Adrak Tulsi Chai: Ginger and Holy Basil, Two Ways
Ginger and tulsi, boiled together with a little tea, is the cup that gets made in Indian kitchens on the first cold morning of the year and on every morning after somebody has started coughing. Sharp, green, faintly clove-like, and done in ten minutes.
At a glance
- Makes: 2 cups (about 350 ml)
- Takes: 10 minutes
- Traditionally drunk: first thing in the morning, or in the late afternoon during monsoon and winter, often in small steel tumblers
- Go easy if: you get heartburn, you are on blood thinners, you are pregnant, or you are sensitive to caffeine in the milk-tea version
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The plant in the courtyard
Tulsi, holy basil, is not a kitchen herb in the way that mint or coriander is. In a great many Hindu households there is a tulsi plant in a raised pot in the courtyard or by the door, watered every morning, and it is treated with respect. Leaves get picked from it for the house, a few at a time.
That is the first thing to understand about adrak tulsi chai: it is made from something growing three steps from the stove. The ginger comes from the same everyday place, a knob in the vegetable basket. This is not a shop-bought blend. It is the most domestic drink imaginable, and it is why the recipe varies from house to house in ways nobody writes down.
It gets made in the morning, before or instead of the regular chai, and it gets made repeatedly when the weather turns or when somebody in the house has a rough throat and a rougher mood. People have long drunk it in exactly those moments. It is hot, sharp and green tasting, and that is the honest appeal.
Two versions, and which to make
There are really two drinks under this name. The kadha style is water based: ginger and tulsi simmered in water with no milk and often no tea leaf at all, which makes it caffeine free and much sharper. The chai style is the milk tea version, where ginger and tulsi go into a normal masala chai. Both are traditional. The water version is the one made when someone is unwell; the milk version is the one made because it is Tuesday and cold.
The recipe below is the water based version, with a note on how to turn it into the milk one.
| Ingredient | Amount | Why it’s there |
|---|---|---|
| Water | 400 ml | Reduces to about 350 ml |
| Fresh ginger | 12 g (a piece about 3 cm), grated or crushed | The heat and the bite |
| Fresh tulsi leaves | 10 to 12 leaves | The green, clove-like aroma that defines it |
| Green cardamom | 2 pods, crushed | Softens the ginger’s edge |
| Black peppercorns | 3, cracked (optional) | Traditional partner to ginger |
| Black tea leaf | 1.5 g (about 3/4 tsp), optional | Colour and a little caffeine, leave it out entirely for an evening cup |
| Honey | 1 tsp per cup, off the heat | Balances the ginger, add once it is drinkable not scalding |
| Lemon juice | 1/2 tsp per cup (optional) | Lifts the whole thing |
| Milk (for the chai version) | 150 ml, added at step 5 | Makes it a milk tea instead |
The method
- Grate or crush 12 g of fresh ginger. Crushing in a mortar is better than slicing, because you want the juice out. Do not peel it obsessively, a rinse and a scrape is enough.
- Wash 10 to 12 tulsi leaves. Tear a few of them roughly with your fingers to bruise them. Leave the rest whole.
- Put 400 ml of cold water in a small pan with the ginger, the 2 crushed cardamom pods and the cracked peppercorns. Bring to a boil, then drop to a gentle simmer for 5 minutes. The water will go slightly cloudy and smell fiercely of ginger.
- Add the tulsi leaves. Simmer for 2 minutes more, no longer. Tulsi boiled hard for ten minutes goes dull and slightly bitter, and the fresh top note disappears completely.
- If you want the tea leaf in, turn off the heat, add 1.5 g of black tea, cover and steep 2 minutes. (For the milk version instead: add the tea leaf, add 150 ml of milk, bring back to a gentle boil, then simmer 2 minutes and skip the honey until the cup.)
- Strain through a fine sieve into two cups. Press the solids gently with the back of a spoon to get the last of the ginger juice.
- Let it sit for a minute so it is hot rather than scalding, then stir 1 tsp of honey into each cup, and the lemon if you are using it. Honey into boiling liquid loses its character, so wait.
- Drink hot, in small cups. It should make you clear your throat on the first sip. That is the ginger doing its job.
Tulsi goes in at the end, always. Boil it hard and you have thrown the best part away.
Variations people actually make
Dried tulsi works if you have no plant, but use less, about 1 tsp of dried leaf, and steep it off the heat rather than simmering it. The flavour is flatter and less peppery than fresh.
Lemongrass is a very common addition in South India, a 5 cm piece bruised and simmered with the ginger. Mint gets added in the north. Two cloves and a small piece of cinnamon turn it into a fuller kadha. A pinch of ajwain shows up in Punjabi houses.
