Take the Dolan table home.

Origin

A cup of the homeland

In a Uyghur home, tea comes first and last. It is poured for a guest before anything else is said, and it closes the meal long after the plates are gone. Gül means flower, and gül chai is the flower tea of the Uyghur table: dried blossoms and fruit steeped until the water turns amber and the room smells of rose.

The Dolan blend follows the recipe our founder's family drank at home — rose and red dates and wolfberry, the trio that has anchored this tea for generations — rounded out with snow daisies, lavender and chrysanthemum. “Dolan” itself is the name of an ancient Uyghur tribe of the Taklamakan Desert, and this tea is our way of keeping a small piece of that culture alive. Take a sip and imagine the snow-capped mountains, the winding rivers and the blue-green lakes of Central Asia that the Uyghur people call home.

Craft

Six ingredients, nothing else

Gül Chai is an herbal tea: there are no tea leaves in the canister and no caffeine, only whole dried flowers and fruit, each selected, harvested and dried to keep its own color, flavor and aroma. Together they make a cup that is floral first, gently sweet underneath, and the deep amber of a Uyghur teahouse.

This is the same blend served in every Dolan Uyghur Restaurant as a pot of Dolan Chai with a side of crystal sugar. 100% natural, caffeine-free, GMO-free — and nothing else.

Goji berry

The small, oblong red berry of the Silk Road oases, dried in the sun until it wrinkles. In the pot it softens and swells, lending a gentle sweetness with a faint tartness and tinting the brew ruby-red.

Red date

The jujube — chestnut-red, wrinkled, honeyed. Red dates sit in a bowl on every Uyghur tea table; here they give the cup its body and a warm, caramel-like sweetness, so the blend needs no sugar unless you want it.

Rose bud

Whole pink buds, picked before they open and dried whole. Gül means flower, and the rose is the flower of the Uyghur oases; its perfume is the first thing you notice when the lid comes off the canister.

Snow daisy

A small golden-red daisy traditionally gathered in the high mountains of the Uyghur homeland. It brews a deep reddish-amber color and a mellow, slightly honeyed taste that rounds out the brighter flowers.

Lavender

The valleys around Ghulja — our founder's hometown — are famous for their lavender fields. A few dried buds add a cool, clean floral note that lifts the sweetness of the fruit.

Chrysanthemum

Pale, papery blossoms with a soft, hay-sweet, tea-like taste, brewed on their own and alongside goji for centuries; here they give Gül Chai its clean finish.

Quality

Made by the family that serves it

Dolan Gül Chai is produced by Dolan Uyghur Restaurant LLC — the Dolan family's own company — in Virginia, and packed in black canisters that keep light and air away from the blossoms. Ten percent of each purchase supports the Dolan Uyghur Culture Foundation, so every canister helps carry Uyghur culture forward.

How to brew and enjoy

Brew it to your taste

Place the loose blend in a tea infuser or teapot, add hot water, then remove the infuser or strain before drinking. Adjust the amount and steeping to your taste. The 50 g and 100 g options contain the same blend; the size refers to the tea's net weight, not the weight of the canister.

Gül Chai is caffeine-free and GMO-free, so it is the pot for late dinners, for children and for the last hour of the evening. Pour it into small cups, the way we serve it in our dining rooms, with crystal sugar on the side for anyone who likes it sweet. It is beautiful in a glass pot — watch the rose buds open, the goji swell and the dates sink. In summer, brew it strong, chill it and pour it over ice; our Rockville guests order it iced all season.

Gül Chai is made for the end of a Uyghur meal — after samsa and Korma Chop, beside baklava, honey cake or a bowl of Uyghur yogurt with walnuts and honey. The rose and red date stand up to sweet pastry; the goji and chrysanthemum clear the palate after a plate of lamb. On a quiet afternoon it pairs just as well with nothing at all.