"Arabic Tea"

Arabic Tea

Many searches bring up "Arabic" tea. There were several countries where this was the main "hit" I got when searching for tea tradition. Overall, cardamom is a popular spice in the region. So are cloves, saffron, ginger, mint, and cinnamon. Once again, I find myself playing with my food (or drink in this case).

First, the ingredients. I had some fun digging through my fabric stash, kitchen items on hand, and picking up some new items at the local thrift store. I work in a college town, so there are some really neat things that get dropped off at the second hand stores.

I used cardamom pods (purchased at the local Indian grocery), ceyleon loose leaf tea, and cloves.

I started with 4 cardamom pods that I cracked with my mortar and pestle. Apparently there are different colors of cardamom pods, I have green because that is what was available.

I tossed in a couple of whole cloves after I cracked the cardamom for the photo op. Then I added these to 2 cups (500 ml) water and brought it to a boil. Then I added 2 heaping tsp of tea and simmered for 5 minutes. One thing that really intrigued me about watching the videos of tea being made is the prevalence of canned milk. It makes sense. You have to keep it good somehow, especially for nomads. Some of it was even cardamom flavored, but I didn't have any cardamom milk available, so I used regular canned milk. Carnation brand milk is quite popular there, but I had a generic brand on hand. This method works well for me considering that I live in the country, so milk as it is sold in this country has a short shelf life when I bring it home, especially in the summer.

So I added a few spoon fulls to my pan while it was simmering, and here is the cup of tea that I got. My first picture of the tea looked too lonely, so I added some dried dates to the side since they are a very popular accompaniment to tea.

My thoughts: it tasted like canned milk. Blah. There was something I noticed about the tea I used though, so I started to do some investigating.

I prepared another cup of tea using bagged black tea. First I cut the bag open and measured the tea dust. It was essentially the same amount that I used for loose leaf. Then I brewed it the same way as my first cup.

The tea made with a tea bag is on the right. Notice how it is a bit darker? That helped the flavor a bit.

In my research on Middle Eastern tea, I have come across several sources that mentioned that Assam tea was popular in the region. From a quick Google search, I found out that Assam tea is grown in the Assam region of India. As luck had it, I found Assam tea in the bulk spice section where I got my other loose leaf teas from. The next day, I gave it a try. First, I brewed it plain. It brewed up to a pretty dark color. I thought it had a flavor that hinted to coffee. Then I brewed up some tea with cardamom and cloves like I did for the previous cups of tea.

I made one cup with the canned milk again. This time the flavor of the tea could stand up to the canned milk flavor. I imagine it would be even better with sugar, but I remain stubborn in my stance that I am not adding sugar to my tea. I also tried it without milk since places like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait prefer their tea without. Again, I skipped the sugar even though it is a typical add in. The tea without milk was my favorite. If I did make it with milk again, I would use unsweetened vanilla almond milk. That goes very well with the sweeter tea flavors.