For most people, Tibetan butter tea โ po cha โ is an acquired taste, since it is salty rather than sweet, and has a completely unexpected flavor.
Many non-Tibetans donโt care for it much at first, but come to love it when it is associated with warmth on a cold day and good times spent with Tibetan friends, or the adventure of travel in Tibet or Tibetan communities in India or Nepal.
Some non-Tibetans find it helpful to think of it as a sort of light soup rather than as tea.
This way, your mind isnโt so shocked when you drink it! Anyway, the recipe is very simple and easy to try.
The Traditional Way of Preparing Po Cha
In Tibet, the traditional process of making butter tea can take a long time and is pretty complicated.
People use a special black tea that comes from an area called Pemagul in Tibet.
The tea comes in bricks of different shapes, and we crumble off some tea and boil it for many hours.
We save the liquid from the boiling and then whenever we want to make tea, we add some of that liquid, called chaku, to our boiling water.
For the butter and milk, Tibetans prefer to use butter and milk from the female of the yak species, which in Tibet are called dri, than cow’s milk or butter.
Often mistakenly called “yak butter” and “yak milk,” these have a more pungent flavor than cow’s milk or butter, with a taste closer to goat milk or cheese.
(And if youโre interested in experiencing the real thing in Lhasa, you can learn how to visit Tibet here.)
How we Make Butter Tea Outside Tibet
Lucky for us, it is much easier to make butter tea outside of Tibet.
You can use any kind of milk you want, though we think the full fat milk is the best, and sometimes we use Half and Half, which is half cream and half milk.
Most Tibetan people who live outside of Tibet use Lipton tea, or some kind of plain black tea. (See the notes below for alternatives you can use.*)
Ingredients
- 4 cups of water
- Plain black tea (2 individual teabags, like Lipton’s black tea, or two heaping spoons of loose tea)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons butter (salted or unsalted)
- 1/3 cup half and half or milk
Materials needed: One churn, blender, or some other large container with a tight lid to shake the tea up with.
This po cha recipe is for two people โ two cups each, more or less.
- First bring four cups of water to a boil.
- Put two bags of tea or two heaping tablespoon of loose tea in the water and let steep while the water is boiling for a couple of minutes. (We like the tea medium strength. Some Tibetans like it lighter, so would need only one tea bag. Others like it stronger, so would use 3 tea bags.)
- Add a heaping quarter of a teaspoon of salt.
- Take out the tea bags or if you use loose tea, strain the tea grounds.
- Add a third to a half cup of milk or a teaspoon of milk powder.
- Now turn off the stove.
- Pour your tea mixture, along with two tablespoons of butter, into a chandong, which is a kind of churn. Since churns are kind of rare outside of Tibet, you can do what some Tibetans do, which is to use any big container with a lid, so you can shake the tea, or you can just use a blender, which works very well. (We use a plastic churn that we have not seen for sale anywhere, but most Tibetans use a blender.)
- Churn, blend or shake the mixture for two or three minutes. In Tibet, we think the po cha tastes better if you churn it longer.
Important Note
Serve the tea right away, since po cha is best when it’s very hot.
Since the taste is so unusual for non-Tibetans, it might help to think of it as a very light soup rather than as tea ๐
*Note on the Kind of Tea to Use
Thomas Kasper from Siam Teas suggested to us that a better choice for this modern version of this recipe might be a darker tea.
As Thomas notes in an email to us:
“I just read your recipe on Tibetan butter tea. Is common black tea, such as from Lipton tea bags, really a good choice for the basic tea to prepare Tibetan butter tea? Originally, it was “dark tea” (post-fermenting tea) that got to Tibet on the tea-horse road, which is not at all like what we call “black tea” today. What we call black tea today, has always been called “red tea” (“hong cha”) in China, while dark tea is referred to as “hei cha” instead. Both the processing and the resulting taste and other properties of these two
types of tea are very different from each other.
At the time of the tea-horse road, however, the processing of what we call black tea today wasn’t even invented, not even in China.”
