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Chai, lassi & drinksKashmiri recipes

Kashmiri Chai Recipe

کشمیری چائے بنانے کا طریقہ

Pink Kashmiri chai made the proper way: green tea leaves boiled with a pinch of soda and aerated with ice water, simmered in milk, topped with pistachios.
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Illustration of Kashmiri Chai

Prep

5 min

Cook

45 min

Total

50 min

Serves

6

Difficulty

Medium

Spice

Mild

Kashmiri chai, or pink tea, is the creamy rose-coloured tea served at weddings and on winter evenings. The colour comes from no dye: green Kashmiri tea leaves are boiled with a pinch of baking soda into a dark concentrate called kehwa, which is then shocked with ice water and beaten with a ladle until it turns deep red. Milk turns it pink.

Ingredients

6 servings

For 6 servings

Measures

Tea concentrate

Chai

Method

  1. Put the Kashmiri tea, 4 cups water, cardamom and star anise in a deep pan and bring to a boil. Add the baking soda; it will froth up.

  2. Boil on medium heat until the water has reduced to about one third and turned dark red-brown.

    ⏱ 25 min

  3. Pour in the ice water all at once. Now beat the kehwa vigorously: lift ladlefuls high and pour them back, again and again, for several minutes while it boils, until it turns a deep wine red.

    ⏱ 8 min

  4. Strain the kehwa. You should have about 1 cup; it keeps in the fridge for a week.

  5. Bring the milk to a boil with the sugar and salt, add the kehwa and simmer on low, lifting and pouring with the ladle, until the chai turns pink and creamy.

    ⏱ 8 min

  6. Pour into cups, top with a spoon of cream if using, and sprinkle with pistachios and almonds.

Tips for the best result

  • The more you aerate the kehwa, the deeper the pink. Do not skip the ice water and beating.
  • Make a big batch of kehwa ahead for guests; then each pot of chai takes only 10 minutes.
  • In Kashmir it is drunk salted as noon chai; in Pakistani cities it is usually sweet. A pinch of salt balances the sweet version too.

Common mistakes

  • Using too much baking soda. It makes the chai taste soapy and metallic.
  • Adding milk before the kehwa has turned deep red. The chai ends up brownish-beige instead of pink.

How to serve

Serve hot with bakarkhani, rusks or salted biscuits on a winter evening.

Storing and reheating

The strained kehwa keeps 1 week in a jar in the fridge. Finished chai is best drunk fresh.

Nutrition and cost

Worked out from the ingredients, not measured in a lab. Treat both as a rough guide.

Per serving Estimate

Calories
145kcal
Protein
6g
Fat
7g
Carbs
17g
Fibre
0.3g
Sodium
220mg

Estimated from USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy (April 2018), public domain values for the raw ingredients (99% of the recipe by weight had data). Deep-frying oil is counted at 20%; bones and water lost in cooking are not subtracted, so bone-in and fried dishes can read high. Not medical advice. Method

Cost per servingEstimate

≈ Rs 36

Whole dish ≈ Rs 220 · 97% of ingredients by weight priced

From the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics weekly SPI, week ended 29 Oct 2026. Spices, herbs and some vegetables are not in the SPI and are left out unless you add your price, so the real cost is a little higher. How this works

Kashmiri Chai: questions people ask

Why is my Kashmiri chai not turning pink?

Usually the kehwa was not reduced enough or not aerated enough before the milk went in. Boil it down, add ice water and beat it until it is deep red.

Can I use regular green tea for pink tea?

Not really. Ordinary green tea will not turn red with soda; you need the rolled Kashmiri tea leaves sold for pink chai.

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Read this recipe in Urdu: کشمیری چائے بنانے کا طریقہ

https://handi.danixsoft.com/recipes/kashmiri-chai · Handi, DanixSoft