Qymaq Chai

Ingredients

Tea concentrate

• 60 gloose green tea, Chinese gunpowder or Afghan spring green
• 1.2 litreswater
• ½ tspbicarbonate of soda
• 6green cardamom pods, lightly crushed

To finish

• 600 mlwhole milk
• 4 tbspsugar, or to taste
• 1small pinch fine salt

To serve

• 6heaped tbsp qymaq, or thick clotted cream
• 2 tbspslivered pistachios
• 1 tbspslivered almonds
• ground cardamom, for dusting

Directions

1. Bring 1 litre of the water to a rolling boil in a wide pan, add the tea leaves and cardamom, and boil uncovered for 10 minutes until the liquid is deep amber and smells sharply of tannin.
2. Stir in the bicarbonate of soda. The brew foams and darkens within seconds; hold it at a fast boil for a further 5 minutes.
3. Splash in the remaining 200 ml cold water, then aerate: ladle the tea high above the pan and pour it back, 25 to 30 times, until the colour turns from muddy brown to a clear deep red. This oxidation, not any colouring, is what makes the tea pink later.
4. Boil the tea down to roughly 400 ml of near-black concentrate, then strain through a fine sieve, pressing the leaves hard, and discard them.
5. Scald the milk in a clean pan until it steams, about 70°C (160°F), then whisk in the concentrate a ladleful at a time; the colour flips to rose the moment the two meet.
6. Add the sugar and salt and hold at a bare simmer for 5 minutes so the milk takes on the tannin. Do not let it boil hard or the pink dulls to beige.
7. Warm the cups with hot water, tip it out, and pour the tea to 2 cm below the rim.
8. Drop a heaped spoon of qymaq on each cup, scatter with pistachio and almond, dust with cardamom and serve at once, while the cream is still half melting into the surface.

Technique

• The pink comes from alkaline oxidation. The soda raises the pH so the green tea catechins oxidise as you aerate them; skip the pouring and you get grey tea.
• Qymaq is made by simmering raw whole milk very gently for hours, cooling it overnight and lifting off the set crust. Clotted cream is the closest bought stand-in.
• Too much soda tastes soapy and thin. Half a teaspoon per litre is the ceiling; if your water is very hard, cut it to a third of a teaspoon.

Substitutions

• No qymaq or clotted cream: beat 100 ml double cream to soft peaks with a spoonful of mascarpone; it will not have the same cooked note but holds its shape.
• Gunpowder green tea is the standard, but any strong unflavoured green tea works. Avoid jasmine, which turns medicinal at this strength.

Variations

• Sheer chai: the same brew served without the cream, milkier and sweeter, drunk daily in Kabul homes.
• Noon chai, the Kashmiri and Peshawari cousin, is salted rather than sugared and finished with crushed almonds.

History

Green tea turned pink by baking soda then milk and cream; the same drink is Kashmir’s noon chai and a Peshawar speciality.

Frequently asked questions

What is Qymaq Chai?

Qymaq Chai is a drink from Afghanistan: festive pink green-tea brew with milk, cardamom and clotted cream. Green tea turned pink by baking soda then milk and cream; the same drink is Kashmir’s noon chai and a Peshawar speciality.

How long does Qymaq Chai take to make?

Qymaq Chai takes 10 min of preparation and 45 min of cooking. The recipe makes 6 small cups (about 1.2 litres). It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Qymaq Chai?

Yes, within limits. No qymaq or clotted cream: beat 100 ml double cream to soft peaks with a spoonful of mascarpone; it will not have the same cooked note but holds its shape. Gunpowder green tea is the standard, but any strong unflavoured green tea works. Avoid jasmine, which turns medicinal at this strength.

What is the most important thing to get right in Qymaq Chai?

Add the sugar and salt and hold at a bare simmer for 5 minutes so the milk takes on the tannin. Do not let it boil hard or the pink dulls to beige.