Butter tea

File:Monk churning butter tea.JPG

Tibetan Monk churning butter tea

Butter tea, also known as po cha (

བོད་ཡིག:

, "Tibetan tea"), cha süma (

བོད་ཡིག:

, "churned tea"), Mandarin Chinese: su you cha (酥油茶; Pinyin: sū yóu chá) or goor goor in local Ladakhi terms, is a drink of the Tibetans and Chinese minorities in southwestern China. It is also consumed in Bhutan. It is made from tea leaves, yak butter, and salt.

Usage

Drinking butter tea is a regular part of Tibetan life. Before work, a Tibetan will typically down several bowlfuls of this tangy beverage, and it is always served to guests. Nomads are said to often drink up to 40 cups of it a day. Since butter is the main ingredient, butter tea is a very warming drink, providing lots of caloric energy and is particularly suited to high altitudes. The butter also helps prevent chapped lips.

According to the Tibetan custom, butter tea is drunk in separate sips, and after each sip the host refills the bowl to the brim. Thus, the guest never drains his bowl; rather, it is constantly topped up. If the visitor does not wish to drink, the best thing to do is leave the tea untouched until the time comes to leave and then drain the bowl. In this way etiquette is observed and the host will not be offended.

Butter tea is also used for eating tsampa by pouring onto it, or dipping the tsampa into it, and mixing well.

The concentrate, produced by repeatedly boiling tea leaves, will keep for several days, and is commonly used in towns. The tea is then combined with salt and butter in a special tea churn (

བོད་ཡིག:

), and churned vigorously before serving hot.

History

File:Butter tea churns, Sera, Tibet.JPG

Butter tea churns, Sera Monastery, Tibet

"Tea was introduced into Tibet earlier than the tenth century, but it is only became of universal use from the time of the Sakya hierarchy and the Phagmodu kings [c. 13th century]. During the early part of the Dalai Lama's rule the tea trade was a governmental monopoly, and since the beginning of the present century [the 19th century], though nominally open to every one, the trade is practically in the hands of the officials."

"We rushed around returning calls and drinking Tibetan tea. This is made from Chinese brick-tea. Norbhu says they spread it on the road for several days to let it acquire the strength and flavour demanded by Tibetan palates; certainly we cannot grow it in India, which is a pity, because every year thousands of loads of tea come over the passes several months' journey from China. Any good Tibetan drinks fifty or sixty cups of tea every day of his life. The leaves are boiled for several hours, then the infusion is poured into a section of hollow bamboo, where it is churned up with a plunger, together with a handful of salt, a pinch of soda, and a good lump of butter—usually rancid. The result is a purplish liquid of unusual taste for tea, but as soup excellent. The great thing is to blow aside the floating scum of butter before you drink. The moment you put the cup down, even if you have only taken a sip, it is filled up by a servant who stands ready with a silver or earthenware teapot. Custom demands that one drinks at least twice, but however much one has, the cup is always left full. To eat, we were offered dried apricots, sweets, and biscuits."

Preparation

"To make the best butter-tea, the tea is first boiled for half a day, till it gets dark brown. After being skimmed, it is shaken several times in the cylinder with some fresh yak butter and salt. This makes the best tea, and a tea-pot full of such tea costs thirty-eight sen to make. Tea-pots, or jars, are made of clay in the shape of ordinary Japanese tea pots. I could not at first drink the tea, when I saw that it looked like thick oil. Still, it is one of the best drinks among the best circles in Tibet, who drink it every morning. It is usually mixed with what is called tsu and baked flour. The tsu is a hardened mixture of cheese, butter and white sugar. The Tibetan puts this substance into his tea."

"Brick tea is made by methods only distantly related to those employed in China or Ceylon. When the water boils, a great handful of the stuff is crumbled into it and allowed to stew for between five and ten minutes, until the whole infusion is so opaque that it looks almost black. At this stage a pinch of salt is added; the Tibetans always put salt, never sugar, in their tea. I have been told that they sometimes add a little soda, in order to give the beverage a pinkish tinge, but I never saw this done in Sikang. They very seldom, on the other hand, drink tea without butter in it. If you are at home, you empty the saucepan into a big wooden churn, straining the tea through a colander made of reed or horsehair. Then you drop a large lump of butter into it, and, after being vigorously stirred,this brew is transferred to a huge copper teapot and put on a brazier to keep it hot. When you are traveling, you do not normally take a churn with you, so everyone fills his wooden bowl with tea, scoops a piece of butter out of a basket, puts it in the bowl, stirs the mixture gently with his finger, and, finally, drinks the tea."

References

• Waddell, L. Austine. 1895. Tibetan Buddhism: With Its Mystic Cults, Symbolism and Mythology, and in Its Relation to Indian Buddhism. W. H. Allen & Co., London. Reprint 1972: Dover Publications, New York. ISBN 0-486-20130-9. For a good description of how tea was served in monasteries, see pp. 191–192; 214-217 (with illustration).

External links

• YoWangdu Easy Butter Tea Recipe
• Example of bowls from which Tibetans drink tea and further information on the bowls custom
• Tea with Changpas by Rangan Datta

bo:ཇ་སྲུབ་མ། zh:酥油茶