🍽️ Guilin Oil Tea

Pounded ginger, garlic and tea with puffed rice.

Guilin Oil Tea is a traditional beverage-meal of Guilin and northern Guangxi's ethnic areas, rooted in Yao and Dong hospitality customs. Tea leaves, ginger and garlic are pounded in a wooden mortar, boiled with water and strained into a strong, fragrant infusion. It is poured over a bowl of puffed fried rice, peanuts, popcorn and crunchy fried dough bits, salty, faintly bitter and wonderfully reviving. Pounding skill and broth strength matter; locals say the first cup is bitter, the second astringent, and the third and fourth delicious. Northern Guangxi families brew it for guests and festivals, pairing it with glutinous rice snacks. For visitors to Longsheng and Yangshuo, a bowl of steaming oil tea is a taste of mountain ethnic life.