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Karak Chai

Name: Karak Chai
Total time: 15 min
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: United Arab Emirates
Ingredients: 3 tbsp Black tea leaves; 4 tbsp Sweetened condensed milk; 300ml Milk; 300ml Water; 5 pods Cardamom; A pinch Saffron; 1 tbsp Sugar

Dessert

⏱ 15 min

👥 Serves 4

Difficulty ⭐

Black tea simmered rich with cardamom and condensed milk — the sweet milk tea loved all over the UAE.

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📖 The Story Behind This Dish

Karak chai is a simmered milk tea brought by South Asian immigrants and now an essential part of daily life in the UAE. Karak means 'strong': tea leaves are simmered with cardamom and saffron and finished rich and sweet with condensed or evaporated milk. At street-corner cafeterias, many people order without leaving their cars.

🌆 Where it's eaten: On a Dubai night, cars pull up outside a street-corner cafeteria and a worker brings steaming milk tea in small paper cups to the driver's window.

🥕 Ingredients (serves 4)

Black tea leaves 3 tbsp
Sweetened condensed milk 4 tbsp
Milk 300ml
Water 300ml
Cardamom 5 pods
Saffron A pinch
Sugar 1 tbsp

👩‍🍳 Instructions

Lightly crush the cardamom pods.
Bring the water, cardamom, and saffron to a boil in a pot.
Add the tea leaves and simmer on low for 3 minutes until strong.
Add the milk, condensed milk, and sugar and bring to a boil 2–3 times, watching that it doesn't boil over.
Strain into small cups.

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