A country that runs on chai
Pakistan is one of the world’s largest importers of tea, and it shows. Chai is offered to every guest, drunk at every office break and sold from every roadside dhaba. Most of it is strong black tea boiled with milk and sugar, but there’s more variety than visitors expect, from pink, salty Kashmiri chai in the north to fragrant green qehwa after a heavy Peshawari meal.
Choosing the tea
For milky chai, use strong loose black tea, the granular kind sold in Pakistani shops. It’s made for boiling, and gives the deep colour and slightly bitter edge that stands up to milk. Leaf tea and tea bags work but need longer. Kashmiri chai uses a different leaf altogether, a green tea that turns deep red when boiled with a pinch of baking soda. Qehwa uses ordinary green tea leaves.
Boiling is part of the recipe
Unlike tea in many countries, Pakistani chai is cooked. The leaves are boiled first in water to release their colour, then milk goes in and the chai is brought to the boil two or three times, the , lowering the heat in between so it doesn’t boil over. Each rise deepens the colour and flavour. Stop too soon and the chai tastes thin; boil too long and the milk tastes cooked.
| Chai | Milk : water | Boils | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doodh patti | mostly milk | 2–3 rises | strong, creamy |
| Masala chai | 3 : 1 | 2 rises | ginger, cardamom |
| Kashmiri chai | concentrate + milk | long reduction | pink, nutty |
| Qehwa | water only | short steep | light, fragrant |
Sweetness and the gur question
Most Pakistanis take their chai sweet, but sugar is easy to adjust. If you want to try gur wali chai, made with jaggery, stir the gur in off the heat after the last boil. Added while the chai is boiling, jaggery can curdle the milk.