Cardamom Tea and Chai: How to Make It

Cardamom is the spice most chai is built on. For the spice itself, start with what cardamom is.

What is cardamom tea?

Cardamom tea usually means black tea brewed with green cardamom, most often with milk and sugar: what is called elaichi chai in Hindi and Urdu, and part of everyday chiya in Nepal. It can also mean a caffeine-free infusion of cardamom pods in hot water, with no tea at all.

The milky kind is drunk across South Asia, at home, at work and from roadside stalls, several times a day. In the Gulf, a strong, sweet version called karak chai is just as much a part of daily life. Spiced chai has since travelled to cafés almost everywhere, often as a chai latte.

Cardamom is what most people taste first in a good chai: the sweet, floral, faintly cool note that lifts the milk. It works best simmered in the water before the tea goes in, which is how the recipe below is made.

How many cardamom pods per cup?

Start with 2 to 3 cracked green pods per 250ml cup when cardamom is the only spice, and 1 to 2 when it shares the pot. That answers most questions about how much cardamom to put in chai; the table covers the rest.

Beyond that, cardamom's cool, eucalyptus-like note starts to taste soapy or medicinal rather than fragrant. Why that happens is explained in our guide to why cardamom can taste soapy.

Ground cardamom for chai tea

Pods are better: they give a cleaner flavour and strain out completely. If ground is all you have, use the pinch above and add it with the milk, not at the start. About 10 to 12 pods make a teaspoon of ground; more in our guide to ground cardamom.

Cardamom chai (masala chai) recipe

Masala chai is milk tea with a mix of whole spices. Every family has its own blend, but cardamom is in almost all of them, usually with ginger, cinnamon, clove and black pepper.

The problem is that cardamom is the most delicate of those, and the easiest to lose. Clove and cinnamon are loud, and ginger brings heat. Two things keep cardamom in front. First, crush the pods rather than just cracking them, so more of the seeds meet the water. Second, keep the clove to one per two cups, and the cinnamon to a small piece.

Simmer the spices on their own before the tea goes in. Tea leaves release tannin quickly, and a long boil with the tea makes chai bitter long before the spices have given up their flavour.

Cardamom tea without milk (caffeine-free)

Cardamom tea without milk is simply cracked pods steeped in hot water. With no tea leaves, it has no caffeine. This is the drink some people call cardamom water.

1. Crack 3 to 4 green cardamom pods.
2. Put them in a mug and pour over just-boiled water, about 250ml (1 cup).
3. Cover and steep for 5 to 10 minutes, then strain.

It tastes light, floral and faintly sweet. A slice of fresh ginger in the mug adds warmth, a squeeze of lemon adds brightness, and a little honey rounds it out. For a stronger cup, simmer the pods in a small pan for a few minutes instead of steeping them.

It is often drunk for wellbeing. What research on cardamom does and does not show is set out on our page about whether cardamom is good for you.

Does cardamom tea have caffeine?

Cardamom has no caffeine. Any caffeine in a cup of cardamom tea comes from the tea leaves brewed with it.

So a cardamom chai made with black tea has as much caffeine as the black tea in it, the same as an ordinary cup of black tea. Simmering the tea longer, or using more of it, gives a stronger cup with more caffeine. Milk and cardamom make no difference either way.

For a caffeine-free cup, use the water-only method above, or brew the cardamom with rooibos, which is naturally caffeine free and takes milk well. Decaffeinated black tea also works in the main recipe.

Cardamom chai latte and karak chai

Cardamom chai latte

A chai latte is strong chai concentrate topped with steamed milk. Make the concentrate by simmering double the usual tea and cardamom in half the usual water, with no milk, then strain it. Pour into a mug and add one to two parts steamed or frothed milk. To sweeten it, a spoon of cardamom syrup mixes in better than sugar. The concentrate keeps in the fridge for a couple of days.

Karak chai

Karak chai is the strong, sweet milk tea of the Gulf, especially the UAE and Qatar. The name comes from the Hindi and Urdu for “strong”. It is boiled longer than ordinary chai, with plenty of cardamom, and made with evaporated milk, which gives it a thick, rich, almost caramel finish. Some versions add a few strands of saffron.

Chiya: how we make tea at home in Nepal

In Nepal, tea is chiya, and in most homes it means milk tea. Water, milk, sugar and tea leaves go into a small steel pan and boil together until the tea is strong and the milk has risen once or twice. It is poured through a strainer into cups.

The tea is usually CTC, the small, dark granules that brew strong and fast, and the spice is usually sukmel, green cardamom. A pod or two goes in with the water. Some households add ginger in winter. A guest is offered chiya almost before they sit down.

Our part of Nepal, the eastern hills, grows tea as well as cardamom. Ilam, one of the cardamom districts, is also the country's best-known tea district.

Black cardamom, alainchi, is the crop we grow, but it is not the everyday tea spice. In the cold hill villages, though, a cracked black pod sometimes goes into the pot, alone or with green cardamom, for a smoky, warming cup on a winter morning. If you want to try that, our guide to black cardamom tea has the pod counts.

Green or black cardamom for tea?

Use green cardamom for classic chai. It is the sweet, floral pod every recipe on this page means, and our guide to green cardamom covers how to choose it. Black cardamom is a different plant, dried over wood fires, and tastes of smoke and camphor. Used alone, it does not make chai. Added in small amounts, one cracked pod to a pot of about four cups alongside the green, it adds a smoky depth. The two are compared in black cardamom versus green cardamom.

Is cardamom tea good for you?

Cardamom tea is a pleasant, everyday drink, and that is the honest answer. It has traditionally been drunk after meals and in cold weather, across South Asia and the Himalayan hills.

Research on cardamom is limited: mostly small studies, or laboratory work on extracts and oils, and none of it is about a cup of tea. It does not add up to proven health effects. Nothing here is medical advice; for more, see is cardamom good for you?

Common mistakes

• Not cracking the pods. Whole pods keep their seeds sealed in, and the tea tastes of very little.
• Adding cardamom at the end. It needs a few minutes of simmering; stirred in at the last moment, it barely registers.
• Too many pods. Past about four a cup, cardamom turns soapy rather than fragrant.
• Boiling the milk hard. It scorches on the bottom of the pan and gives the chai a burnt taste. Let it rise, then lower the heat.
• Using old ground cardamom. It has lost the bright notes that make chai taste of cardamom. Crack fresh pods instead; our guide to cardamom pods shows how.

Frequently asked questions