Before the colonial rule our ancestors used to serve classic refreshments like Ayurvedic lemonade (panakam), buttermilk, spiced-milk, elixir, etc. to their guests. Later it became a tradition to serve beverages like tea or coffee to our guests. Nowadays tea breaks have become the order of a day in every institution across India. Every conversation, whether an important official discussion or a trivial gossip, begins with a sip of refreshing cardamom ginger tea or masala chai. Apparently tea shops turn out to be a place for making friends, discussing international, national and local news and also a place for finding solutions for social issues.

During heavy downpour people used to take shelter in a nearby tea shop as they all like to relish hot ginger tea to keep them warm. So every tea shop tries to woo the customers by serving a cup of hot flavorful spiced tea along with delightful accompaniments like samosa, masal vadai, bajji, etc. during monsoon.

It has been raining here almost every evening, and I also like to serve my family a glass of classic ginger tea along with plantain fritters (vazhakkai bajji) to enjoy the cool breezy weather that happens to last only for few days in a year.

Cardamom Ginger Tea Recipe
We, Indians, generally use leaf tea or dust tea to prepare black tea as well as white tea (tea with milk). I prefer to use leaf tea which is more aromatic than dust tea, but dust tea is stronger than leaf tea. Hence it is required to double the quantity of leaf tea while making tea.

Lately we have been cutting down the intake white sugar to a large extent, and I have started using other alternates like cane jaggery, palm jaggery, coconut sugar, etc. Here I have used palm sugar crystals (panangarkandu) and I find palm sugar as the best sweetener for tea and palm jaggery (karuppatti) for coffee. Now the recipe for cardamom ginger tea using palm sugar is as below:

Yields: 500 ml
Ingredients:
Hot milk* | 300 ml |
Water | 250 ml |
Leaf tea** | 2 tbsp |
Palm sugar crystals | 2 tbsp |
Ginger | 2″ |
Cardamom | 2 |
**Instead you can add a tablespoon of dust tea

How to make spiced tea:
- Mince ginger using fine-toothed grater, crush the seeds of cardamom using mortar & pestle and keep them aside.
- Heat a sauce pan with water in high flame.
- Add leaf tea, minced ginger and palm sugar into the sauce pan and bring it to boil.
- Now reduce the flame to low and pour hot milk into the pan.
- Finally stir in cardamom powder just before removing the pan from heat.
- Immediately strain the tea through a tea-strainer.
- Serve hot cardamom ginger tea with crunchy savory snacks.

