Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Drinks
NONALCOHOLIC DRINKS
The local beverage that every traveller ends up trying at least once is yak-butter tea.
Modern Tibetans these days use an electric blender to mix their yak-butter tea.
The more palatable alternative to yak-butter tea is sweet, milky tea, or
cha ngamo
. It is
similar to the tea drunk in neighbouring Nepal or Pakistan. Soft drinks and mineral water
are available everywhere.
YAK-BUTTER TEA
Bö cha,literally 'Tibetan tea', is unlikely to be a highlight of your trip to Tibet. Made from
yak butter mixed with salt, milk, soda, tea leaves and hot water all churned up in a
wooden tube, the soupy mixture has more the consistency of bouillon than of tea (one
traveller described it as 'a cross between brewed old socks and sump oil'). When mixed
with tsampa (roasted barley flour) and yak butter it becomes the staple meal of most
Tibetans, and you may well be offered it at monasteries, people's houses and even while
waiting for a bus by the side of the road.
At most restaurants you mercifully have the option of drinking cha ngamo(sweet, milky
tea), but there will be times when you just have to be polite and down a cupful of bö cha
(without gagging). Most nomads think nothing of drinking up to 40 cups of the stuff a
day. On the plus side it does replenish your body's lost salts and prevents your lips from
cracking. As one reader told us, 'Personally we like yak-butter tea, not so much for the
taste as the view'.
Most distressing for those not sold on the delights of yak-butter tea is the fact that your
cup will be refilled every time you take even the smallest sip, as a mark of the host's re-
spect. There's a pragmatic reason for this as well; there's only one thing worse than hot
yak-butter tea - cold yak-butter tea.
ALCOHOLIC DRINKS
The Tibetan brew is known as
chang
(
qingkèjiǔ
in Chinese), a fermented barley beer. It has
a rich, fruity taste and ranges from disgusting to pretty good. True connoisseurs serve it out
of a jerry can. Those trekking in the Everest region should try the local variety (similar to
Nepali
tongba
), which is served in a big pot. Hot water is poured into the fermenting barley
and the liquid is drunk through a wooden straw - it is very good. Sharing
chang
is a good
way to get to know local people, if drunk in small quantities. On our research trips we have
