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Cha Tra Mue is the Thai tea brand. Written ชาตรามือ in Thai — cha tea, tra mue the hand mark — and sold as "Number One Brand" with a thumbs-up logo, it has made the same orange-bag blend since 1945. It is the tea behind most restaurant and street-cart cha yen, the one every other mix gets measured against, and the one most stockists carry. If a recipe says "Thai tea mix" without naming a brand, this is usually the bag it means.
This page is a directory entry: what the brand is and what is in it. It does not rank Cha Tra Mue against anything — that is the job of the best mixes guide, and the head-to-heads are linked below.
The lines, and which one you probably want
One name covers several products, and the query data says people mix them up. The bag colour is the fastest way to tell them apart.
- Red — "Number One Brand" original loose mix. The standard. Coarse-cut black tea with the classic vanilla-and-spice profile and the signature orange. This is the restaurant blend and the one to start with. Sold in a 400 g bag and, in Thailand, a red tin — the tin is what street stalls use.
- Gold — "Extra Gold". A selected-leaf blend, darker and more finely ground, slightly maltier with more mineral character, and a quarter to a third more expensive. Uses different artificial colourings from the red. Whether it is worth it: gold vs red.
- 3-in-1 instant powder. Tea, creamer and sugar already combined; add hot water. Built for speed and for boba. It is a different drink from the brewed mix — flatter, sweeter, no control over the milk — and our powder vs leaves page explains what that trade costs.
- Tea bags. The red blend in bag form. Convenient, weaker per bag than a measured scoop of loose mix, and pricier per glass.
- Green tea and other flavours. Cha Tra Mue also sells a green milk tea mix and seasonal flavours. Those are different drinks, not variants of cha yen, and this site does not cover them.
What is in the bag
Black tea, flavouring, and colour. The orange is added, not brewed — the red bag lists FD&C Yellow No. 6 (Sunset Yellow, E110), and Extra Gold lists E133 and E102 instead. Neither line is dye-free; if that matters to you, the brand to look at is Yim, and the whole question is worked through in Thai tea without dye. The dye contributes nothing to flavour — what you are tasting is a strong, malty black tea with vanilla and warm spice, built to stand up to sweetened condensed and evaporated milk without fading.
Ratio, since it is where most cups go wrong: about 10 g of mix to 350 ml of water, steeped five minutes, strained, then condensed milk and ice. Gold and red take the same ratio. The full method is the classic recipe.
If you searched for it in another language
This brand gets looked up in several scripts, and the packaging names differ from the English. ชาตรามือ is the Thai name on every bag. The red bag is often called the red label (赤ラベル in Japanese listings) and Extra Gold the gold pack (金色パック). "Number One Brand" and "Cha Tra Mue" are the same product; importers use one or the other.
What people actually say about it
ChaTraMue comes up 22 times across 13 of the 39 public discussions we read — 18 clear endorsements, 1 qualified, 3 against. Counted the same way for every brand, method and rules on the full dataset.
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“ChaTraMue is hands down my favorite brand for Thai Tea leaves. We used it for all the stores I managed and brewed fresh batches frequently.”
for · boba, 2025-03-17
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“I agree with both comments in this thread, chatramue and ranong were both pretty good.”
for · boba, 2025-03-17
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“Cha Tra Mue all day long. It's the traditional brand here. However buy a can of it.”
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“chaTraMue is 10/10 but bigC is 8/10.”
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“been drinking chaTraMue for years since my first trip to bangkok and totally agree it's worth the extra cost… the quality difference is real.”
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“Local here, I'd recommend getting ชาตรามือ (Cha Tra Mue).”
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“Cha tra mue is the best.”
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“For simplicity consider buying 3-in-1 ready mix. Cha-tra-mue, as mentioned by others, is the go to brand.”
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“Lotus, Big C, Cha Tra Mue shops — I'd go for Cha Tra Mue for the most popular one.”
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“The most popular/famous brand is ChaTraMue and if you can find it, it should be your first choice.”
for · Thailand, 2024-10-17
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“ChaTraMue's Original (Make sure to steep well) + Carnation Condensed Milk.”
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“I've long looked for the perfect Thai Tea taste that is identical to restaurants. This is it.”
for · tea, 2015-11-30
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“My recommendation would be "Number One Brand" if you want to brew it rather than use instant. You're going to have to add a lot of sugar.”
for · Cooking, 2017-06-12
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“There's this thai tea brand w the logo of a thumb up. My mum always use this when making either ice tea or lemon tea.”
for · recipes, 2017-05-27
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“There are other brand than Chatramue but it's the most known so you can't go wrong with it.”
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“Buy as many red you can carry, you won't regret it.”
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“Red can is the one most street stalls use.”
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“Quite easy to do at home if you have a bag of Chatramue tea.”
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“Once I got home, I noticed that the flavor was much less intense, so I now use three times the recommended amount when brewing it.”
qualified · ThailandTourism, 2026-06-25
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“I bought the chatramue and hated it. Taste nothing like Thai ice tea.”
against · ThailandTourism, 2026-04-22
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“I've bought the 3-in-1 and I've bought the big bag mix from Cha Tra Mue a few times but it never quite tasted the same.”
against · ThailandTourism, 2025-09-24
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“This tea is garbage quality.”
against · Thailand, 2026-04-28
Other people’s stated experience, counted; not our taste test. Last read 2026-08-29.
Head to head
- Cha Tra Mue vs Pantai — the restaurant benchmark against the bolder bag.
- Cha Tra Mue gold vs red — the brand's own two loose blends.
- Cha Tra Mue vs Yim — dyed against dye-free.
Where to buy
We don't print prices — they move constantly and vary by shop. These go straight to a stockist so you can see today's.
- Red (Number One Brand) loose mix — the standard bag, and the one every stockist has. Check price →
- Extra Gold — harder to find — neither grocer we checked stocks it, so start with a pan-Asian shop. Where to buy →
- 3-in-1 instant — for boba, or when you want a glass in a minute. Where to buy →
Brand details reflect what the maker states on its own packaging and listings, checked August 2026. Formulations change — read the ingredient panel before you buy. Spot something wrong? Tell us and we'll fix it.