AI-generated image
Tibetan butter tea
Po cha (酥油茶 / བོད་ཇ་): strong black tea churned with butter and salt into a rich, savoury drink
On the cold Tibetan plateau, people drink many cups a day of this salty, buttery tea, and a host keeps topping up a guest's bowl as soon as a sip is taken. Traditionally, brick tea is boiled for a long time, then churned with yak butter and salt in a tall wooden cylinder called a chandong. At home, a blender gives the same creamy, frothy result. It tastes more like a light broth than a sweet tea. Chef's tip: boil the tea hard and long; it needs to be very strong to stand up to the butter.
- Total time
- 14 min
- Difficulty
- easy
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
- 3 ¼ cups water
- 1 oz unsalted butter
- ½ cup whole milk
- ½ tsp salt
Shop this recipe on Amazon
What you'll need
Spices & pantry
Fresh ingredients (2)
Links open Amazon in a new tab. As an Amazon Associate, WhatToEat.Today earns from qualifying purchases.
Method
0/4 doneStep 1: Put 2 tbsp Pu'er brick tea or strong black tea leaves and 3 ¼ cups water in a pan, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes, until the tea is a dark reddish-brown and smells strong.
10 minStep 2: Strain into a blender jug. Add 1 oz unsalted butter, ½ cup whole milk and ½ tsp salt.
Step 3: Hold the lid down with a folded towel and blend for 30 seconds, until pale, creamy and frothy, with no streaks of butter floating. Common mistake: just stirring the butter in; it floats as a greasy layer instead of becoming part of the tea.
Step 4: Pour into bowls or cups and drink hot, topping up as you go. Re-blend briefly if it separates.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 90 kcal
- Protein
- 1 g
- Carbs
- 3 g
- Fat
- 8 g
- Fibre
- 0 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does tibetan butter tea take?
- About 14 minutes in total: 2 minutes to prepare and 12 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 4 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it vegetarian?
- Yes. It has no meat or fish.
- Is it gluten free?
- Yes, as written. Check the labels on stock, sauces and spice mixes, which sometimes contain gluten.
- What can I use instead of unsalted butter?
- The same weight of ghee or coconut oil (for frying and most baking).
- What can I use instead of whole milk?
- Semi-skimmed milk with 1 tbsp cream per 240ml (1 cup).
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to cook it.
Rate this recipe
Sign in to rate and review this recipe.
You might also like
Power packApple, pear, kiwi and celery juice
A sweet, energising juice of apples, pears and kiwi fruit with a stick of celery, all used unpeeled for extra goodness. It's naturally sweet, so it needs no sugar. Serve well chilled.
Guava delightGuava, mango and banana drink
A thick, fragrant blend of ripe guava, mango and banana, boosted with a spoonful of guava powder from the health shop. The book calls it a modern-day vitality drink, drawing on guava's long use in traditional Indian medicine. Serve it well chilled; sieve it if you don't like the little guava seeds.
PingadoHot milk with coffee
Order 'um pingado' at the balcão of any São Paulo padaria at 7 in the morning and the attendant pours hot milk into a ridged glass tumbler (the copo americano) and 'drips' in a splash of strong coffee, hence the name. It is milkier and gentler than a média (half coffee, half milk), creamy and lightly sweet, usually drunk standing up with a pão na chapa, a toasted buttered roll. At home you need strong filter coffee and milk heated until steaming. Scalding the milk is the frequent mistake, as boiled milk tastes flat and forms a skin. Chef's tip: froth the hot milk for a few seconds with a whisk or by pouring it back and forth between two jugs before adding the coffee, as padaria machines do.
Brazilian