Kabul-Inspired Turmeric Chai

Last week, I borrowed a book from my workplace’s library. At the weekend, I finished reading it in the cafe by the canal. The book was called The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul and it’s about five women in Afghanistan. One of them, Sunny is the owner of a coffee shop. It was a fantastic great full of great characters and strong female characters in a manly driven world. The characters were fictional, but it felt very real because it was based on the author’s experience.

The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul has become one of my favourite books. I can still feel the atmosphere and the bond between the five women. They all had their own backstory and voices. Sunny was my favourite character because she was kind, particularly towards Yasmina. I also liked the little touches of western culture that we wouldn’t expect to hear like playing Christmas songs in Afghanistan.

Isobel was also a great character. She was a British Journalist and she really did her best to try and free some of the female prisoners. It’s so sad that these women were arrested simply for trying to escape abuse or defy sex slavery. Even though the precious scenes, I felt my heart racing because a bomb could go off at any moment.

All the five ladies stories tied together and ended on a bittersweet note. I really loved the wedding scene and the celebrations that came with it. I felt like I was there cheering the characters on.

The copy I had also included author interviews and recipes for cakes and tea from Kabul and Afghanistan. I didn’t have all the ingredients with me to hand at the time, but I did purchase from cardamoms after reading the book. I craved some chai after reading the book.

I tried it at home and I was quite impressed with how it turned out. I thought I could share it. I did play around with it based on what I had at home As well.

• 1 tablespoon of turmeric
• 1 Cinnamon stick snapped in half
• 4 crushed Cardamoms
• 2 star anise pieces
• 1 teaspoon of loose black tea teas
• 500ml Water
• 1 teaspoon of cocoa
• 1 teaspoon of matcha
• Sweeter and milk or choice.

I put everything in a saucepan to heat up (bar the sweeter and milk). The book said that they liked their chai very sweet and creamy. On the first batch, I didn’t add milk and just let the water boil with the stuff in. I wanted to know what it tasted like without milk. Once it reached boiling point and strained everything and tried the tea.

It was strong, robust and full of flavour. And there was plenty of stuff inside for another tea. So the next batch, I raided almond milk instead of water. Straight away the milk started to turn gold from the tumeric and the spicy scent was still present. I think I preferred the tea with milk as it felt like a real turmeric chai latte.

I used oat milk for my chai, but I think this would work with any milk. I think it would be interesting to try with coconut milk. I am wondering if I put too much turmeric in the first time, because the second time I on,y out a table spoon and it still had the nice golden colour and the rest of the flavours still worked together.

Making tea with a saucepan feels more therapeutic than boiling a kettle. I know boiling a kettle might be easier and quicker, but I think the taste wouldn’t quite be the same.