Qymaq chai is the tea for special occasions. Green tea is boiled until dark, then poured from one pan to another from a height, twenty times or more, until it turns a deep red. Hot milk turns it a pale purple-pink, and each cup is finished with sugar, cardamom and a spoonful of qymaq, the thick clotted cream that floats on top. In Afghanistan the best qymaq chai was said to match the colour of the Judas tree in spring flower, purple like the mountains in a certain light, with the qymaq for their snowy caps. Similar teas are made in Tibet and Kashmir, where salt goes in instead of sugar. Serve it with sweet bread or biscuits.
Zone: Silk Road Table
INGREDIENTS
- 680 ml water
- 6 tsp green tea leaves
- 225 ml whole milk
- 4-8 tsp sugar
- 1-2 tsp ground green cardamom seeds
- 8 tsp clotted cream (in place of qymaq)
METHOD
- Bring the water to the boil in a pan. Add the green tea and keep boiling for 5 minutes, until the water turns dark yellow-green.
- Take the pan off the heat and let the leaves settle, then strain the tea into another pan, discarding the leaves.
- Pour the tea from one pan into the other from a good height, 30 to 60cm, so that it is aerated. Repeat until it turns dark red; this can take 20 to 25 pours.
- Put the pan back on the heat and bring to a simmer. At the same time, heat the milk to simmering point in another pan.
- Combine the two. The tea should turn a light purple-pink.
- Stir in the sugar and cardamom, pour into cups and top each with two teaspoons of clotted cream.
NOTES
UK adaptation: Clotted cream stands in here for qymaq; it melts into the tea where qymaq floats, so a little qymaq from an Afghan grocer, mixed with clotted cream, comes closest. Loose Chinese green tea such as gunpowder. Whole milk. Everything else widely available.
US adaptation: Clotted cream from specialist shops or larger supermarkets, or qymaq from Afghan grocers. Loose gunpowder green tea. Everything else widely available.
Cook’s note: Keep pouring from a height until the tea is properly dark red before the milk goes in. The aeration is what turns it pink; stop early and it stays brown.
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