It has been suggested by a few others, as well, that in the absence of hard-to-obtain tea bricks from the Pemagul region in Southern Tibet, a good alternative could be Pu-erh tea bricks from Yunnan in China, or just a Pu-erh tea.
Tibetan Home Cooking
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Peter says
I understand that prepared rancid butter is traditionally used, as I experienced in Nepal. From the internet, I also see that rancid butter is an important ingredient in Moroccan cooking, but that uses herbs during butter preparation. Can you say how rancid butter is made in Tibetan food culture? Please provide a detailed recipe for rancid butter preparation in a western context, if possible
Frank A. Lojewski says
Tibetan tea is hei cha, black, or dark, tea. The bulk came and comes from Siquan. In the old days it was carried by porters from Ya-an to Kangding, a very treacherous mountain path, mostly by porters. A horse or donkey could carry up to 80 lbs of tea, a porter was burdened up to 160 lbs! There is a very nice display of this trade at the Ya-an city museum, a museum completely ignored by travel advisers. Today the tea is transported by huge trucks up to the Tibetan plateau, but is packages similar to those of the past. Most are 2.5 kilos, pressed into a bamboo basket tube and the outer packaging is a yellow bag, At the Brothers Friendship Factory outside the city the amounts in the warehouses is mind blowing. On the Ya-an bridge downtown is a shop that sells this tea in a variety of packging, from inexpensive the costly. Its the packaging and age, not the tea that determinbes the price.
Charlotte R says
This sounds so interesting, thank you. Can you explain why โyak milkโ is a misnomer? Iโm not sure I understand.
Lobsang and Yolanda says
Hi Charlotte. Because the milk comes from female of the species, which are not called “yaks.” xo
olivia says
hello ๐
i would like to know where i can find the most similar kind of black tea to make this drink (preferably online), thanks ๐
John says
In the UK, Indigo Herbs, based in Glastonbury, do a great Pu-erh tea (Yunnan) which makes credible PoCha. As I live in Northumberland – in the winter, brew up, go and sit in the freezing garden, shut my eyes, and I could be in Tibet, sort of. ๐
Claudia says
Thank you! I have just stumbled upon this delicious sounding chai recipe, to go with the Khapse! How wonderful! Thub-je-che! ๐
I agree about butter being more healthy than most vegetable oils – especially palm oil (so I will use butter instead of sunflower oil in the Khapse too!) ๐
Iยดm not sure of course, but think the comment about Lipton tea was more that Lipton has a reputation as being very low-grade (and cheap) tea, so perhaps doesnยดt taste as good as some other black teas available.
Out of interest, they are known for exploiting very poor tea pickers (especially in Kenya, where a lot of their tea plantations are located). I was there a few years ago, in a tea plantation which was is owned by the parent company of Lipton (Unilever), and saw this with my own eyes. 2 or 3 generations of (mainly female tea pickers), very thin and hungry-looking, and all with sore red hands.
So maybe people would prefer to use a higher grade tea, perhaps one that is organic and with a fairtrade stamp, when preparing a losar or similar feast, for a special Tibetan occasion.
There are of course hundreds of different types of black tea available, so I will always steer clear of Lipton! Maybe I will also try adapting the recipe to use rooibos (red) tea instead of black tea, for a caffine free version of Po Cha! Maybe!
Thanks for the wonderful recipes and Happy tea-drinking! ๐
elizabeth monaco says
I use a high quality irish butter and pu erh tea, along with himalayan pink salt. I have tried different teas, and even use lapsang souchong occasionally, for its deep smoky flavor.
Lobsang and Yolanda says
Sounds lovely!
jon says
hated the real butter tea, but have friends who are from bhutan serve it to me, never new butter tea can be made differently, got hooked๐
Lobsang and Yolanda says
Nice! How do your Bhutanese friends serve it?
China Purple Clay Teapot says
one of the processing procedure of violet arenaceous mud
china clay says
curious so I looked after a recipe and found this
china clay teapot says
Since itยดs so cold I think this tea might help a treat.
