18 October 2018•Update: 18 October 2018
By Kizito Makoye
DAR ES SALAM, Tanzania
It’s a bright Saturday morning in the bustling Kisutu suburb in Tanzania’s largest city and K.T Shop is bustling with activity. Customers, young and old are jostling for a seat to enjoy a hot cup of tea.
“I am a regular customer here, I love their kebabs, they are just too delicious,” says Najma Karim, one of the customers who lives in the area.
Adorning a black Hijab, Karim grabs a cup and sips from it as a plume of aromatic steam wafted off.
“These are the best snacks I have ever eaten, they are always hot and fresh from the kitchen,” she says as she take a bite.
Any tea lover can testify, a cup of finely brewed milky tea from Tanzania’s oldest tea rooms, is an experience worth trying.
Known for its aromatic milky tea, and lip-smacking snacks -- served with tasty coconut chutney, the cafe has achieved a legendary status in half a century.
Founded by an Indian immigrant in 1968, K.T Shop attracts customers across cultural divide.
Milky tea
Sitting on a wooden chair, one quickly realizes the cafe is a hot bed of diversity with customers from a wide range of ethnic and religious divide mill about.
“The tea tastes so unique, I feel like drinking over and over again,” says Hussein Abdulmalik, a visitor from Qatar.
The menu offers milky tea, crispy samosas, mouth-watering Kebabs, and a range of Tanzanian foods.
“Our tea is carefully blended, you cannot drink tea of this quality anywhere,” says a 59-year-old Mansoor Ahmed Kadri, the owner of K.T Shop who had inherited it from his late father.
"The spices are the most important part of our dishes. We use some of the best ingredients when preparing our snacks," he said.
With his smudged-up glasses, Kadri who has run the place for more than a decade usually sits behind the wooden counter counting money and giving change to his customers.
He says dozens of waiters and chefs grind spices, mixing them by hand, before adding them into meat for kebab, samosa fillings, and other snacks including Kachori.
The tea, called Chai in Swahili, has a secret recipe.
“We follow a strict regimen when preparing tea. You have to boil the water first before adding in the sugar and, eventually, the tea leaves and spices.”
The milk is only poured when the leaves have been meticulously sieved.
A cup of tea and two snacks costs around Tanzanian shillings 4500 ($2).
Tracing heritage
When Tanganyika (present-day Tanzania) got independence from Britain in 1961, many Indian families fled the country to avoid growing hatred against them because people perceived, they were more affluent within the colonial power structure.
However, Kadri’s grandfather who had immigrated with his wife and children from Konkan in India to the British Protectorate of Tanganyika as it was known at a time, did not flee his adopted home. Instead he established a strong business empire for his descendants.
“My grandfather had a long vision, not just for his family but his generation. He wanted to create a family business that can last long,” Kadri said.
An avid chef himself Kadri's grandfather, used exactly the same technique for preparing tea when K.T Shop first opened its doors about 50 years ago, Kadri recalls.
The grandfather, who controlled several businesses in Dar es Salaam, chose the tea shop as his family legacy.
“I am happy to sustain his vision and legacy by continuing to run the shop,” he says.
