🍽️ Butter Tea

Made from butter and strong tea, warming and refreshing, a Tibetan daily drink.

Butter tea is the daily drink of Tibetan households in Lhasa, Tibet. Strong brick tea is brewed into a dark infusion, poured into a churn with yak butter and a pinch of salt, and whipped repeatedly until emulsified and frothy. It is salty, rich and oily-warming, fighting the cold and easing high-altitude dryness and fatigue. Traditionally served warm and well-whipped, it is eaten with tsampa, a ball of roasted barley flour dipped in the tea. Offering butter tea is a Tibetan gesture of hospitality, the cup repeatedly refilled to convey warmth; it is especially comforting in cold seasons.