Kashmiri Kahwa Recipe: Saffron Tea in 10 Minutes

Kahwa is the green tea Kashmiris drink through the day and press on every guest: saffron, cardamom and cinnamon in a copper samovar, with slivered almonds floating on top. It is lighter than chai, takes no milk in its classic form, and is finished in under ten minutes.

This is the everyday version made in a pan, the way most homes make it now, followed by the milk kahwa people often mean when they ask for it sweet.

Ingredients

• 3 cups water
• 2 teaspoons Kashmiri green tea leaves (kahwa leaves)
• 4 to 5 strands Kashmiri saffron
• 2 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
• 1 small piece cinnamon bark (about 2 cm)
• 1 tablespoon almonds, slivered
• Honey or sugar to taste, added at the end
• Optional: 2 or 3 dried rose petals

Method

1. Bring the water to a boil with the cardamom and cinnamon. Let it boil for two minutes so the spices open up.
2. Lower the heat to a bare simmer and add the green tea leaves. Do not boil them hard: kahwa turns bitter when the leaves are thrashed.
3. Crush the saffron strands between your fingers and drop them in. Steep for two to three minutes, until the liquid turns pale gold.
4. Strain into cups. Add honey or sugar to taste, then scatter the slivered almonds and rose petals on top.
5. Serve hot. In Kashmir it is poured from the samovar all afternoon, topped up as guests arrive.

Milk kahwa

For the sweeter, milkier version, make the kahwa as above, then add half a cup of hot milk per cup at the end and sweeten a little more generously. Some families add a pinch of dried ginger in winter. The saffron quantity stays the same: more will not make it better, only more expensive.

What to watch

• Do not boil after the leaves go in. A simmer keeps kahwa clean and floral; a rolling boil makes it bitter.
• Bloom the saffron. Crushing the strands and letting them sit in the hot liquid draws far more colour than dropping them in whole at the last second.
• Use fewer strands than you think. Four or five per cup is plenty. If your saffron needs a dozen to show colour, it is probably not Kashmiri saffron, and our guide on telling real saffron from fake explains how to check.
• Grind nothing. Whole cardamom and bark, slivered almonds: kahwa is a clear tea, not a masala chai.

Questions people ask

Can I use regular green tea? You can, and it will taste like spiced green tea. Kashmiri kahwa leaves are milder and less grassy, which is why the saffron comes through.

How much saffron for a whole pot? For a litre, about 15 strands. Bloom them in a spoon of hot water first.

Is kahwa drunk hot or cold? Hot, traditionally, and all day in winter. It is pleasant iced in summer, though that is not how it is served in Kashmir.

Do I need a samovar? No. A samovar keeps it hot for hours, which matters when guests come through the afternoon, but a pan makes the same tea.