Michael Sarazzain says
You cannot make anything even remotely resembling the real thing unless you can score yak butter. It has a completely different taste than butter from cows or even buffaloes. Some things can simply not be replicated without the original ingredients.
Tyler Dean says
Do not use Lipton tea, or Half and Half. It is an insult to Tibetan culture, as well as your health. Don’t temper with such a spiritual recipe.
yowangdu says
Sorry, but we have to agree to disagree on this one. Butter tea is not a particularly spiritual recipe, and modifying a traditional recipe to make it work in our current lifestyle is a natural process. We do still make more traditional butter tea (using, however, cow butter instead of dri butter, as none is available here.) when we have more time and on special occasions. But Tibetan culture is not a static thing, and like all people, we have to adapt. It doesn’t make common sense to use the old methods at all times. But we love it if people do use the traditional methods, and kudos to you if you can do so!
Jongh says
As a Tibetan man, I think it is great that Westerners are giving our culture a try. We find a certain joy when outsiders open themselves up to our traditions in anyway they like (being welcoming and accepting is big in Tibetian culture). Having lived in America for nearly 14 years since moving from Tibet, it is great seeing people trying out our culture…we Tibetans try not to take ourselves too seriously!
Sharon says
I really appreciate your welcoming mention to experience your culture. Iโve been told many times that [white] people in the West adopt cultural appropriation and we should keep to our own. I am grateful to hear you accept the idea of being inclusive. I mean no disrespect when I try learning about other cultures. Blessingsโจ
Lobsang and Yolanda says
Enjoy the pocha, Sharon. We think it’s awesome you are learning about other cultures!
Terese says
I love this comment so much! Thank you for making my day after looking for a recipe and scrolling down.
I’m not exactly sure what I’m making … but I leave out the milk/half and half and just use a milk foamer in my black tea and add a pinch of ground Himalayan salt and teaspoon of ghee or Irish butter, and it whisks to a lovely creamy frothy hot beverage. : ) I’m following the Keto lifestyle and this morning starter is something I look forward to every day.
Lobsang and Yolanda says
Love your strategy!
Tyler Dean says
Butter is actually extremely healthy, given it comes from a healthy animal. When yak isn’t available use grass fed butter. The idea that butter is bad is destroying our health. It contains healthy saturated fat which increases your *good* cholesterol and lowers your *bad* cholesterol. Your brain needs that fat. Not to mention the vitamin K2 which is the essential nutrient for making calcium work properly. Part of why the Tibetans are so healthy. Steer clear of vegetable oil.
yowangdu says
Hi Tyler, Thanks for your interesting advice on healthy fats.
Nicholas Barbier says
Where can I get teacups like that? Beautiful! Thanks yowangdu.
yowangdu says
Hi Nicholas, sorry we don’t remember where we got them. Lhasa, I think, years ago.
A says
Dear Yowangdu,
Thank you so much for taking the time to make this website! It is really interesting and informative. I came here in search of sources for a class presentation, but soon became distracted with the appealing recipes… I think I am going to try to make butter tea right now haha.
Anyway thank you so much for your efforts and I hope to try the real butter tea some day! I want to learn much more about Tibet ๐
Nia says
Hi, I recently had this tea at a Tibetan Restaurant in NYC and immediately became obsessed. It was so good! Thank you for the recipe. Does the salt measurement decrease if you are using sea salt? I know with other recipes, you would use a little less salt when using sea salt.
Thanks!
John Goelz says
Dear Yowangdu, I was fortunate some years ago to go to Kham for the opening of a temple for a school. I remember rather liking the butter tea (hence I came here for a recipe). I also had in the main temple on the morning of the opening, a sweet rice dish that reminded me of an ice cream sundae. It was piled high and had nuts and raisins and was so delicious. I think it was one of the tastiest things I have ever had. I also saw your recipe for that. Thank you for making this all available. By the way, the experts are slowly correcting themselves and butter is once again good for your health. Salt also turns out to be better for you than the experts were once saying.
yowangdu says
Sounds like a wonderful experience!
