AI-generated image
Kazakh milk tea
Sut shai: strong black tea with hot milk, served from the samovar
Kazakhs drink more tea per person than almost anyone, and at home it is always sut shai: strong black tea, often brewed from Kenyan or Indian leaves, poured into a wide cup (kese) with hot milk or a spoon of cream. The host keeps the cups barely half full and refills them again and again, and a guest turns the cup upside down when they've had enough. In winter in Astana a pinch of salt or a knob of butter may go in. It accompanies baursak, shelpek and every meal. Chef's tip: heat the milk until it just steams and add it to the cup first; scalded, boiled milk gives the tea a cooked taste.
- Total time
- 10 min
- Difficulty
- easy
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
Method
0/4 doneStep 1: Warm a small teapot with hot water and pour it away. Add 2 tbsp strong black tea leaves (Kenyan or Assam) and pour in about 300 ml of the 1 ¼ cups boiling water. Cover and leave to brew for 5 minutes into a very strong, dark-red tea concentrate.
5 minStep 2: Meanwhile heat 1 cup whole milk or single cream in a small pan over a medium heat until it steams and tiny bubbles appear at the edge. Take it off before it boils.
4 minStep 3: Put 2–3 tablespoons of hot milk into each wide cup, add a little tea concentrate, then top up with the rest of the 2 ½ cups boiling water to taste. The tea should be the colour of milky caramel.
Step 4: Fill cups only halfway, so the tea stays hot and you can keep refilling. Add 4 tsp sugar or sugar cubes or 1 pinch salt if you like. A frequent mistake is filling the cup to the brim: in Kazakh custom it hints the guest should leave.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 70 kcal
- Protein
- 3 g
- Carbs
- 6 g
- Fat
- 4 g
- Fibre
- 0 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does kazakh milk tea take?
- About 10 minutes in total: 2 minutes to prepare and 8 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 4 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it vegetarian?
- Yes. It has no meat or fish.
- Is it gluten free?
- Yes, as written. Check the labels on stock, sauces and spice mixes, which sometimes contain gluten.
- What can I use instead of whole milk or single cream?
- Half double cream, half milk.
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to cook it.
Rate this recipe
Sign in to rate and review this recipe.
You might also like
Guava delight
A thick, fragrant blend of ripe guava, mango and banana, boosted with a spoonful of guava powder from the health shop. The book calls it a modern-day vitality drink, drawing on guava's long use in traditional Indian medicine. Serve it well chilled; sieve it if you don't like the little guava seeds.
Power pack
A sweet, energising juice of apples, pears and kiwi fruit with a stick of celery, all used unpeeled for extra goodness. It's naturally sweet, so it needs no sugar. Serve well chilled.
Horchata de chufa
Horchata de chufa is the drink of Valencia's summer, sold ice-cold in the city's horchaterías with long, soft fartons pastries for dipping. It is made from chufas, or tiger nuts: small wrinkled tubers grown around the village of Alboraya just north of Valencia, which have their own protected designation of origin. Soaked, ground with water, strained and sweetened, they give a creamy, nutty, naturally dairy-free milk with a hint of cinnamon. Valencians drink it very cold, or half-frozen as 'granizada'. Chef's tip: soak the tiger nuts for a full 24 hours and change the water once; they must be plump and soft enough to blend into a fine pulp, or the horchata will be thin and taste of raw starch.