Kashmiri tea or Noon Tea is traditionally made from a type of green tea leaves, milk, salt, and baking soda. A pinch of baking soda gives it a pronounced pink color. Usually this tea is salty.

In Pakistan, it is served with sugar and nuts.

Ingredients:

• 6 tbsp Kashmiri Tea Leaves
• ½ tsp Baking Soda
• ¼-1/2 tsp salt
• 5-6 Cardamom Pods
• 1 small piece of cinnamon stick (optional)
• 2 cups cold water (I mix mine with ice)
• finely chopped pistachios & almonds

Method:

• Add all the ingredients except the ice cold water to a pot with 8 cups of cold tap water.
• Bring to a boil, simmer for 2 hours, topping up if you need to so that the liquid doesn’t drop below ¼ of the original level
• Run the tea through a sieve into a large bowl, press the tea leaves to extract every last bit of flavor, and discard the tea leaves.
• Now get ready for a workout. Pour the ice cold water from a height into the tea concentrate.
• Pour back and forth from bowl to bowl, or use a ladle to drop it back into the bowl from a height to aerate the tea. I suggest doing this in your sink or a prepped surface area since it does splash a bit.
• After a full 5-8 minutes of doing this, the foam the tea produces will take on a rich bodied pink.
• Bring the tea mix back to a boil, and simmer for five minutes. The “kahwa” is ready.
• To make each cup of tea: Take a ladle (about ⅓ of a cup) of the kahwa, bring to a boil, and add ⅔ cup milk and a splash of water.
• At this stage, I like to throw in an extra cardamom pod too. Cook for 2-3 minutes and serve topped with a crushed pistachios