Khem Thai Tea is Toronto's first and only shop specializing in Thai "pulled" tea, or cha chak.

Phanom Suksaen, better known as Patrick, is something of Toronto's patron saint of Thai food. Or, one of them, anyway. The owner of such celebrated local spots as Koh Lipe and Le Lert, to name only a few, the restaurateur's methods of celebrating Thai cuisine and culture in Toronto are as numerous as they are varied.

Case in point, Thai Mart. A veritable one-stop shop for edible Thai treasures, the space is home to several ventures, including Suksaen's Thai gelato business, Kati, 555 Boat Noodles, Hi Hoi Tod, a convenience store vending Thai snacks and frozen foods and, most recently, Khem Thai Tea.

The city's first and only shop specializing in Thai pulled tea, a method of production by which the tea is "pulled" or passed between two cups, Khem has already garnered a cult following in the months since it opened, and it's not hard to see why.

The act of pulling the tea doesn't just give it a unique entertainment angle, though. It also mixes and aerates the tea, allowing for greater depth of flavour, which the layer of froth atop the cup amplifies as each fine bubble pops.

That very depth of flavour is at the core of Khem, whose name comes from the Thai word meaning "dark" or "strong" as it pertains to tea. Unable to import tea leaves directly from Thailand, Suksaen stopped at nothing to source leaves that would give him the desired deep, earthy strength. Ultimately, he settled on Ceylon from India, which, at Khem, is simply mixed with condensed milk, to a not-too-sweet, aromatic end.

Patrick tells me that, in Thailand, tea pullers dress up their routines with all manner of tactful twirls and arcs of tea. By those standards, the five-foot pours performed by the pullers at Khem seem almost mundane. I thought they were impressive, still.

Impressive and effective. The classic Thai iced tea ($6.95) delivers on its promise of strength. Boasting the classic amber colour, it arrives with a fine froth at the top, laden with crushed ice to ensure the drink is optimally cooled with minimal dilution.

If decadence is what you're after, Thai iced tea cream cheese ($7.95) is your new best friend. Classic tea is topped with a dollop of thick, silky cream cheese foam. At once salty, sweet and earthy, it puts any cheesecake to shame.

And, if we're already indulging, why stop at just cream cheese foam? The Thai tea float ($10.95) is the mack daddy of the Thai tea suite at Khem. Classic tea is topped with a condensed milk foam and finished with a Thai tea popsicle. If your tea getting diluted as the ice melts is a concern, this should clear it all up for you.

Other beverages, in a rainbow of colours, grace the menu, too. Pink milk ($6.95) or nom yen is a Thai favourite, consisting of condensed milk infused with salak fruit, which gives it a distinct, though hard-to-place, fruity flavour.

The iced green tea ($6.95) eschews matcha-mania in favour of a delicate jasmine-based green tea, finished with a frothy cap of sweetened condensed milk foam.

The newest addition to the menu, cocoa lava milk ($7.95), is an utterly Instagrammable riff on chocolate milk. A generous helping of chocolate syrup is drizzled over iced condensed milk, dripping down in lava-like tendrils before cooling over the ice in a mass that slowly releases more chocolate as you drink.

For those who prefer their caffeine derived from the coffee plant, Thai iced coffee ($6.95) is available, too.

It's been said that Suksaen is single-handedly transforming the Yonge and College area into Toronto's unofficial Little Thailand, and the addition of Khem, though small in footprint, is one step closer to that becoming a reality.

Khem Thai Tea is located at 496 Yonge St.