If you
think about a typical smell of Sri Lanka you will surely say it’s cinnamon, in
Tibet it’s the smell of yak butter. In the temples it’s used for lamps as well
as for the yak butter tea.
My first
butter tea I had 20 years ago in a small rooftop café overlooking the Barkhor
with Jokhang. The tea tasted sour and stingy and reminded me of goat cheese.
Yak milk
has a higher content of fats and so yields more butter than cow milk. And
moreover yak butter contains more polyunsaturated fats than cow milk. This and
the former storage problems (no fridge, temperature difference in a day from
freezing to sweltering heat plus lack hygienic containers) let the yak butter
get rancid and sour within a short period of time. This has changed.
A friend
once told me, after drinking kumys (fermented mare’s milk) in Mongolia, that
yak butter tea didn’t seem so appalling then. I drank kumys in Kyrgyzstan and
liked it (and didn’t get diarrhea). And even 20 years ago I wasn’t appalled by
butter tea.
Now, I
even liked it. I had it in hotels as well as in rural areas. I think it has
something to do with the quality of the butter and a general improvement in hygienics.
Normally
the Tibetans use a butter churner in which they put tea, hot water, salt, and
butter. Historically tea had been transported in bricks to Tibet. This custom
started in the Tang Dynasty. Today also leaves of black tea are used. One can
first cook a concentrate, which then is mixed with hot water. Please remember,
that water boils at lesser temperatures in the high altitudes of Tibet.
How can
you get a taste of butter tea in the West? Use a one liter of water and bring
it to a boil, let it cool, put in 2 tablespoon of black tea like Assam or
Ceylon tea, take out the tea leaves after the tea is strong enough, add 200 ml
of milk, preferably goat milk, then put all into a blender together with salt,
two tablespoons of butter and one teaspoon of creamy goat cheese. Blend well
and serve immediately (to have a hot beverage and before your guests have a
chance to flee from your home). No, actually you should have a wonderful drink.
It has a bit of frothy consistancy
Tea leaves and twigs
Interestingsly palm sugar or unrefined sugar (jaggery)
and also "normal" Chinese tea
At 9 o'clock you see butter,
ready to being put into the tea
Standing upright - butter churners
Large packages of butter on the desk
The thermos with butter tea
in the main assembly hall
Links:
.
No comments:
Post a Comment