Lydia Paul says
I drink so much light delicate teas (which I oversweeten!) that I have to admit this sounds kind of horrifying, but I’m definitely going to try it asap! Looking forward to hopefully acquiring the taste for it!
yowangdu says
ha ha! It’s definitely an acquired taste!
Sarah says
Is this a tea that can be consumed everyday. I have been reading about different versions and definitely want to try this one. I just don’t want to over do it.
yowangdu says
Definitely it can be consumed every day. Tibetans traditionally drink a ton of this every day, but of course the butter is heavy and maybe not so healthy, so best to take that into consideration ๐
Quyแบฟt Vฦฐแปฃng says
My wife and I had some today; itโs great! Thanks for the recipe tea
Cat says
Something I’ve been wondering: how does the traditional way boil for hours and not get bitter?
yowangdu says
That’s a good question. Just a little of the concentrated, boiled, tea is used — so maybe the bitter taste, if there is one, is dissipated ๐
Roberta Conway says
My Polish grandmother always had a pot of tea boiling away on the stove. All day long. To solve the problem of bitterness after getting the tea proper, you would add water to your own glass to adjust to how you liked it. The time of year is what decided whether that water was hot or cold. I think it was a prairies version of a Samovar. And just for interest sake, we used little glasses not cups or mugs.
Lobsang and Yolanda says
Love this! Yay for Grandma’s!
Himalayan Chef says
Gen-la, If we have access to real brick tea, what proportion of tea to water would be used to make “chaku”? And how long would one traditionally boil the tea for?
yowangdu says
Great question. Normally in Tibet we would put the whole brick of tea in a huge pot (10 gallons, for example) and boil it all day, adding more water as the water boiled out so it won’t totally dry out, but not up to the top of the pot, so that gradually the water level goes down and you end up with about 2 gallons of really concentrated black tea. Does that help?
Mohsin says
Hi, I was going to try this butter tea. I have one question, do you add sugar in it too or is it against tradition to add sugar in the tea.
yowangdu says
Hi Mohsin, No sugar traditionally. It’s a savory drink ๐
Souvik Mukherjee says
I had this tea in a Buddhist temple in Bhutan- along with the pulao. Awesome!!
yowangdu says
Cool! What is pulao?
Vishnu Sharan says
It is cooked but slightly hard rice fried in butter with added dry fruits, salt and spices for flavour!
The name sounds like ‘pull’ (as in pull) + ‘a’ (as in arm) + ‘ow’ (as in wow)- so it goes ‘pull’-‘a’-‘ow’! Hindi is เคชเฅเคฒเคพเคต.
Ellis Dunbar says
Good Morning
My name is Ellis and I work with Ninja Goat Nutritionals. Once I read your article, I found great interest in some of your ingredients and knowledge about butter coffee. I would love to tell you about my business and how I make butter coffee.ย ย
Ninja Goat Nutritionalsย makes a product called fatCoffee, which is a quick andย easy way to make butter coffee anywhere, anytime- and it’s made with 100% grass fed-butter and organic coconut oil.ย
Would you be willing to try fatCoffee and let me know what you think about it? I’d be happy to provide a sample, if you can send me your mailing address.
Thanks for your time and hope to hear from you soon.
yowangdu says
Thanks so much, Ellis, but we’re not really coffee drinkers. Best of luck to you.
Anamika says
I would be curious to try. Thanks
Ken says
I have enjoyed this type of tea for years since I tried it at a small Tibetan restaurant in Massachusetts, where they had apparently managed to acquire real dri (yak) butter. In the US, there are a few places (Wegman’s grocery stores, for one) where you can find goat’s milk butter, and this seems to give a lovely flavor to the tea, and I prefer it to cow’s butter when I can get it. I use an immersion blender to churn the tea, and a quick flick of the switch with the blades of the blender under the faucet and it’s clean again. For the salt I typically use Kosher salt – different types of salt are more dense than others, Kosher is very “fluffy” so I use up to a teaspoon per cup, where a half teaspoon of table salt should be plenty – or way too much for some folks!
yowangdu says
Cool idea on the goat milk butter!
