Monday, August 20, 2007

Tibetan butter tea

Butter tea or Po cha is the most typical Tibetan drink. It is also drank by people of Buthan and Chinese minorities in southwestern China.
It is made of black tea leaves, yak butter and salt. Butter make it very good source of energy for people living at high altitutde.
It is Tibetan custom to drink butter tea in seaparate sips. The host refills the bowl after each sip. For those who do not want to drink anymore it is the best to leave full bowl of tea until leaving, and then drain the bowl. That way host will not be offended.
How to brew butter tea? Well, here is the recipe I from ThingsAsian

Butter tea (Po cha)
6 cups water
3 tea bags (ordinary black tea)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup milk or 1 teaspoon milk powder
First boil six cups of water. Put three tea bags one heaping tablespoon of loose tea in the water and steep for 2 minutes. Remove tea bags (or strain the tea leaves if you use loose tea). Add 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of butter, and 1/2 cup of milk or a teaspoon of milk powder into a blender or shaker. Blend or shake the mixture for two to three minutes. Serve immediately.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sound interesting, I will have to try this with my favorite loose tea

Anonymous said...

My book club is reading "Three Cups of Tea" for our May discussion. As a hostess, I want to serve butter tea during our discussion and searched for a recipe. In the book, of course, rancid yak butter was used, and I am not planning to use that! I can't wait to try this and see what reactions people have to this unusual tea! Thanks for providing the recipe and a little background about butter tea.