This lemongrass pandan tea is made with fresh pandan and lemongrass (serai). It is refreshing and an easy to make drink, perfect to be enjoyed both hot and cold!
The combination of pandan and lemongrass in this cooling and refreshing lemongrass pandan tea is perfect. The drink can be enjoyed without any sugar, but I personally like it with some sugar. On a cold day, it is perfect to be enjoyed as a hot drink and on a hot summer day, it is perfect to be enjoyed iced.
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❤️Why you will love this recipe
- You only require 4 ingredients to make this tea – lemongrass, pandan (screwpine leaves), water and sugar.
- It can be enjoyed both hot and iced and is perfectly refreshing.
- You can enjoy it both with and without sugar or sweeteners.
- This lemongrass pandan tea is easy to make and can be easily prepared by even the most beginner cooks.
📋Ingredients
- Lemongrass stalks - use the bulbous part of the stack. This is normally towards the bottom end of the plant.
- Pandan leaves - Use fresh pandan leaves.
- Sugar - Can be granulated sugar or coarse white sugar.
- Water - use drinking or filtered water.
*Refer to the recipe card below for full list of ingredients and exact quantities. For best results, use a digital kitchen scale where applicable*
🧾Substitution and Variations
- Pandan leaves - if you are not able to find fresh pandan leaves, the frozen ones will also be good for this tea.
- Sugar - sugar is really optional in this recipe. The tea can be enjoyed without any sweeteners. And sugar can be replaced with brown sugar, cane sugar or even honey or simple syrup, including flavored syrups like pandan syrup or lemongrass syrup.
This recipe has not been tested with other substitutions or variations. If you do try, please let me know in the comments section below!
👩🍳How to Make
Making the tea
- Fill a medium sized pot with water and place it over medium heat to boil.
- While waiting, prepare the lemongrass and pandan. Wash the pandan leaves and pat them dry. Cut the into 1-inch sizes. Set aside.
- Wash the lemongrass. Use a rolling pin to crush the stalks lightly. This step will help release the fragrance even better when boiling.
- Slice the lemongrass.
- Once the water in the pot has boiled, add the pandan leaves and lemongrass and let it boil further at low heat for about 8 to 10 minutes.
- Keep the pot covered to avoid the water in the pot to evaporate much.
- At the end of the 8 to 10 minutes, strain the tea with a fine-meshed strainer.
- Discard the lemongrass and pandan leaves. Add sugar into the tea and mix until dissolved.
Enjoying the hot lemongrass pandan tea
- To enjoy the drink hot, simply pour the strained lemongrass pandan tea into a cup and serve.
- The drink can also be served without any sugar added.
Enjoying the iced lemongrass and pandan tea
- For the iced version of this refreshing drink, once the tea is strained, add in the sugar and stir to dissolve.
- Let the lemongrass pandan tea cool down a little before placing it in the refrigerator to chill completely.
- To serve, add some ice cubes into servings glasses and pour in the chilled tea.
🍽️Serving & storage
- At room temperate, this drink can last for one day. If kept chilled in the fridge, it can last up to 5 days.
💡Expert Tips
- If you intend to serve this drink cold, it is best to chill it first before adding ice cubes. Adding ice cubes when it is hot will require more ice and more ice means the tea will be diluted. Too much dilution will result in your lemongrass pandan drink to taste like plain water.
💭FAQs
No, pandan and lemongrass are 2 different types of plants.
Lemongrass is a green plant with long, thin, blade like leaves that can grow up to 60 cm to 70 cm long. The long leaves are not used in cooking, but rather the bulb right above its roots. The first few outer layers of the bulb are peeled off and discarded to obtain the useable part of the lemongrass plant. It is often used for its strong and pleasant citrusy fragrance.
Pandan (known as screwpine in English) is also a green plant with long, blade like leaves, but pandan leaves are wider and darker green in color. The leaves can also grow up to 60cm long and the entire leaves can be used in cooking. Similar to lemongrass, pandan is often added into food for its lovely fragrance and in some dishes, the extract from the leaves is used as a natural green colorant.
No, both pandan and lemongrass do not have caffeine, hence this tea is caffeine-free.
Technically you can. This recipe makes lemongrass pandan drink that is not too mild and neither too strong. If you prefer stronger taste of lemongrass, you can increase the lemongrass stalks in the recipe to 5 but I would not recommend more than that. Similarly for the pandan leaves.
You can also reduce the lemongrass and pandan in the recipe but the lesser you use, the milder your lemongrass pandan tea will be. And if you serve it cold by adding ice cubes, it will be diluted further and you will end up not tasting the lemongrass and pandan.
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📖Recipe
Lemongrass Pandan Tea
For best results, use the metrics measurements. US customary measurements have not been tested and are only meant for guide.
Ingredients
- 2 liters water
- 4 stalks lemongrass
- 4 pandan leaves (30 cm each)
- 30 g sugar
Instructions
- Add the water into a pot.
- Bring it to a boil.
- Wash and pat the pandan leaves dry. Cut them into 1 inch sizes. set aside.
- Wash and pat the lemongrass dry. Use a rolling pin to crush the stalk slightly. Cut it into thin slices.
- Add the pandan leaves and the lemongrass into the pot of boiling water.
- Reduce the heat to low and let the lemongrass pandan tea simmer for 8 to 10 minutes. Cover the pot while simmering.
- After 10 minutes, turn off the heat. Strain the lemongrass pandan tea into a jug.
- Add sugar and stir until it dissolves.
- To serve the tea hot, pour it into a cup and serve.
- To serve it cold, let the pandan lemongrass tea to cool down slightly. Chill it completely in the fridge. Before serving, add some ice cubes to the drink (if preferred).
Notes
- If you intend to serve this drink cold, it is best to chill it first before adding ice cubes. Adding ice cubes when it is hot will require more ice and more ice means the tea will be diluted. Too much dilution will result in your lemongrass pandan drink to taste like plain water.
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