Hi All,

Back from being offline and then, far longer, being ill, I have a question
for the qroup.

Does anyone think the recipe (which seems simple enough) at
<http://www.teaagora.com/recipes/tibetantea> reasonably authentic? (Aside
from the butter subsitututing for rancid yak-butter, a thing a little hard
to get in the States, I expect )

The question is, which "Pu-erh or Yunnan tea bricks" would be best to
start with? the "Tibetan Mushroom" kind, or just any Yunnan "gold tip"
beeng, or what?

Now the formula at <http://cc.purdue.edu/~wtv/tibet/food.html> (somewhat
down into the page, "V." on the outline), does suggest "Fu Tea from Hunan,
Tou Tea from Yunnnan and Ta Tea from Szechuan", and that's a start
(shamefacedly I confess to having heard of none of them, but that's just
ignorance on my part). But is *this* recipe accurrate?

There are several people on this list who enjoy[ed] variants of masala
chai in India herself. Is there someone similarly familar with Tibetan
tea?

I would appreciate any input. Thank you.

Ozzy

I had Tibetan Butter Tea at Makye Ame (Beijing), and did not like it.
Yak butter tea tastes like drinking butter...thick butter flavor...and
that's it...*shudder* I couldn't finish but half a cup, let alone the
whole pot! I do recommend Yak as a delicious meat, though!

If you still wanna give it a try, I can you that tou tea is just
toucha, which is shaped pu-erh, and available all over. Also, the "bao
yan" ("holy flame") brick series produced by Xiaguan tea factory is one
of the most popular bricks amongst Tibetans. You can get it many places
online. I'm unsure if the green/raw or black/cooked version is drunk
more often, though, and I'm not sure which kind was in the Tibetan tea
I had (because it tasted so much like butter and so little like
anything else!).

Darnit. Right now I really could go for some mutton ribs or
stone-cooked yak!

> Now the formula at <http://cc.purdue.edu/~wtv/tibet/food.html> (somewhat
> down into the page, "V." on the outline), does suggest "Fu Tea from Hunan,
> Tou Tea from Yunnnan and Ta Tea from Szechuan", and that's a start
> (shamefacedly I confess to having heard of none of them, but that's just
> ignorance on my part). But is *this* recipe accurrate?
>

Why would you want to drink that kind of tea anyway? It's terrible. I
could only drink 1 cup of it, and that's it; never mind a whole pot.
It tastes nothing like tea. And there's mostly just a salty, butter
taste. It's very oily and brothy like soup. I guess it's an acquired
taste. Not to my liking anyway.

I think milk tea tastes much better, especially earl grey milk tea.

All I know is, Hunan, Yunnnan and Sichuan all make various forms of tea
bricks. So I guess any of them would be suitable for making buttered
tea.

>All I know is, Hunan, Yunnnan and Sichuan all make various forms of tea
>bricks. So I guess any of them would be suitable for making buttered
>tea.

I think they usually just use black tea to make their "su you cha", but
it's mostly milk/butter. Someone from Tibet once told me that they
originally drank it without tea leaves (long while ago), and they only
started adding tea to improve the flavor. It's really freezing up
there, and they drink it for nutrition. It's one of those things they
use for survival.

I guess it wasn't supposed to become popular.

Thanks to everyone for their responses, esp. Jason F. who gave me good
suggestions as to the original topic.

But you know it is possible to like Tibetan tea (which I used to have in a
Tibetan restaurant in NYC) just for that strong unusual flavor...

Ozzy

"Ozzy" > wrote in message
. 97.142...
> Hi All,
snip


> The question is, which "Pu-erh or Yunnan tea bricks" would be best to
> start with? the "Tibetan Mushroom" kind, or just any Yunnan "gold tip"
> beeng, or what?
>
> Now the formula at <http://cc.purdue.edu/~wtv/tibet/food.html> (somewhat
> down into the page, "V." on the outline), does suggest "Fu Tea from Hunan,
> Tou Tea from Yunnnan and Ta Tea from Szechuan", and that's a start
> (shamefacedly I confess to having heard of none of them, but that's just
> ignorance on my part). But is *this* recipe accurrate?
>
> There are several people on this list who enjoy[ed] variants of masala
> chai in India herself. Is there someone similarly familar with Tibetan
> tea?
>
> I would appreciate any input. Thank you.
>
> Ozzy
>


Ozzy, I wanted to try this type of tea too, I ordered several cooked puerh
bricks from Yunnan Sourcing for this (and I did get the cheaper brick
"flame" type puerh (the invoice says 2004 Xiaguan Tibetan Baoyan Pu-erh tea
250 gm brick) and made the tea according to the recipe at www. tanc.org. I
don't ahve a churn so I jsut used a blender and of course fresh butter.
While it was interesting it was too rich for me to drink frequently but it
was really very unique. It really was quite brothy as someone said. It also
reminded me a little (in that I was drinking a hot buttered liquid) of hot
buttered rum, but the taste with the tea is brothy. I'd say give it a try,
it's an interesting experience, but probably use a cooked puerh you like
anyway, just so if you can't stand it with butter you can at least drink it
plain. Oh, and make sure your butter is fresh and without refrigerator
smells because those will carry over into the drink, nasty. I did use salted
butter...you might want to be careful about how much extra salt you add if
you use already salted butter. To taste.