*Since adding cold milk into hot decoction of tea & ginger would lead to curdling of milk, it is required to add hot milk while preparing spiced tea.
Your photos are so enticing, Megala! I love, love, love cardamom, and use it as much as possible: in my brown rice, in morning fruit & veggie smoothies, on top of oatmeal, in home brewed teas . . . but I’ve never tried just ginger and cardamom. You’ve inspired me! 🌞
It is really a wonderful pair, I’m sure you will like this. Thanks so much for reading this post.
I love ginger tea!
http://www.motownsavvy.com
Yes, it is so refreshing. Thanks so much for reading & commenting.
Megala, I love to drink tea, i make myself a large pot of tea every day.
I haven’t tried cardamon-ginger tea yet, but I’ll be happy to try it.
I always use cardamom capsules to prepare hot “glögg” in winter, so i always have some in the house.
Megala, I wish a smooth, joyfull, healthy and very happy new year to you.
Rosie from Germany 🎉🤗🎈
Glad you liked this tea. 🙂 Thank you so much.
🌷🌷
🌹🌹
Thank you… Thus will be my treat tomorrow after work.
Thanks. 🙂
I am a big fan of tea and cardamom+ginger are my top two ingredients to it😊😊
Yes, they indeed add a delcious flavor to any recipe. Thanks Nisha!
Happy New Year, dear Megala!
Ginger Caradamom Tea is the best for the cold new year day! Thank you for sharing.
Best wishes to you and family!
Happy New Year, Miss Oscar!
Hi Dear
so delicies! I find tea so much more interesting than coffee.
Same here. 🙂 Thanks much for stopping by.
Love! I think we’ll try this with our holiday breakfast! Cardamom and ginger are two favorites!
I’m sure you will remember this tea forever. 🙂 Thanks so much.
This just seems so refreshing and healthy!
Thank you. 🙂
I love Cardamom. I drink Turkish coffee with Cardamom every day. And I think your Ginger Cardamom tea must be delicious!
Hope you could try this sometime. Thanks Mihaela.
Sounds good!
Thanks, and thanks much for stopping by.
so delish! I find tea so much more interesting than coffee 🙂
Thank you. 🙂
All of these ingredients are in Mexico, except for palm sugar. I would substitute mascabada, an unrefined cane sugar. Thank you for this comforting tea recipe.
Most welcome!
So much can happen with with this one cup of wonderful ginger – cardamom tea! Lots of gossip with friends, late night exams preparations, a lot helpful during work from home and having sips while posting the blog😊
Yes, it is inextricably intertwined with our life everyday. 🙂
Thanks so much, Deeksha!
(EN) It’s not “simply tea”, it’s a sweet delight😉. Thanks for sharing, Megala
(IT) Non è “semplicemente tè”, è una dolce delizia😉. Grazie Megala per la condivisione.
I do agree that it is a delightful tea. 🙂 Thanks so much.
Have a wonderful weekend!
When I was reading through, you brought memories of my college days tea being the center of afternoon break and lots of fun chats. Coming back, love the ginger cardamom tea especially in the cold days.
An unrelated question to tea – for payasam or laddu etc, some one told me to roast the cardamom and then grind the entire pod. I normally grind only the tiny black seeds. Can the whole pod (skin) be ground and used in recipes?
Thanks so much for the nice comment.
My mother used to brew the tea along with cardamom skin alone as it also flavorful. It is absolutely our choice whether to use the peel or not.
ok, thanks Megala.
My favourite tea..☺️🤗
Yes, for most of the Indians too. 🙂 Thanks so much for reading my posts & commenting.
Cardamom and ginger…what a great combination 😋
I do like this pair the most. 🙂 Thanks Ribana.
This drink sounds nice and warming, which I think would be great during this cold season over here xx
Yes, it is. Thanks Christy.
I am discovering the delights of cardamon and love this combination of ginger cardamon tea! Thanks for the interesting post and sharing the history of tea drinking in India 🙂
It is indeed my pleasure. 🙂 Thanks so much.
Who can say no to this chai? Haha
Thanks. 🙂
Looks delicious! I’ll try it with almond milk since I don’t drink dairy. I love cardamom 😀
Thats a wonderful idea. Please let me know how it turned out without dairy.
Thanks, Danielle!
This is a lovely way to prepare tea using cardamom with ginger and tea leaf. Thanks for the wonderful way of making tea, Megala. I too use fudina in my tea tastes very nice
Oh, thats nice. I will try this next time. Thanks so much, Kamal.
You are always welcome Megala put chai and fudina and make this cinamom tea it will taste nice.
Such a nice and interesting post on ginger cardamom tea Megala! Being a fan of tea, totally loved the beautiful presentation , the snack plate with the tea and froth is so tempting. I have not tried palm sugar with tea but back home in my native, they used to often put it in black coffee .
Glad you find this post interesting, thank you so much. 🙂
You are welcome !
Right recipe shared at right time with lots of useful informations.
By the way, what do you prefer to take during winter, tea or coffee?
Tea 🙂
I hope you will remember me everyday. 🙂
😀👍🏻
Yum! I love spiced tea! I’ve been making chai in the mornings lately with oat milk and it’s so warming for the winter. Here’s a question for you that I’ve always wondered~ when is ‘tea time’ exactly?
People used to have tea breaks at 11 am & 3 pm, but quite a few busy bees live only on tea or “cutting chai”. 🙂
I have never tried making dairy-free tea, now I’m motivated to try plant-based milk also.
Thanks so much, Kristen.
For the cold season! A simple recipe with a lot of information , Magala!!
Thank you. 🙂
Tea with ginger and cardamom is welcome anytime Megala 😊. It’s so refreshing!
They both elevate the tea to a whole new level, I just can’t imagine a tea without them. 🙂 Thanks much, Radhika.
I agree 👍
I want to try it!
I just want to warn you that it is really addictive. 🙂
Yes, I bet it is ! 😄
This is the go to at our home too.
Yes, this also applies to every Indian across the globe. Thanks so much, Moushmi. 🙂
Best during winters.
Yes, thanks Anjali.
💗💗💗💗
Great recipe, Megala. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Most welcome. 🙂
🙂
This would be delicious. I always drink loose leaf tea and my favorites are the Darjeeling estate teas. I shall try this recipe though . It would be good for the cold weather we are having I think.
Yes, indeed. Thanks so much.
I know so little about tea – this is exceedingly enlightening for me. Thank you for such good information. ;->
Virtual hugs,
Judie
I’m glad you liked this. Thanks much for stopping by.