A spoonful of sweet lychee bites, jackfruit slices, chewy jellies, and ice cold coconut milk, sounds refreshing doesn’t it? Chè Thái is more than just a sweet soup or fruit cocktail, it’s a dessert that packs in a lot of flavor in just one bite.
Luckily, this dessert is super simple to make because the use of canned tropical fruit makes it readily available and you can customize it based on the different fruits you prefer.
Chè in Vietnamese describes sweet desserts that come in liquid forms, like drinks, pudding, or even types of ‘soup.’
Chè Thái is a Vietnamese version of a similar Thai dessert named “Tub Tim Krop,” a dish that is a combination of water chestnuts and coconut milk. This dessert doesn’t have shaved ice, but its mix of ingredients often reminds me of Vietnamese chè ba màu, or Filipino halo-halo.
I like to add canned longans, lychees, jackfruit, ai-yu jelly, and toddy palms. The great part about this dessert is that you have the option to use other types of fruit or items, like coconut, grass jelly, or tapioca balls–whatever you prefer.
The water chestnuts are coated in red food coloring, covered in tapioca starch, and boiled, which gives the chestnuts a shiny crimson shade that resembles its nickname as “red rubies.”
Naturally dyed “red rubies”
Chè Thái takes on these bright “red rubies” and coconut milk and adds even more delicious fruits and jellies. The red rubies are very reminiscent of pomegranate seeds, in their size, shape, color, texture, and how they have a pale white crunchy center.
I recently updated this recipe to get rid of all unnatural food dyes in it. This means changing out the red rubies’ dye and trying a bunch of brands to see what worked best (this also meant switching away from the canned green jellies and making it at home–more on that later). Luckily three brands were available for natural red food coloring: ENCO, Supernatural, and Watkins.
Watkins was available online as well as Sprouts and Mother’s markets, but Watkins turned out the worst. It was the most purple, and palest of the three. ENCO was a clear winner, which was the most red without a purple hue and it had a bright, saturated color–it was the one we went with for this recipe!
To make make the “red rubies,” you need some canned water chestnuts which we’ll dice. We’re looking for just a pop of color and some texture contrast from these guys, without overwhelming the rest of the dessert.
Cut the water chestnuts into ¼ inch pieces, mix with red food coloring, and coat with tapioca starch. Now boil the water chestnuts in batches and remove when they begin to float.
Immediately put them in an iced water bath. The longer you keep them in the water, the chewier they will be, so I like to keep them in for at least 10 minutes.
Homemade natural pandan jelly
Traditionally in chè Thái, ai-yu jelly with a nice green coor is added to the dessert. You can find it premade in a can in the same aisle as the other fruit in this chè. However, since I prefer ingredients made without artificial dyes, we’ll make a homemade jelly using natural pandan extract, agar-agar, water, and sugar.
Using agar-agar will give you a firmer texture than canned ai-yu jelly, but I like this option because it’s vegan and sets faster than gelatin (20 minutes vs. 2 hours). The natural pandan extract mimics the ai-yu jelly coloring. As for sweetness, you can adjust to your taste with sugar. If you cann’t source ai-yu jelly or want to avoid artificial dyes, this is a great alternative to the canned jelly. See steps for making this in the recipe card below!
The fruit
The fruit inside this chè Thái to me feels like walking down 99 Ranch and picking whatever your heart’s desire from the preserved fruit section. Sure we’ll use fresh fruit if we have it in season and on hand, but this dessert is truly an exercise in speed and convenience.
You can use whatever fruit you like really! But the ones that hold up well to swimming in a cup with ice and with other fruits are tougher fruits unlike, for example, bananas or mangoes. Here’s the fruit we used in this recipe:
- jackfruit
- lychee
- longan
- toddy palm seeds
- fresh coconut
For the canned fruit, be sure to save the syrup from one of the cans because you will use this as a sweetener later. I’ve found that using only one can of syrup helps emphasize the sweetness without muddling the taste.
To prepare, simply cut all the fruit into bite sized pieces and put them into a large punch bowl along with the “red rubies.”
The coconut
I’m a sucker for fresh coconut and if you have it available in your markets nearby it’s definitely worth it for this dessert. The younger ones have soft and sweet flesh, yet still has sweet juice. They’re usually labeled ‘young’ so you know. Sometimes they’re just not available though, but if you get older coconuts, the flesh may be super hard and very difficult to scoop out of the coconut.
If you’ve only been opening coconuts with a knife, or cleaver, you know how dangerous it can be and maybe it will hold you back from using fresh coconut for recipes, but check out this special coconut tool.
My coconut journey has completely changed after my girlfriend bought me a Coco Jack. This was originally a Shark Tank prouct that now in 2025 is out of business due to all of the cheaper knockoff coconut openers available like this set, or this opener. It’s basically set of two items, a sharp round metal “jack”, and a softer mallet you use to hammer the sharp edge of the jack into the coconut.
The sharp metal part pierces the husk (exocarp) and the hard shell (endocarp), then you can safely lift the round part out like a lever to access the inside of the coconut.
I like to fancy myself pretty safe and handy with a knife, so I used to cut these coconuts open over a sink with a chef’s knife. But as safe as one can be with a chef’s knife, there’s still way more room for slips and error compared to using one of these specialized coconut tools.
