Karak Tea
Section: Heritage and Regional · tea · dairy · batchable
Ingredients (as the source specifies)
- Strong black tea 4 g
- Water 120 ml
- Whole milk 80 ml
- Ground cardamom 0.5 g
- Sugar 8-12 g
- Saffron, a few threads (optional)
Operating procedure
Applies to: Gulf-style karak built as a single pan batch — spices infused first, tea extracted second, dairy folded in, then a long low simmer to caramelise. Quantities are the operator's own.
Target: governed by the step specs — the step 4 simmer sets the batch length. A service target per batch is still to be confirmed.
- Filtered water — 500 ml.
- Black tea — 3 tbsp, CTC granular preferred for colour strength and extraction.
- Full-fat milk — 200 ml.
- Sweetened condensed milk — 4 tbsp, acting as both sweetener and body agent.
- Cardamom — 6 pods, lightly cracked: the shell broken only, never ground.
- Cloves — 4 whole.
- Cinnamon — 1 small stick, whole, never ground.
- Saffron — a fine pinch, roughly 10–15 threads.
- A pan, a fine mesh strainer, and the service pot ready before you start.
- Pre-infusion — put the water in a pan over medium heat, add the cracked cardamom, the cloves and the cinnamon stick, and boil.
- 3 min. The purpose is to extract the spice base before tea compounds saturate the water.
- Tannin extraction — add the black tea to the spiced boiling water, reduce the heat and simmer.
- 5 min. Target a deep red, near-black colour.
- Dairy integration — add the liquid milk first to take the edge off the heat, then the condensed milk, stirring continuously so it dissolves fully and does not settle on the base of the pan.
- The order is not optional: liquid milk before condensed.
- Simmer and caramelise — reduce to the lowest possible heat and hold it there.
- 10–15 min at the lowest heat. This stage is decisive — evaporation builds body and marries the spice to the milk fat. The batch reduces during this simmer, which is why the finished volume is measured at the pot and not added up from the inputs.
- Saffron — add it one minute before removing the pan from the heat.
- 1 min only. Prolonged high heat destroys saffron's volatile compounds.
- Strain and serve — take the pan off the heat and strain the whole batch into the service pot.
- Fine mesh. No spice fragments or sediment in the pour. Measured output: 600 ml — 4 cups at 150 ml, about 5 oz each.
- GRIND — never use finely ground or powdered spice. It clouds the body and builds an unwanted bitterness in the finish.
- HEAT — milk boiled hard boils over and scorches its sugars, which ruins the drink outright. Low, quiet heat is the standard.
- SWEETENING — condensed milk already carries a high sugar load. Calibrate the quantity to requirement and add no additional white sugar; it breaks the balance.
Tablespoon measures here are volumetric. Gram weights for the tea and the condensed milk would cost more accurately, and are still to be supplied. The finished yield is the operator's own measurement taken at the pot — 600 ml, poured as 4 cups at 150 ml. It is deliberately NOT reconciled against the inputs: the step 4 simmer reduces the batch by an amount nobody has measured, so subtracting a percentage would produce a computed figure wearing the appearance of a measured one.
Technique
The procedures this drink is built with. They are the technique, not this drink's own method.
Energy, derived from the ingredient list
Computed line by line against the source's own coefficient table. Nothing here is typed in.
- Plain tea and herbal infusion · 0 kcal
- Plain water and soda · 0 kcal
- Whole milk 3.5% · 80 × 0.64 = 51.2 kcal
- Plain tea and herbal infusion · 0 kcal
- Sugar 8-12 g · 12 × 4 = 48 kcal
- Saffron, a few threads (optional) · 0 kcal
Derived total: ≈ 100 kcal
Caffeine, derived from the ingredient list
Computed line by line at the source's own reference doses. Nothing here is typed in.
- Strong black tea 4 g · 56 mg (4 g leaf × 14 mg/g (the black-tea reference at its stated 3 g = 42 mg))
Derived total: ≈ 56 mg
Recommended adult daily maximum: 400 mg
Allergens, as the source states them: `MILK`
Holding and food safety
These figures are the published guidance, not a house rule. Each carries its source.
- Chilled components: hold at or below 5 °C. The legal maximum is 8 °C.
- Once a chilled component is out of the fridge, it has 4 hours before it must be discarded.
Your local authority sets the requirement. Confirm these against it before service.
Source: GOV.UK — Food hygiene for businesses (FSA guidance) — retrieved 2026-08-20