Patti Lounsbury says
I have loved po cha for many years and like to use the equivalent of four tea bags of the best black tea I can find to make the base and use lovely Irish butter and whole milk to finish it out. Yum! I have to also tell you that, before she passed from this life, I used to share a fall or winter cup with my dog. She loved it also and would practically dance when she saw me making it and carry her special po cha bowl to me for her share.
yowangdu says
That’s a very sweet story, thank you for sharing!
Janice says
Dear Patti,
Jeez, I see it’s been several years since you wrote that post but maybe you will see this reply. Today, when I make ‘po cha’ for the first time I will undoubtedly have visions of your little doggie dancing in my head and it will make me smile and quite possibly imbibe my brew with an extra shot of happiness and warmth…
Melissa says
I actually like butter tea, prepared the traditional Tibetan way. I have never traveled to Tibet, but when I was in veterinary school at Cornell (Ithaca, NY), there was a group of Tibetan diaspora who had a booth at our local farmer’s market. There, they served butter tea. It was perfect for the cold and snowy Ithaca winter.
Melissa in New York
yowangdu says
That’s cool, Melissa. Many inji’s don’t like it very much at first ๐
Paul says
This is an excellent recipe. Instead of a sealed container, I’ve used a whisk to mix the ingredients with good results. Of the po cha recipes I’ve tried, this one is my favorite.
yowangdu says
Awesome, thanks, Paul. Great idea for the whisk. Sometimes Tibetans use an electric hand mixer when they’re making big amounts of po cha. (really big amounts, like for a community gathering).
Oool Fjolkunnigr says
Tashidelek Uncle;
I have often had butter tea with monks and Tibetans in and around Darjeeling. Best ever was in a small wooden tea shop hanging in the mist over a cliff before Ghoom. Various inexpensive Darjeeling teas can be bought at local tea shops in the main market at a fraction of the price of shops up in the lanes near Chowrasta. Try for a slightly smoky tasting black tea. I noticed that sugar is often added as well. As I live in Bali butter is hard to get. A spoonful of cholesterol – free margarine approximates the taste and texture and is easier on the hypertension. A sprinkle of parmesan might improve the flavor for you. Om ah hum ha ho Hrih swaha. Nandi Ulu
Lorrie Watkins says
Many dieticians now believe that butter is healthier than margarine that contains hydrogenated fat,(as most of them in America do).
Virender aryan says
Hi, from where I can get tea leaves for butter milk which is used traditionally in Tibet and kinnaur,lahaul
yowangdu says
Hi, traditionally it is bricks of tea, but we just use normal black tea, like Lipton’s or one of the popular brands in India.
Jim says
I started drinking my tea — both hot and iced — about thirty years ago, so the taste of tea without sugar didn’t shock my taste. I also use Himalayan salt and unsalted butter. The bottom lines is: I had my first cup of Po Cha today and I love it. It will be my morning tea from now on. It there any reason not to make this with green tea, instead of black? Thanks for the recipe. I’ve wanted to try this for years. BTW, I’m also a Buddhist, following the Tibetan path.
yowangdu says
I think you should try but I have never made it myself. Maybe green tea doesn’t go well with butter.
donna says
Thanks for this. I’m vegan so I just used vegan butter and soya milk and it worked out great. I have it every morning now.
yowangdu says
Awesome, love hearing this!
Bob Gould says
I’ve been drinking butter tea most mornings for several years. I take a break during the really hot months of summer. I store butter in the fridge for 12 months to age it. I only use that aged butter during the coldest months. Most of the time I just use fresh butter. I make a pot of tea then put the salt and butter in an old plastic jar. Then add the tea and milk, screw the lid down tight and shake. Make sure the lid is tight or it may spray out. I use a plastic jar because I get a better seal than with a glass jar. I find it promotes healthy digestion when drunk on an empty stomach in the early morning. Butter and tea both have many beneficial health effects.
