7 Saffron Drinks That Aren't Tea: From Gulf Karak to Saffron Cold Brew

Saffron tea is the obvious answer. Threads, hot water, done.

It is also the least interesting thing saffron does in a glass. The thread has a honeyed, faintly hay-like depth that gets more interesting the more you give it to work with — milk, cardamom, citrus, ice, coffee, even soda.

Here are seven that are worth your time.

1. Saffron Karak

The Gulf's own. Karak without saffron is good. Karak with saffron is a different drink entirely.

Method: Simmer 2 cups water with 3 strong black tea bags, 4 crushed cardamom pods and a thin slice of ginger for 5 minutes. Add 1 cup evaporated milk and 2 tbsp sugar. Bring back to a gentle simmer. Off the heat, stir in a bloomed infusion of 15 threads in 2 tbsp warm milk. Strain. Pour from height.

Why it works: the evaporated milk's fat and the saffron's aromatics are made for each other. This is the recipe most people will actually make twice.

2. Saffron Cold Brew

An unexpected one. The bitterness of cold brew and the honey-hay of saffron meet somewhere very good.

Method: Bloom 10 threads in 2 tbsp warm water for 30 minutes. Let it cool completely. Pour over ice, add 200ml cold brew concentrate, top with a splash of oat or whole milk, and stir once so it marbles.

Note: add the infusion cold. Warm saffron liquid in cold coffee tastes muddy.

3. Saffron Sharbat

The Persian summer drink. Rose, lemon and saffron over crushed ice.

Method: Make a syrup — 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, simmer until clear. Off the heat, add 20 bloomed threads with their liquid, 2 tbsp lemon juice and 1 tsp rosewater. Cool. Store in the fridge. To serve, 3 tbsp syrup over crushed ice, top with cold water.

Keeps for two weeks. Make it once, drink it all month.

4. Saffron Milk (Kesar Doodh)

The oldest one on this list, and still the best cold-night drink there is.

Method: Warm 250ml whole milk gently. Add 15 bloomed threads with their milk infusion, a crushed cardamom pod, 1 tsp honey and a few crushed pistachios. Do not boil — a bare simmer only.

5. Saffron Lemonade

The one nobody expects and everybody asks about.

Method: Bloom 12 threads in 2 tbsp warm water, cool. Combine 120ml fresh lemon juice, 60ml simple syrup, 500ml cold water, the saffron infusion and plenty of ice. Garnish with a mint sprig and a single thread floating on top.

The colour alone will get you asked what it is.

6. Saffron & Cardamom Iced Latte

For anyone who has been ordering the same thing every morning for three years.

Method: Bloom 10 threads in 3 tbsp warm milk. Cool. Fill a glass with ice, add 150ml cold milk, the saffron milk, and a small pinch of ground cardamom. Pour a double espresso over the top so it layers.

7. Saffron Spritz

For when people are coming over.

Method: Bloom 8 threads in 2 tbsp warm water with 1 tsp sugar. Cool completely. In a wine glass over ice: the saffron syrup, 30ml fresh orange juice, and top with chilled sparkling water. Orange twist.

Clean, golden, and nothing else on the table looks like it.

The rules that apply to all seven

Bloom first, always. Threads dropped into a finished drink give you decoration, not flavour.

Match the liquid. Dairy drink, bloom in milk. Clear drink, bloom in water.

Cool infusions for cold drinks. Warm saffron liquid hitting ice tastes flat and slightly dusty. Bloom, then chill, then build.

Go light. Eight to fifteen threads per glass. Drinks are far less forgiving of over-saffroning than food is. Past a certain point it turns medicinal, and there is no rescuing it.

Start here

If you make one, make the karak. It is the fastest, the most familiar, and the one that will convince the rest of your household that a jar of threads was worth it.

A single 1g pack of Ruwais Saffron makes roughly 30 glasses of karak.