Po Cha (Tibetan Butter Tea)

Servings: 4 roughly Preparation Time: 0.5 hours

Ingredients

• Plain black tea (in bags or loose)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup milk

Cooking Instructions First boil five to six cups of water, then turn down the fire. Put 4 bags of tea or 4 heaping tablespoon of loose tea in the water and boil again for a couple of minutes. Take out the tea bags or if you use loose tea, strain the tea leaves. Pour your tea, one quarter of a teaspoon of salt, two tablespoons of butter, and a half cup of milk into a chandong, which is a kind of churn.

Note: Since Chandong are kind of rare outside of Tibet unless you make one, you can cheat, which is to use any big container with a lid, so you can shake the tea, Churn, or shake the mixture for two or three minutes. Po cha tastes better if you churn it longer. Serve the tea right away, since po cha is best when it's very hot. Source: Venerable, Shi Kuan Shen Rinpoche Notes We serve this to guests of our encampment during events. It is also the custom that the youngest female serves the po cha to the eldest male first.