Yak Butter Tea

From Lijiang we travelled north to Shangri-La, in the Tibetan Plains. We were lucky enough to be staying at the Banyan Tree - about 15 miles outside of Shangri-La itself, in a cluster of villages known as Ringha.

Here, during a ‘cultural tour’ of the surrounding area, we were invited into a family home to partake in one of the local delicacies – Yak Butter Tea. This is the ultimate staple of the Tibetan diet and is drunk by the gallon by Tibetan nomads, the high fat content in the butter providing plenty of warmth during the long harsh winters.



Basically Yak Butter Tea is black tea, mixed in with yak butter and salt – with the result being… well it tastes like somebody took a perfectly good cup of tea and added a big dollop of salty butter to it – yes, definitely an acquired taste.



The tea was dished up with home made bread, which we were encouraged to dip into the tea, skimming off the layer of butter from the top of the tea; home-made Yak Cheese – similar to a sour Feta (another acquired taste?!) and a bowl of barley powder, which was either stirred into the tea, or thrown into the mouth with a teaspoon. We chose the latter method and ended up with a mouthful of sticky powder that tasted like stale puffed wheat (you guessed it… another acquired taste!)



We politely sipped away at our tea before we realised that as quickly as we were drinking, it was going to be topped up again – so we soon learned to drink a bit slower! Certainly an interesting experience, but one I don’t think I’ll be rushing to try again anytime soon.