Patricia says
Don’t use plastic with anything with fates in it. Plastic leaches into fats. Shaking takes about 10 minutes to charge the tea properly. Twenty seconds in a blender will do it. Or ten minutes in a Tibetan butter churn if you want the full health benefits from it.
Laura says
lol, that they prefer to use the milk from the female Yak. Do the males lactate as well?
Thanks for sharing a great recipe!
yowangdu says
Ha ha! The preference is for dri milk rather than cow’s milk ๐
Shauna says
So glad to have found this post. My daughter and I are reading a book called Daughter of the Mountains. They drink the butter tea throughout the book, so we’re excited to try it.
Thanks!
yowangdu says
Thank you Shauna, that’s nice to hear ๐ Butter tea is an acquired taste for many non-Tibetans ๐
Madeleine Keller says
I am a fourth grade teacher reading Daughter of the Mountains with my class. It is great to see that someone else is sharing this wonderful story of Momo and her quest for her dog. Is anyone else reading it, as well?
Craig Pennington says
Fourth grade also brought us here! My son’s fourth grade teacher lent him No Summit Out of Sight — he loved it so much he recommended it to me. It also has a description of “Tibetan Salt Tea.” We are going to try this recipe (maybe with goat’s milk.)
yowangdu says
Hi Craig,
Sorry we are so late in replying to your sweet post! How did you like the po cha? Howdy to your fourth grader!
Angela says
This is the reason I am looking this recipe up. We too are reading Daughter of the Mountains and away to learn all we can of the culture.
yowangdu says
Nice!
Elena Khandro says
Love it!!! Once I started I couldn’t stop… Addictive….!!! My younger brother lives in a monastry in Nepal & I showed off the recipe to their fellow monks& nuns, they loved…thanks for the recipe, you guys are fabulous…
Yolanda says
Thanks so much Elena!
Mary Furlow says
I do have a question. This made more than I wanted to drink at once and no one else in my family will drink it. Can I store it in the fridge and just heat and blend it again the next day. I wouldn’t want to keep more than 1 day. Do you think it would still be good?
Yolanda says
Thanks for your feedback Mary! Sure, you can put the extra in the fridge, though it won’t be as good as the first time. Hope this helps.
Patricia says
No! Tea oxidises when it sits overnight and does the opposite of what you want it to do in your body!
Mary Furlow says
I really liked the tea! I love hot tea but usually with honey and milk. Oddly, although this was salty, it was a lot like my regular tea. I love to try new foods and drinks, especially ones that are good for your health. Thanks for a wonderful recipe. I’d love to try the real tea with the yak milk and butter.
Hannah B says
Hi! I made this for my social project (I’m doing Tibet for a nation study). My mom and I tried it out today for an experiment. Would it taste the same if we used less butter? It had a really strong taste, and we were thinking of using a little less butter so that it would be weaker. Is this a good idea or would it ruin the taste?
Vladimir says
Hi! This is a delicious recipe, thank you for sharing it. I have a question–I tried to make this simpy by melting the butter and mixing it in my cup, is there a reason why a blender is used? A blender makes cleaning extremely difficult!
Thank you!
yowangdu says
Hi Vladimir,
It’s pretty much up to you, but Tibetans always blend/mix it to better combine the ingredients. But one thing Tibetans are is flexible, so if you prefer, melt it in the cup!
Lauren says
Wow what a gem! Thank you for sharing this recipe.
diabetes definition says
I like it when individuals get together and share opinions.
Great website, continue the good work!
Jim Riches says
Loved it was delicious!
yowangdu says
We’re so glad to hear you liked it, Jim ๐
Raghav says
Yowangdu .. Wow im drinking salted tea or butter tea at harshil uttarkashi ….
