flipPo cha, Salted Butter Tea
Po cha, Salted Butter Tea
Why this dish? An indispensable hot drink at high altitude, po cha punctuated every day of Ang Tsering's life: drunk upon waking, offered to visitors, warming hands at camp. It is the quintessential Sherpa gesture of hospitality — a bowl that is never allowed to empty.
A tea beaten until creamy with butter and salt, closer to a savory broth than a sweet drink. Fatty, salty, warming: the liquid fuel of the mountains.
In our home, the tea bowl is never emptied in front of a guest: as soon as you drink, I refill it, that is how we honor the one who enters. We beat the black tea with butter and a pinch of salt in the long wooden tube — chot, chot, chot — until it becomes smooth as milk. Sit by the fire, take the bowl with both hands, and drink while it steams: it is what keeps you alive when the wind comes down from the glacier.
- •Compressed black tea (brick) — a piece (base infusion)
- •Yak butter — a large knob (fat, creaminess)
- •Salt — a pinch (seasoning)
- •Milk (if available) — a little (roundness)
Po cha, Salted Butter Tea
A tea beaten until creamy with butter and salt, closer to a savory broth than a sweet drink. Fatty, salty, warming: the liquid fuel of the mountains.
Why this dish? An indispensable hot drink at high altitude, po cha punctuated every day of Ang Tsering's life: drunk upon waking, offered to visitors, warming hands at camp. It is the quintessential Sherpa gesture of hospitality — a bowl that is never allowed to empty.
In our home, the tea bowl is never emptied in front of a guest: as soon as you drink, I refill it, that is how we honor the one who enters. We beat the black tea with butter and a pinch of salt in the long wooden tube — chot, chot, chot — until it becomes smooth as milk. Sit by the fire, take the bowl with both hands, and drink while it steams: it is what keeps you alive when the wind comes down from the glacier.
Ingredients (period version)
- Compressed black tea (brick) — a piece (base infusion)
- Yak butter — a large knob (fat, creaminess)
- Salt — a pinch (seasoning)
- Milk (if available) — a little (roundness)
Ingredients
- Strong black tea (pu-erh or robust black tea) — 2 tsp (infusion)
- Water — 500 ml (infusion)
- Semi-salted butter — 20 g (fat)
- Salt — 1 pinch (seasoning)
- Whole milk — 50 ml (creaminess)
Method
- Infuse the black tea in simmering water for 5 to 8 minutes to obtain a very strong tea.
- Strain and pour the hot tea into a blender (or a large jar with a lid).
- Add the butter, salt, and milk.
- Blend/shake vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes until frothy and homogeneous.
- Serve immediately, boiling hot, in small bowls.
How it was made : Traditionally, the tea was beaten in a long wooden cylinder called a dongmo, using a piston, for several minutes. The tea arrived as compressed bricks transported from Tibet by caravans; the yak butter and salt made it a liquid food as nourishing as it was thirst-quenching.
The contemporary twist : Present the po cha in a small stoneware cup placed on a raw stone, with a fine butter foam on top like a mountain cappuccino.
Ang Tsering · Charactorium