Jaggery instead of honey is normal, added to the pan rather than the cup since it needs heat to dissolve. Some people add a pinch of black salt at the end, which sounds odd and tastes surprisingly good with the lemon.
For children, halve the ginger, drop the pepper, leave out the tea leaf entirely and sweeten a little more.
Pick tulsi in the morning if you can, and pick from the sides of the plant rather than stripping the growing tip, so the plant keeps going. Household custom in many families is not to pick the leaves on certain days, and not to pick after dark. Whatever you make of that, the practical result is a plant that gets handled gently and lives for years, which is more than most kitchen herbs manage.
Common mistakes
Boiling the tulsi for as long as the ginger. This is the main one. Ginger wants a long simmer to release its heat, tulsi wants two minutes. Stagger them.
Using powdered dry ginger instead of fresh. Sonth is a fine ingredient but it is a different, dustier flavour. If you must, use 1/4 tsp and expect a different drink.
Too much ginger. Twelve grams for two cups is already assertive. Double it and you have something that burns rather than warms.
Honey into boiling liquid. Wait a minute.
Letting the milk version catch on the bottom of the pan. Medium heat, stir, and do not walk away.
How much, how often
A cup is about 175 ml and one or two a day is the ordinary pattern in households that make it. During a damp week people will make it every morning. In summer it barely gets made at all.
The water version has no caffeine at all unless you add the tea leaf, which makes it a reasonable evening drink. The milk chai version has the caffeine of an ordinary cup of tea, so treat it as one of your daily cups rather than an extra.
Frame it as what it is: a warming everyday drink that a lot of families make when the weather turns. Not a course of anything, and not something to drink by the litre.
You get reflux or heartburn. Ginger in quantity is a common trigger, and a strong cup on an empty stomach can burn. If you take blood thinners such as warfarin, talk to your doctor before drinking strong ginger daily. If you take diabetes medication or blood pressure medication, ginger and tulsi are both worth mentioning to your doctor before you make this a daily routine. In pregnancy, small culinary amounts of ginger are commonly used, but tulsi in larger or regular amounts is one people are usually advised to be cautious with during pregnancy and when trying to conceive, so ask your own midwife or doctor rather than assuming. The same applies while breastfeeding. If you have gallstones, ginger is worth checking on. Honey must never be given to babies under one year. For children, keep it weak and caffeine free. Overdoing ginger tends to show up as heartburn, a burning stomach or loose stools, and the answer is to make it weaker or stop. If you are on any regular medication or have any health condition, ask your own doctor before making this a daily habit. This is food and tradition writing, not medical advice, and nothing here treats or prevents illness.
Leftovers and reheating
The water version keeps well. Strain it, cool it, and keep it covered in the fridge for up to 24 hours. It reheats fine in a pan to just below a simmer, and the ginger actually mellows slightly overnight, which some people prefer. Add the honey and lemon fresh each time rather than storing them in the jug.
Cold, over ice, with extra lemon, it is a very good summer drink and worth making deliberately rather than only as a leftover.
The milk version does not keep. Make what you will drink. Reheated milk chai goes skinned and grainy and is never as good.
Try this this week
If you do not have a tulsi plant, buy one. It is a cheap pot that sits on a windowsill, wants sun and not much water, and gives you leaves for years. Make this once with fresh leaves and once with dried, back to back, and you will understand why families keep the plant.
If you like this one
For the evening equivalent with no caffeine and a very different character, haldi doodh is the obvious next one. If it is the after-dinner slot you are filling, try the saunf and ajwain water. And if you want a tea-led drink with real elegance to it, Kashmiri kahwa is the one. More in Desi Remedies.
Can I use regular basil instead of tulsi?
You can make a pleasant drink with it, but it is not the same. Sweet basil is soft and aniseedy, tulsi is peppery and clove-like with a slight bitterness. If tulsi is unavailable, dried tulsi is a closer substitute than fresh sweet basil.
How do I keep the ginger from being too fierce?
Slice it rather than crushing it, and reduce to 8 g. Crushing releases far more of the juice. Adding milk also tames it considerably, which is part of why the chai version exists.
Is the water version caffeine free?
Yes, as long as you leave out the black tea leaf. Ginger, tulsi, cardamom and pepper in water carry no caffeine at all, which makes it a good late evening option.
Can I make a flask of it for the day?
Yes, and many households do. Make a double batch, strain it into a flask, and add honey and lemon by the cup. It will hold its flavour for six or seven hours. After that, refrigerate what is left and finish it the next morning.