Instant Yak Butter

So I was reading through a vendor's list of products today, and I saw "Tibetan Yak Butter Instant Tea" packets. Apparently it's a beverage. The packets are dried Yak Butter, with sugar and salt. Mix with hot water, and bingo. Instant cup of Yak Butter Tea. They suggest using Pu Er tea instead of hot water for a flavour twist.

Now I've seen people drink a lot of strange things.. but I've certainly never heard of Yak Butter Tea before.... WTF?

Anyone have any insight?

Good? Bad? Awesome? Disgusting? Healthy? The perfect alternative to milk in your homemade chai? What is it??!?!

Thanks, Troy

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Reply to
Troy Howard
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I've never been tempted to try it myself, but tsampa is a traditional Tibetan beverage (or maybe food), involving tea, yak butter, and barley, if memory serves.

dmh

Reply to
David M. Harris

But... it is SPECIAL yak butter because it is RANCID.

I think it's one of the nastiest things I ever put in my mouth, but I could see how yak butter tea might not be a bad thing if you are otherwise malnourished and living in an ungodly cold climate.

--scott

Reply to
Scott Dorsey

Yup. I spent some years in the Nepali Himalayas and been to Tibet three times and still run away when I just smell it. Right now I'm living with a Nepali Sherpa family in Darjeeling. Let them drink their butter tea and leave me the second flushes and Darjeeling Oolongs. If you travel on the tibetan countryside and happen to run into nomads or Naljorpas (wandering monks) their butter tea is the real thing. They prefer their butter aged, read containing blue veins of mold. You can smell that stuff miles away. You'll probably get the best stuff in Lhasa and some monasteries, almost drinkable, but for my tastes it's still too much. Finally a recipe to get the idea:

- boil up some strong Yunnan brick or loose tea

- add a pinch of soda (mandatory)

- add salt and sugar (Lhasa/Sikkim style) according to taste

- now add about 5-15% of butter and give it a 30s whirl in a blender

- serve steaming hot in a wooden bowl or chinese teacup

- "... enjoy..."

For an idea of the real thing try some rancid butter ...

Best, Karsten / Darjeeling

Reply to
psyflake

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