As I type this, a saucepan of black tea, cardamom, and sugar is bubbling on the stove. In 20 minutes, I’ll add evaporated milk and lower the heat, then wait again as it simmers. To make Zaynab Issa’s Karak Chai, you’re committing to patience and the payoff: a spicy, milky tea that warms you from head to toe.
Chai means tea, any tea, but the Starbucks-ification of tea makes us immediately associate it with the milky, cardamom-enhanced version. “I’ve ordered my fair share,” laughed Zaynab, whose gorgeous cookbook, Third Culture Cooking, is a playful blend of recipes that touch on her family’s Khoja identity — a diaspora of Indians who migrated to East Africa, among other places — but also the fact that she grew up in New Jersey and worked in Bon Appétit’s test kitchen.
Zaynab describes “third culture cooking” as a category that “helps define a bunch of children of immigrants” because her food isn’t Khoja + American, it’s all over the (delicious) place. There are Mall Cinnamon Rolls, Samosa-Spiced Smashed Burgers, and French Onion Ramen. The book’s design will draw you into her beautiful world, and the Karak Chai will brighten your own.
“This chai is not casual,” Zaynab told me. And neither is she. The author and New York Times Cooking contributor is always impeccably dressed (and in fact, we spoke after she’d zipped out of a fashion show in New York, where she lives).
The secret to making a tea-forward chai, Zaynab writes in her book, is to use a British black tea, like Tetley or PG Tips. Those stronger teas can take a half hour of steeping and come out fighting. (Lipton could never.) When Zaynab was a kid, they’d visit family in Canada and stock up on Tetley, unboxing it into Ziploc bags and stuffing their luggage. But now it’s more readily available — I found it at Meijer in Michigan.
We talked about how, in a culture that doesn’t drink alcohol, the nuance and ritual of tea hits some of those same notes. “There’s intentionality” to drinking chai, she said, in the same way you might open an aged bottle of bourbon. Often, her mom will put on the Pyrex Flameware glass kettle while they’re still eating dinner, to get it started, and it’ll simmer while the dishes are washed and the table cleared. When everyone moves into the living room to chat, the chai will be ready. “The pot of tea stretches out the evening,” says Zaynab. “It keeps us together longer.”
Karak Chai, two ways
Serves 6
35 minutes
The spices used can vary from household to household, but cardamom is essential. This amount of sugar feels like the minimum for a pleasant drinking experience, but feel free to adjust it… or simply serve the tea with a bowl of sugar alongside with spoons for people to sweeten to their liking. Fair warning, someone will absolutely use the dry sugar spoon to mix their chai and return it to the now-clumpy sugar bowl. That’s when I have to remind myself to breathe — it’s all part of the experience. – Zaynab Issa
4 Tetley brand tea bags or PG Tips, or 4 teaspoons black tea leaves
13 cardamom pods, cracked
3-inch cinnamon stick
3 tablespoons granulated sugar, plus more to taste (or cane or light brown sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract, optional
1 cup (240 ml) evaporated milk
Combine 6 cups (1.4 L) water, tea bags, cardamom, cinnamon, sugar, and vanilla in a stove-safe tea kettle or medium pot. Place over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Stir in the evaporated milk and return to a boil, watching carefully to ensure the tea doesn’t boil over — once the milk is introduced, boiling over is common at a rolling boil. Once just boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until thick, creamy, and caramel in color, about 25 minutes. The longer the tea simmers, the stronger and creamier it will be, although it will also reduce in volume. Taste for desired sweetness and add more sugar to your taste.
Strain the chai through a fine-mesh sieve into mugs; discard the spices and tea bags. Serve with additional sugar on the side.
Variation with cocoa:
Whisk in 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder with the tea, spices, sugar, and vanilla.
Thank you, Zaynab!
Alex Beggs is a writer and copywriter who lives with her partner in Michigan. Her articles have appeared in Bon Appetit, Elle Decor, and The New York Times. She has also written for Cup of Jo about her dad’s meatloaf, cold cake, and (very) bad hair days.
P.S. The hot chocolate that knocks everyone’s socks off and five fun things we noticed at a drinks party.
Excerpted from the new book Third Culture Cooking: Classic Recipes for a New Generation by Zaynab Issa. Photos copyright (c) 2025 by Graydon Herriott. Published by Abrams.
