Recipes
Red Rice Tea
When hot weather comes, this drink will cool you down and nicely refresh you, with the smell of red rice and a balance of sweet and sour.
Time needed: 15 - 20 minutes
By Muhammad Akmal
Inspired By Kintamani Red Rice Tea
January 31, 2025
I was in Kintamani when exploring the waterfall with my friend, Rere. Then we stopped by the nearby red rice restaurant to try some Kintamani red rice delicacies. They were serving various dishes from drinks, and main course until dessert with red rice as their main ingredients. I was trying their hot red rice tea with lemongrass and I was shocked by how smooth the taste was and how interesting the drink was because they also served some tablespoons of boiled red rice. I find it fascinating even though I didn’t finish all the rice cause I think the red rice was quite a lot compared to the tea itself. The texture itself is somehow interesting because I thought at first it would be soft, but it turns out that the red rice still has some crisp indicating that the red rice is not fully cooked. One other thing that fascinates me is, you can get more carbs by drink thi =s kind of tea because of the red rice granules that sit on the bottom of the glass, and you can make it both hot and cold, with additional warm spices like lemongrass, clove or ginger.
Ingredients
red rice
4 tbsp
water
1.2 L
A handful of mint leaves
Juice of 2 limes
white sugar
6-8 tbsp
Flakey salt to season
boiled red rice
1 tbsp
mint leaves
1-2
Steps
1. Boil red rice
Get a medium pan or wok, and put red rice and water in the pan. Bring it to a boil and let it simmer for 3-4 minutes to extract all the goodness from the red rice.
2. Add sugar, mint, lime juice, and salt to the pan
Turn off the heat and put mint, lime juice, and sugar in the pan. Whisk until the sugar dissolves. Taste and adjust the acidity and sweetness as you want - add more lime juice to make it more sour, or add more sugar to make it sweeter. Finally, add a pinch or two of flakey salt to bring more of the flavor of the tea.
Squeeze mint before putting it in the pan to extract all the goodness
3. Wait until it cool and put it in the cooler
Wait until it cools down, strain the mint leaves, transfer it to a bottle, and put it in the cooler for up to 4 hours to make it cool
4. Serve!
Take a glass, and just pour it all over. Put 1 tablespoon of the boiled red rice in the glass. Don’t forget to garnish with a leaf of mint in the center of the glass. Enjoy!
If you want to make it cooler by adding ice, you can make it sweeter than it should be, since adding ice means that you will lower the current sugar concentration and make the taste balance between sweet and sour.