Karak Chai Recipe

Here is the Middle eastern best Karak Chai recipe that I took from a street café in downtown Dubai famous to make the perfect cups of Karak tea. Golden brown, creamier, sweet, a little bitter, and astringent flavor forms a desired flavor for tea lovers.

This is incredibly magical to revive the vitality by having a small cup of this 5 minutes chai recipe. If you are used to of having it then you must know about it as every cafe, restaurant and hotels are serving this chai all over gulf region.

The recipe is simple and almost take 5 minutes to make it at home. So if you are eager to make it at home then follow the recipes step by step and believe it will give you the authentic Karak tea flavor.

My husband is almost addicted to have this tea in morning and evening so I was excited to get the authentic recipe to make it at home. Finally, I got it! and now religiously making everyday especially after dinner.

Many people in India and Pakistan love to have Pink Kashmiri Chai. Here is the recipe to make at home. Also, you can try this herbal orange peel tea. My favorite is homemade cappuccino that also take less than 10 minutes to prepare at home without coffee machine.

What is Karak Chai?

Karak means strong and chai is tea, so both combine to make Karak Chai, which is a strong milk tea that people love to have all around the world. It’s a delectable hot beverage drink prepared with the combination of milk, and black tea leaves. Additional ingredients are just to enhance the flavor of tea.

Tea or chai is an international hot drink that people make according to their taste but some taste dominates and karak chai is one of them.

Is it Middle Eastern Tea or Indian/Pakistani?

Karak Tea is popular in Middle Eastern region and now extending its boundaries and people love to make it in India and Pakistan. Although these extensions adapt different variations in recipes as some people make with masala (spices) and some prefer to make by infusing a strong flavor of cardamom.

It’s famous in US and UK and my friends visiting Dubai were asking to have Karak Chai first. If you are sleepy or tired, then have it as an aromatic hot cup of Karak chai will make you awake and intact your agility in no time. This is my best practice of make Kadak tea.

Why This Recipe Works?

• It's simple, easy and almost take 5 minutes to make it ready.
• Minimal ingredients used in this recipe to get authentic flavor of Karak Tea.
• Spending long hours working on laptop screen can make me tired and lethargic and 1 cup of karak tea easily help to intact my vitality.
• It's a family drink! as everyone love to have it without any reason.
• Aroma of tea makes whole house fragrant that great to inhale a soothing vibes.
• Last but not the least, it's a minimal ingredients and easiest Karak chai recipe that you can ever make.

Ingredients

Milk + Evaporated Milk: I used the combination of fresh milk with evaporated milk as it makes a best combination and dilute the pinching flavor of evaporated milk that some people doesn't like. If you want, you can dilute the evaporated milk with water but most recommended to use fresh milk as it will give you creamy and smooth texture of tea.

Black Tea: Used loose black tea powder with strong flavor.

Cardamom: Most coarsely ground green cardamom is used to add a specific cardamom flavor in tea. You can also use cardamom powder to replace pods.

Sugar: It's optional! if you want make it without sugar.

Additives (Optional): There are different spices like ginger, and cinnamon is used to boil milk. Mostly used in India Masala Chai. It will change the flavor of Karak tea so if you like add it otherwise use the standard ingredients of karak tea. In the same way, saffron karak tea is also popular. You can add saffron strands while boiling milk.

How To Make Karak Chai

In a pan, pour milk and coarsely ground cardamom, boil it for about 2 to 3 minutes and keep stirring during this process to make it foamy in texture.

Now add Black tea and keep stirring.

Add Sugar according to your flavor or skip it if you want to make it sugar free.

Keep stirring...

Now add evaporated milk and give it a good mix.

Finely strain it!

Pour in tea cups and enjoy!

Tips To Make Best Karak Chai

Karak tea has creamy and thick texture compared with regular tea. If you want to make extremely creamy tea then use evaporated milk with black tea.

I have tried this tea with these combinations:

• Boil evaporated milk with water, cardamom and black tea. It was creamy and good in texture but the aroma of evaporated milk was empowering that made me little off with this idea.
• Next, I tried this recipe and it was perfect in taste. Didn't feel heavy after having this.
• Another idea is to use the hot water, add evaporated milk in it and use the tea bag. This one is good to make while traveling as it's super easy and quick.

Many people ask, how long to boil milk. Only 2 to 3 minutes are enough to boil milk. Don't boil longer as we are not making dessert 🙂

Quality of black tea matters here. Use good quality loose black tea as it will give you best flavor.

Tea Serving Ideas

There are plenty of idea that makes your teatime special. I love to arrange some quick recipes for teatime.

Here are few options that you might like;

• Karachi biscuits,
• Egg mayo sandwich (5 minute recipe),
• club sandwiches,
• mini spring rolls,
• fried sandwiches,
• cheese samosa,
• potato gratin without cream,
• Falafel and Egyptian macarona bechamel.

Q & A

Explore Famous Middle Easter Recipes: Chicken Kabsa, Dakous, Mandi, Shish Tawook, Maqluba, Macarona Bechamel, and Baba Ganoush without Tahini.

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5 from 2 votes

Karak Chai Recipe

Here is the Middle eastern best Karak Chai recipe that I took from a street café in downtown Dubai famous to make the perfect cups of Karak tea. Golden brown, creamier, sweet, a little bitter, and astringent flavor forms a desired flavor for tea lovers.

Prep Time2 minutes mins

Active Time5 minutes mins

Total Time7 minutes mins

Course: Drinks, Tea

Cuisine: Indian, International, Middle Eastern, Pakistani

Keyword: Karak Chai, Karak tea

Yield: 2 Persons

Materials

• 2 cups Milk
• ½ cup Evaporated Milk
• 1 tablespoon Black Tea
• 1 teaspoon Sugar To Taste (optional)
• 5 Cardamom Pods

Instructions

• In a pan, pour milk and coarsely ground cardamom, boil it for about 2 to 3 minutes and keep stirring during this process to make it foamy in texture.
• Now add Black tea and keep stirring.
• Add Sugar according to your flavor or skip it if you want to make it sugar free.
• Keep stirring...
• Now add evaporated milk and give it a good mix.
• Finely strain it!
• Pour in tea cups and enjoy!

Notes

Make the creamy texture as per your desired flavor. Use only evaporated milk if you like the extremely creamy texture. 

Dilute the flavor of evaporated milk with fresh milk. It will give you the perfect flavor with a delectable strong tea aroma.

You can also dilute the flavor of evaporated milk with water but it's not recommended. If feel it's a compromise on the creamy texture and flavor of the tea. 

Use only green cardamom to add a specific middle eastern flavor in tea. 

To increase the number of cups, multiply the ingredients accordingly. This recipe is to make 2 medium size cups. 

You can also use saffron strands to give a flavor. It's a perfect flavor for winter tea.