How to serve
Since I like extra sweetener in my chè Thái, I add some of the leftover syrup from the canned fruit. To finish this fruit cocktail, I use coconut milk and add the juice and meat of one coconut for extra flavor into the punch bowl. If you don’t have this on hand, you can also use half and half or heavy whipping cream.
You can premix all of the ingredients and liquid in one bowl, or leave them both separated so people can decide which fruits they want, and the ratio of fruit or filling to liquid they want in the cup.
You can chill the chè Thái by adding ice, but I like to make this dessert ahead of time and place it in the refrigerator for a few hours so ice doesn’t water down the flavor. I like to serve this for parties since you quickly and easily make a large batch to share with a crowd.
Chè Thái Recipe (Vietnamese Fruit Cocktail)
Ingredients
Homemade pandan jelly (optional substitute for canned ai-yu jelly)
- 2 c water
- 1 tbsp natural pandan extract
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar
- 2 tsp agar agar powder
"Red Rubies"
- 1 can 8 oz whole water chestnuts
- natural red food coloring
- 1/4 c tapioca starch
- 2 c water
- 2 c ice for water bath
Chè Thái
- 1 can 20 oz jackfruit
- 1 can 20 oz lychee
- 1 can 20 oz longan
- 1 can 19 oz ai-yu jelly
- 1 can 20 oz toddy palm seeds
- 1 fresh coconut you'll need the juice & flesh
- 1 can 13.5 oz coconut milk
Equipment Used
Instructions
Homemade pandan jelly (optional substitute for canned ai-yu jelly)
- In a sauté pan, combine 2 c water, 1 tbsp natural pandan extract, 1 tbsp granulated sugar, and 2 tsp agar agar powder.
- Stir until the agar-agar and sugar dissolves.
- Simmer for 5 minutes, then remove from the heat.
- Transfer to a heat-safe container. Let cool on the counter until it firms up, about 20 minutes. Once cool, you can place it in the fridge until you want to serve.
- Gently use your fingers and press the corners to release the jelly. Turn the jelly over onto a cutting board and cut it into ½-inch cubes. Transfer the cubes to the bowl with the fruit.
"Red Rubies"
- Open the 1 can 8 oz whole water chestnuts can and drain it. Dice the water chestnuts into small pieces into ¼ inch cubes and place them in a large bowl. Don't worry if they seem small, the coating of the tapioca starch makes them bigger.
- Add a few drops of natural red food coloring to the cubed chestnuts and mix thoroughly. Make sure there isn’t extra water or food coloring in the bowl because this will make the tapioca starch extra gummy.
- Here's the final result of coloring for the brand that we used, ENCO.
- Add 1/4 c tapioca starch to the bowl and cover all the water chestnuts evenly. To remove extra starch, place the water chestnuts in a colander and sift. You want to prevent extra starch from going into the boiling water because it will make the water gummy, too.
- In a separate bowl make an ice water bath with 2 c water and 2 c ice.
- Boil a pot with about two inches of water over medium-high heat. In small batches, add the coated water chestnuts and immediately stir to prevent sticking.
- When the chestnut float to the top, remove them from the water and transfer to an ice water bath and stir again to keep from sticking.
- Cool them in the bath for at least 10 minutes.
Prepare fruits
- Crack open the coconut and set aside juice, carve out slices of coconut meat. See the post above for technique.
- Open all the canned fruit, save the syrup from one can in a separate container. I like lychee the best, so I save this syrup. We found that if you mix the syrup from all the cans, the taste can get a bit muddled.
- Cut jackfruit into slices, cut lychee into large slices, and cut toddy palm into thin slices. Keep the longan in its original shape since these come fairly small.
Assembly
- Combine all fruit into a large container.
- In another container, combine coconut milk and coconut juice.
- Slowly start to add the reserved syrup to sweeten the milk about 1 tbsp at a time, until its sweet enough for your taste.
- Add the sweetened coconut milk, coconut juice, coconut pulp, and cubes of grass jelly into the large container with the fruit and stir.
- I prefer fridging the chè Thái for a couple of hours before serving so it’s nice and cold, but you can also add crushed ice if you want to serve immediately.
Like this recipe? Subscribe to my newsletter!
You went next level with the coconut meat and juice from a real coconut! I hear a lot of peeps put in fresh durian to make it even more special and bring it up a notch. LOL!
Haha yeah fresh coconut is great, I like to have that just by itself sometimes. But yeah durian… the polarizing Asian fruit, wasn’t feeling it on this one 🙂
Hi, can I use potato starch or cornstarch if I don’t have tapioca starch on hand? This is for the “red rubies”
Hey Cara, I haven’t tested this and am unsure how it would turn out, sorry!
Hi! I can’t find the ai-you jellies where I live, do you think grass jelly would work in this recipe?
Yup this che is really open to however you’d like to modify it!
Dear Huy,
Thanks for your guidance. I made this yesterday sans Ruby seeds, and it turned out well. I tried both coconut milk, and then did half n’ half in a different glass. Both were refreshing in their own ways. Thanks again!
Thanks for sharing, and for the tips Tam!
Loved the recipe. Made two huge pots for a bbq.
The cutting took so long! Can I pre cut and leave without syrup over night in the fridge?
Yup you can pre-cut all the ingredients in this recipe!
Thank you so much for using natural dye and pandan extract! I didn’t think the latter existed, so I’m super happy you included links for purchasing. Yum!!