?? it tastes good
Kelcie says
I read quite a bit of fantasy and lately I have noticed a trend in foreign tea drinks. Usually when so many unrelated books point me in a direction it means something new, fun, and delightful to try. Thank you for the background and recipe – I will be trying this tomorrow!
yowangdu says
Great, Kelcie, thanks for the feedback ๐
Patricia L Kramer says
Would Like to try the tea
yowangdu says
Let us know how you like it, Patricia ๐
Amanda says
That sounds really gross . I wouldn’t try that any day it looks like yak butter tea.
yowangdu says
You are not alone, Amanda. It is exactly like yak butter tea (which is really dri butter tea), but without the dri butter since most folks outside of Tibet can’t get the right butter. Tibetan butter tea is definitely an acquired taste.
hadjera algeria says
hello, i heard for butter tea from documentaries and from you .Thank you very much but you should add more photograph and video that can help people over theworld recognise the tibetian culture the video is more praticly .
yowangdu says
Thank you for writing to us. Did you know that if you sign up for our Tibetan culture newsletter that you get a video showing you how to make the butter tea, along with other videos. (You can sign up here: https://www.yowangdu.com/sign-up.html ) Also if you go to our YouTube channel, you will find many of the videos that go along with our posts on the blog. All the best to you, and thank you for the feedback. We love hearing from our readers ๐
Virginia says
Hello. I registered and I wish to view your video on Butter Tea and how to make it. May I have the link to watch the video? Thank you.
yowangdu says
Hi Virginia,
The video for Butter Tea shows up on about your third email from YoWangdu Tibetan Culture. Enjoy!
Martin Lindeskog says
Thanks for the recipe via Twitter! I have linked to it in the blog post by Linus Hammarstrand, More Tibetan Tea, on TeaParty.nu.
All the Best,
Martin Lindeskog
Lobsang and Yolanda says
Thanks so much, Martin!
yowangdu says
2011-10-08 13:04
Thanks for checking in Elizabeth. Lobsang has had a lot of traditional po cha and never tasted himself what he thinks is sour or rancid, unless the butter was kind of old, which sometimes happens in Tibet if people don’t have a way to keep the butter fresh through the year, but people of course prefer fresh butter. Probably the closest you can get to the traditional taste is to use dri butter (butter from female yak), and the kind of brick tea that you get in Tibet. Hope this helps ๐
2011-10-08 09:44
I understand that traditional po cha has a strong sour or rancid taste. Does anyone know if we could use buttermilk to get a closer taste to traditional tea?
2011-09-29 05:38
Thanks for the great tips, Rashid! ๐ The baking soda idea sounds intriguing.
2011-09-29 05:35
I first had butter tea at the chai shop between Dharamsala and McLeod Ganj in 1980. Loved it!
Smokey teas like Lapsang Suchong work best. For Westerners, go easy on the salt; use unsalted butter, and add salt to taste.
Hint: add the very smallest pinch of baking soda; it brings out the red color of the tea, and adds a mineral-lake-salt tang that you’d get in the high country.
2011-09-04 12:47
Thanks for writing, Thupde. Definitely, butter tea is not the most healthy drink, with pure butter ๐ But definitely warms you up in cold weather and fun to drink with a bunch of Tibetans ๐
2011-09-04 01:54
I’m not Tibetan (not in this life anyway) but I love it, though I probs wouldn’t love it as much with rancid ingredients either!
Hate to spoil your butter tea party but I’ve heard His Holiness has said that butter tea can be bad for one’s health. Nowadays we are not in the cold of Tibet working our ehem legs off. We’re mostly sitting at desks in slightly less cold climates, so that should make sense, right? Anyway moderation must be key. The Middle Way!
Enjoy!
2011-09-01 06:07
Thanks for writing jopg and rd,
Yes, rd, you’re right, the point is just to mention the different names. Many people call it “yak butter” or “yak milk” which is fine in common usage, but not really accurate in terms of the Tibetan language, since we should be saying “dri cheese” and “dri milk.”
2011-09-01 04:29
Thanks for this recipe! I’m off to try it in a few minutes.
