Butter Tea
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Butter Tea
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Butter Tea (Simplified/Traditional Chinese: 酥油茶; Pinyin: Sūyóu chá; Tibetan: often called po cha) is a salted tea drink churned with yak butter (or related dairy fat) until emulsified. It is a daily staple of Tibetan highland life described on Tibetan Food (there as "ghee tea"), typically drunk throughout the day and eaten with Tsampa[1].
Characteristics
Taste is savory, rich, and tea-bitter rather than sweet milky tea; texture is creamy from churned butter. Served hot in bowls. Brick tea provides a strong base.
Ingredients (overview)
Brick tea or strong black tea, yak butter (ghee-like fat), salt, hot water; churned in a butter-tea churn (dongmo) or blender in modern kitchens.
History and culture
Central to Tibetan foodways on Tibetan Food, where ghee extraction and ghee-tea churning are described in detail. Paired culturally with roasted barley flour Tsampa as portable high-calorie sustenance.
Serving and variations
Daily drink; hospitality staple. See Tibetan Food and Tsampa.