Types of Arabic Tea Saudis Drink Daily (Beyond Karak)
Mention tea in Saudi Arabia and most visitors picture one thing: karak, the strong, sweet, milky brew that fuels cafeteria mornings from Jeddah to Khobar. Karak deserves its fame. But step into a Saudi home and open the tea shelf, and you will find it is only the loudest member of a much bigger family. Red tea, mint, sage, cardamom, cinnamon, and a whole apothecary of Bedouin herbal blends — Saudis drink tea all day, for different reasons at different hours, and each one has its moment. Here is the full shelf, beyond karak.
Shai Ahmar: Red Tea, the Everyday Default
If karak is the celebrity, red tea (shai ahmar) is the workhorse. Plain black tea, brewed strong and served in those small, handleless istikan glasses, often with fresh mint or a few cardamom pods but just as often with nothing at all. This is the tea of offices, majlis gatherings, and long evenings — the pot that gets refilled without anyone asking.
Red tea is also the social equalizer. It costs almost nothing, it takes minutes, and it accompanies everything from business discussions to post-dinner lingering. When a Saudi says “let’s have tea” without specifying, this is usually what they mean. Karak is what you buy; red tea is what you make.
Mint Tea: The Fresh Classic
Mint tea (shai bi na’na) is red tea’s brighter sibling: black tea brewed with a generous handful of fresh mint leaves, sweetened lightly. The mint does more than flavor the cup — in the Gulf heat, it reads as cooling, and after a heavy meal it settles the stomach the way nothing else quite does.
You will find it everywhere from home kitchens to roadside cafeterias, and it is the default “second tea” of the evening: karak or red tea first, mint tea when the night stretches on. Fresh mint is non-negotiable — dried mint is considered a different, lesser drink entirely.
Maramia: Sage, the Remedy Tea
Ask a Saudi grandmother what to drink for a cold, an upset stomach, or general misery, and the answer is immediate: maramia, sage tea. Dried sage leaves steeped in hot water produce a savory, almost peppery brew that tastes like medicine and works like comfort. It is the Kingdom’s great home remedy — for colds, sore throats, digestive trouble, and the vague unwellness that has no other name.
Maramia is rarely offered to guests the way red tea is; it is personal, almost private — the tea you make for yourself or for family when someone is under the weather. But nearly every Saudi household keeps dried sage in the cupboard, and during winter it moves to the front of the shelf.
Cardamom and the Spiced Teas
Cardamom (hail) is the Gulf’s signature spice, and it finds its way into tea constantly — crushed pods dropped into the pot with red tea, or ground into karak itself. Cardamom tea is warming, aromatic, and mildly sweet even without sugar, and it carries a whiff of celebration: it is the tea that shows up at gatherings, weddings, and Eid mornings.
Beyond cardamom, the spiced-tea shelf extends to cinnamon (qirfa) — brewed as a sweet, woody infusion often recommended for winter evenings — and ginger tea, sharp and bracing, the one people reach for when the air conditioning has been running too long. None of these are everyday drinks; they are mood teas, chosen for the moment.
The Bedouin Herbal Blends
Older and quieter than all the above is the Bedouin herbal tradition — wild and garden herbs brewed as infusions, knowledge passed down rather than written down. Yansoon (aniseed) makes a sweet, soothing tea given for colds and given to children. Babunaj (chamomile) is the evening wind-down, brewed for calm and sleep. Wild zaatar (thyme) and shih (wormwood) appear in desert regions, each with its own loyalists and its own list of ailments it supposedly answers.
These teas rarely appear in cafés. They live in homes, in the cupboards of grandmothers, in the thermoses carried on desert trips. But they are still very much alive — ask around a majlis and someone will have a strong opinion about which herb fixes what.
Green Tea: The Newcomer
The newest arrival on the Saudi tea shelf is green tea, and its rise tracks the Kingdom’s broader health consciousness. Barely present a generation ago, it is now a fixture in offices and gyms, drunk plain or with mint, usually by people who will tell you — at length — about antioxidants. Traditionalists remain skeptical, but the green tea drinkers are not going away; the shelf has simply made room.
When Saudis Drink What: A Rough Timetable
Tea in Saudi Arabia follows a rhythm, and once you see it, you cannot unsee it:
- Morning: karak with breakfast — strong, sweet, built to cut through foul or a chapati wrap.
- Midday: red tea after lunch, often with mint, as the meal settles and the afternoon stretches ahead.
- Afternoon: the majlis pot — red tea, refilled endlessly, accompanying conversation that has no agenda.
- Evening: mint tea or spiced tea (cardamom, cinnamon) as the day cools and gatherings form.
- When sick: maramia, yansoon, or ginger — the remedy shelf takes over completely.
- Late night: babunaj for those winding down, or one last small karak for those who are not.
The throughline is that tea is never just a drink. It marks time, hosts guests, soothes illness, and fills silences. A Saudi home without a kettle on standby is barely imaginable.
Conclusion
Karak may be the tea that visitors remember, but it is one voice in a chorus. Red tea runs the daily rhythm, mint freshens the evenings, maramia heals, cardamom celebrates, and the Bedouin herbs carry centuries of desert wisdom in a cup. Learn the shelf and you learn something real about how Saudi days are structured — one small glass at a time. And the next time someone offers you tea, ask which kind. The answer will tell you what part of the day you are in.