By the way, the article specifies that the Tibetans use milk and butter from the female yaks, rather than the males. This seems rather obvious; was the intent just to mention the different names for female and male yaks?
2011-07-26 07:56
Thanks so much for the feedback Amanda ๐ Good lesson there on the blender since the tea is so hot. Glad a mason jar worked ๐
2011-07-25 21:11
Wow – this has to be one of the best things I’ve ever drank in my life! I love savory things (a southerner who doesn’t like sweet tea, even) and this was just wonderful. I cut the recipe in half – 2 c water, 1 tea bag, a little less than 1/4 t salt (I’ll probably add more next time) and 1 T unsalted butter. I had to shake it up in a mason jar, though, because I poured it into my blender and when I pressed the button, the lid popped open and sent scalding tea all over my arms and my kitchen! Even with the loss of about half my tea, I had plenty to enjoy. If you haven’t tried this, do it! ๐
2011-05-31 07:44
๐ Gab, you’re definitely not alone — it’s an acquired taste. It grew on Yolanda after years of associating it with happy Tibetan gatherings.
2011-05-31 05:34
It tasted absolutely rank! I’m glad I tried it though, a description I read of it in a book said this, “although some foreigners claim to like yak butter tea, they cannot possibly be telling the truth”. Another book about tibet said, “We never cared much for butter tea [after living for 7 years in tibet!] which is usually made of rancid butter and is generally repugnant to europeans”. I’m sorry but I would have to agree. I think you need to be a tibetan to love this!
2011-05-17 07:35
Renee, that sounds great. There’s nothing better for cold weather than Tibetan food and drink! ๐
2011-05-16 05:56
I’m doing a project on the Potala Palace, and in my research I came axccross butter tea and this recipie. I’m so glad I tried it! I added about a teaspoon of sugar to the batch and it balanced out very nicely. Spring around here in Chicago just went from quite hot to wet fall, and this tea is the best thing to regulate your inner thermostat. Cheers!
2011-01-11 09:21
Lyn, this is a great idea for the monks.(They would probably also love some sweet tea — look for a Indian chai recipe — that would do it.) A great, easy fast recipe to make that I bet they would love is the thentuk recipe on this site — wonderful on a cold day, and real comfort food for Tibetns ๐ I hope you enjoy your visit with them and they with you!
2011-01-11 00:23
We are blessed to have 7 Tibetan Monks visiting. It has been unusually frigid and I hope this tea gives them warm, nurturing comfort.
PT: Any kind of salt is fine. We usually use Morton’s salt, but sometimes use sea salt, so anything you have on hand should be good. Thanks for the comments!
2010-12-24 15:01
I’m interested in trying to make some of this, good article! You make mention of what kind of milk you think works best.. However is there any specific kind of salt you feel one should use for best results? For example, iodized or not, sea salt or average table salt? Thanks!
2010-12-23 08:13
This is how I prepare Lapsang Souchong. The smokiness of the tea pairs wonderfully with the butter and salt.
Thanks, Syrena and Rashed. If anyone ever finds a way to buy yak milk, butter or cheese in the US, please let us know. So far we can only get dried cheese brought from Tibet by friends.
2010-11-30 07:41
My 11 year old daughter and I love this tea! Someday I would like to try it with the Yak milk & Yak butter…
2010-11-29 19:27
My wife and I had some today; it’s great! Thanks for the recipe.
2010-10-07 09:52
It’s great that you can drink this tea to help you when you work outside at night in the Swedish winter! Enjoy!!
2010-10-05 03:58
Hello Mr Wangdu.
I am from Sweden.
I saw a program about Tibet, called “The tea-road to the skies” and in this program they drank butter-tea.
I was curious so I looked after a recipe and found this one. It was really good and to my surprise, after three cups of it, I was no longer hungry. I will use this tea this winter when I have to work outside at night. Since itยดs so cold I think this tea might help a treat.
Many regards Johan from Sweden.
2010-10-02 12:44
I’ve got to try this…
2010-09-23 14:57
love it!