Karak Tea Recipe with Cardamom: Ingredients, Steps and Tips

This karak tea recipe gives you the strong, creamy, cardamom-scented cup you get from a Gulf tea stall, made in your own kitchen. Below you will find the ingredients for 2 cups, 4 cups or a full thermos, the step-by-step method, which tea and milk to use, and the small tricks that make karak thick and frothy. If you are new to the drink, start with our guide to what karak tea is.

Karak Tea Ingredients

Karak needs only a few ingredients, so the quality and the proportions matter. Here is what goes into a classic cup:

• Strong black tea: loose CTC or Assam tea, or tea bags. Karak needs a tea that stays bold after the milk goes in.
• Green cardamom: whole pods, lightly crushed, or ground cardamom.
• Evaporated milk: the classic choice for a thick, creamy karak. Full-fat fresh milk also works.
• Sweetener: sugar, or a zero-calorie option such as stevia.
• Optional: a few saffron threads, a slice of fresh ginger or one clove.

How Much of Each Ingredient?

Use this table to scale the recipe. A small karak cup holds about 100 to 150 ml.

Servings	Water	Black tea	Cardamom pods	Evaporated milk
2 small cups	250 ml	2 teaspoons (or 2 tea bags)	3–4	150 ml
4 small cups	500 ml	4 teaspoons (or 4 tea bags)	6–8	300 ml
About 8 cups (thermos)	1 litre	8 teaspoons (or 8 tea bags)	12–15	600 ml

If you use ground cardamom instead of pods, start with about a quarter of a teaspoon for 2 cups and adjust to taste.

How to Make Karak Tea, Step by Step

1. First, bring the water to a boil in a small pan.
2. Then add the tea and the crushed cardamom. Lower the heat and let it simmer for 3 to 4 minutes, until the tea is very dark. Add saffron at this stage if you like.
3. Next, pour in the evaporated milk and add your sweetener.
4. After that, bring the pan back to a boil. Watch it closely, because milk tea rises quickly and can boil over.
5. Lower the heat and let it bubble gently for 2 to 3 minutes, so the tea and milk blend into one creamy drink.
6. For extra froth, pour the karak from a height between the pan and a cup a few times.
7. Finally, strain it into small cups and serve hot.

Which Tea Is Best for Karak?

Karak is all about strength. Granulated CTC black tea, often from Assam or Kenya, is the most common choice in Gulf tea shops, because it gives a dark colour and a bold taste very quickly. Large leaf teas also work; however, they need a few more minutes of simmering. If you prefer tea bags, use two bags for every cup, since one bag is usually too weak once the milk is added. Our Cardamom Black Tea pyramid bags already contain cardamom, so you can skip the pods.

Which Milk Should You Use?

Milk	Texture	Taste	Best for
Evaporated milk	Thick and creamy	Rich, slightly caramel	Classic café-style karak
Full-fat fresh milk	Lighter	Fresh and mild	A lighter everyday cup
Sweetened condensed milk	Very thick	Very sweet	Dessert-style karak; skip extra sugar
Milk powder	Medium	Mild	Camping and travel

Note that condensed milk already contains a lot of sugar, so a karak made with it is much sweeter than one made with evaporated milk. For a lower-sugar cup, use evaporated or fresh milk and a zero-calorie sweetener.

Tips for Thick, Café-Style Karak

• Brew the tea before the milk: tea leaves extract much better in water, so give them a few minutes on their own first.
• Do not rush the second boil: the 2 to 3 minutes after adding the milk is what makes karak creamy rather than milky.
• Crush the cardamom lightly: just crack the pods so the seeds release their aroma.
• Pull the tea: pouring it from a height adds air and gives a light froth on top.
• Taste before you sweeten more: evaporated milk is naturally a little sweet.

Common Karak Mistakes

• Using one weak tea bag for a whole pot, so the karak tastes like plain milk.
• Adding the milk at the start, so the tea never gets strong enough.
• Leaving the pan unattended after the milk goes in, so it boils over.
• Forgetting to strain, so leaves and cardamom husks end up in the cup.

Easy Karak Variations

• Saffron karak: add 4 to 5 saffron threads with the tea. See our saffron karak guide.
• Ginger karak: simmer a thin slice of fresh ginger with the tea for a warming winter cup.
• Iced karak: make it a little stronger, cool it, then pour it over ice. Here is our iced karak recipe.
• Karak without sugar: sweeten with a cardamom stevia sachet for extra aroma and no added sugar.

The Quick Way: Instant Cardamom Karak

On busy mornings, at the office or on a long drive, instant karak saves the boiling and the washing up. Empty one Lucarise Cardamom Karak Tea sachet into a cup, add about 150 ml of hot water or hot milk and stir. Then add the attached stevia sachet if you want it sweet. The full method is in our instant karak guide.

Serving karak to guests? Work out the tea, milk and thermoses with our karak tea calculator.

Karak Tea Recipe: Quick Questions

Try it: add up the sugar in your daily drinks with our sugar calculator.

Keep reading