Sulaimani Chai

The clear black tea of the Malabar coast: strong South Indian tea brewed without milk, spiced with cardamom and a sliver of fresh ginger, finished with a generous squeeze of lime and a strand of saffron, served in small glasses at Kerala weddings and in the tea houses of Calicut

Origin: Malabar Coast, Kerala, India

From the journey of Tea.

Sulaimani chai (സുലൈമാനി ചായ; also written Suleimani or Sulaiman chai) is the black tea tradition of the Malabar Muslim community (the Mappila, or Moplah, people) of northern Kerala and the Malabar coast, a community whose history carries the deep imprint of centuries of Yemeni, Arab, and Indian Ocean trade. Where the rest of India drinks its tea thick and milky, the Malabar tradition is the opposite: a clear, amber, slightly spiced preparation without any milk, closer in philosophy to the black tea traditions of Yemen and the Gulf states that arrived with the Arab traders who shaped Malabar culture between the eighth and sixteenth centuries. The name Sulaimani refers either to the Prophet Suleiman (Solomon) or, more plausibly, to the Sulaimani family of Arab traders who were among the earliest and most prominent Arab merchants on the Malabar coast; the tea they brought and popularised carries their name. The Malabar-Yemen spice trade connection is encoded in the preparation: cardamom from the Western Ghats above Calicut, the same cardamom that Arab traders loaded onto their dhows in the medieval spice port; a sliver of ginger; a squeeze of lime or lemon; and optionally a single strand of saffron for the ceremonial version served at Mappila weddings and Eid celebrations. In everyday form, sulaimani is drunk strong and clear in small glasses in the tea houses (chaaya kada) of Kozhikode (Calicut), Kannur, and Malappuram: the social lubricant of a community whose food culture is one of the most distinctive in India. The South Indian Nilgiri or Kerala tea used as the base has the right brightness for this preparation: a CTC or orthodox grade that brews strong and clear without the harsh tannin astringency of some North Indian varieties.

Ingredients

Tea

2 tsp loose-leaf black tea (a South Indian CTC or orthodox grade: Nilgiri, or a Kerala tea such as Munnar or Wayanad CTC; the tea should be strong and clean-tasting without excessive bitterness)
400 ml freshly boiled water

Spices

3 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed to crack them open
1 cm fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced

Citrus

2 tsp fresh lime juice (or lemon juice), added at the last moment

Optional

a few strands of saffron, bloomed in 1 tsp hot water for 5 minutes (optional, for the ceremonial version)

Sweetener

1 tsp sugar or jaggery, to taste (sulaimani is typically lightly sweetened; adjust to preference)

Method

Bring the water to a full rolling boil. Add the crushed cardamom pods and sliced ginger. Reduce to a simmer and let the spices infuse for 2–3 minutes until the water is fragrant with cardamom.
Add the tea leaves to the simmering spiced water. Remove from heat immediately and steep for 2–3 minutes. Do not boil the tea: boiling extracts harsh tannins that will make the brew unpleasantly bitter without milk to temper them.
Add the sugar or jaggery and stir to dissolve. If using saffron, add the bloomed saffron liquid now.
Strain through a fine sieve into small glasses or teacups. The tea should be a clear, deep amber: the clarity is essential. Sulaimani should not be murky.
Add the lime or lemon juice at the very last moment, directly into each glass, just before serving. The citrus changes the colour of the tea slightly: the anthocyanins in the black tea shift in the acidic environment, producing a subtle brightening of the amber to a clearer, more transparent hue.

Notes

In Kozhikode's famous chaaya kada tea houses, sulaimani is served in small cut-glass tumblers, its clear amber colour visible through the glass, and drunk alongside Malabar specialities such as pathiri (rice flatbread), banana fritters, and the legendary Kozhikode halwa. The tea is drunk quickly and ordered again: it is a tea of sociability and conversation, not ceremony. For an iced sulaimani, double the tea concentration, strain over a tall glass of ice, add the lime juice and a long strip of lemon peel: one of the most elegant cold drinks in the Indian repertoire.

The Gastrographer

Name: Sulaimani Chai
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 8 min
Total time: 13 min
Yield: 2
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: 2 tsp loose-leaf black tea (a South Indian CTC or orthodox grade: Nilgiri, or a Kerala tea such as Munnar or Wayanad CTC; the tea should be strong and clean-tasting without excessive bitterness); 400 ml freshly boiled water; 3 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed to crack them open; 1 cm fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced; 2 tsp fresh lime juice (or lemon juice), added at the last moment; a few strands of saffron, bloomed in 1 tsp hot water for 5 minutes (optional, for the ceremonial version); 1 tsp sugar or jaggery, to taste (sulaimani is typically lightly sweetened; adjust to preference)

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control