There is a reason why the UAE is peppered with the ubiquitous chai shop – some are more hole-in-the-wall than others, but what they lack in compatible design they make up for in experience. Steaming cups of tea with a mix of milk and water that has been boiled to perfection and flavoured with caffeine-rich tea leaves. (Sugar is added to taste.) This liquor is a blanket of comfort and a gentle nudge into wakefulness.
This type of tea is often called karak, although there are many variations – with ginger or other additional spices – which can also result in a slightly tweaked name. [Ask for ginger or cinnamon tea, for instance, if you’d like to try a specific blend.]
The drink’s roots are in India, where instead of ‘a splash of milk’ or a squeeze of lime as the decoction was originally drunk by the British who introduced it to the country, the water is boiled along with milk until it thickens into a syrupy concoction.
Today this type of tea is drunk in tiny stalls, pop-up and shops often called chai addas.
As a trading hub, the UAE was destined to offer both versions of the drink, and it has. The colloquially called kadak – which means strong – has also revamped its name; here, we call it karak. And with it, it has re-jigged some of its essential ingredients, fresh milk often for taste and consistency is replaced by its evaporated cousin. “In 7,400 tea shops that sell karak, [the tea is] made with Rainbow [evaporated milk],” says Sumeet Mathur, Managing Director, FrieslandCampina Middle East
So how does the thick evaporated milk come to be? “Evaporating 40 per cent of water content from fresh milk and retaining its good fat and protein,” adds Mathur.
In the end know there are 2 glasses of fresh milk in each 170g tin.
You’ll often be able to spot a chai shop meters away, because it’s generally a-buzz with conversation and the sound of sloshing as ribbons of the stuff are poured from up top. [These also make for good Instagram photos.]
Indian Shanawaz Sayed, who hails from Mumbai and was quickly downing a late lunch in a café nearby, called Tea & Chat, says he loves the variety available in the store. “Basically the tea, the ambience, besides that the service is also good here,” says. This talk of ‘ambience’, or environment, comes up often when talking to tea drinkers – for the comfort and company that comes with the tea is often half the fun.