Learn more about Thailand through our other posts
- Tom Yum Soup Calories & Health Benefits
- Thai language overview and useful tips to navigate Thailand
- Thailand capital gains tax and the implication to your investments
- How to adopt a dog from Thailand: a chance to save a life
- Thai Pink Milk – the taste, ingredients and recipe
- Low Calorie Ice Creams Singapore: are they healthy/halal?