Melinda

"Melinda" > wrote in
:

<...>
>
> Ozzy, I wanted to try this type of tea too, I ordered several cooked
> puerh bricks from Yunnan Sourcing for this (and I did get the cheaper
> brick "flame" type puerh (the invoice says 2004 Xiaguan Tibetan Baoyan
> Pu-erh tea 250 gm brick) and made the tea according to the recipe at
> www. tanc.org. I don't ahve a churn so I jsut used a blender and of
> course fresh butter. While it was interesting it was too rich for me to
> drink frequently but it was really very unique. It really was quite
> brothy as someone said. It also reminded me a little (in that I was
> drinking a hot buttered liquid) of hot buttered rum, but the taste with
> the tea is brothy. I'd say give it a try, it's an interesting
> experience, but probably use a cooked puerh you like anyway, just so if
> you can't stand it with butter you can at least drink it plain. Oh, and
> make sure your butter is fresh and without refrigerator smells because
> those will carry over into the drink, nasty. I did use salted
> butter...you might want to be careful about how much extra salt you add
> if you use already salted butter. To taste.
>
>
> Melinda

Thanks. Melinda. I'd thought of the Tibetan mushroom too... Good point abt
the butter -- I hadn't thought of that.

Ozzy

I've heard that the Tibetan style of tea--esp. with authentic rancid
yak butter--is not very easy for non-Tibetans to acquire a taste for.
It's main selling point--again, from hearsay--is that it's a valuable
source of calories for people who walk up and down a himalaya or two on
a regular basis...


Ozzy wrote:
> "Melinda" > wrote in
> :
>
> <...>
> >
> > Ozzy, I wanted to try this type of tea too, I ordered several cooked
> > puerh bricks from Yunnan Sourcing for this (and I did get the cheaper
> > brick "flame" type puerh (the invoice says 2004 Xiaguan Tibetan Baoyan
> > Pu-erh tea 250 gm brick) and made the tea according to the recipe at
> > www. tanc.org. I don't ahve a churn so I jsut used a blender and of
> > course fresh butter. While it was interesting it was too rich for me to
> > drink frequently but it was really very unique. It really was quite
> > brothy as someone said. It also reminded me a little (in that I was
> > drinking a hot buttered liquid) of hot buttered rum, but the taste with
> > the tea is brothy. I'd say give it a try, it's an interesting
> > experience, but probably use a cooked puerh you like anyway, just so if
> > you can't stand it with butter you can at least drink it plain. Oh, and
> > make sure your butter is fresh and without refrigerator smells because
> > those will carry over into the drink, nasty. I did use salted
> > butter...you might want to be careful about how much extra salt you add
> > if you use already salted butter. To taste.
> >
> >
> > Melinda
>
> Thanks. Melinda. I'd thought of the Tibetan mushroom too... Good point abt
> the butter -- I hadn't thought of that.
>
> Ozzy

5/21/06


[On Tibet butter tea]
> Why would you want to drink that kind of tea anyway? It's terrible. I
> could only drink 1 cup of it, and that's it; never mind a whole pot.
> It tastes nothing like tea. And there's mostly just a salty, butter
> taste. It's very oily and brothy like soup. I guess it's an acquired
> taste. Not to my liking anyway.

Imagine yourself out there on the steppes, thirty degrees below
zero (F [or even C]), hungry, tired, shivering in your heavy leathers
and wools, and somebody hands you a salty butter tea. Go for it, I
say. What you like in the comfort of your livingroom might differ
from what you'll like in cold frost of the high passes.

Disclaimer: Never been there, but I have come off the very cold
desert and off mountain passes in Iran to *very* sweet glasses of
tea and it hit the spot, trust me on this.

Michael

7.1425/21/06


> "Melinda" > wrote in
> :
>
> <...>
>>
>> Ozzy, I wanted to try this type of tea too, I ordered several cooked
>> puerh bricks from Yunnan Sourcing for this (and I did get the cheaper
>> brick "flame" type puerh (the invoice says 2004 Xiaguan Tibetan Baoyan
>> Pu-erh tea 250 gm brick) and made the tea according to the recipe at
>> www. tanc.org. I don't ahve a churn so I jsut used a blender and of
>> course fresh butter. While it was interesting it was too rich for me to
>> drink frequently but it was really very unique. It really was quite
>> brothy as someone said. It also reminded me a little (in that I was
>> drinking a hot buttered liquid) of hot buttered rum, but the taste with
>> the tea is brothy. I'd say give it a try, it's an interesting
>> experience, but probably use a cooked puerh you like anyway, just so if
>> you can't stand it with butter you can at least drink it plain. Oh, and
>> make sure your butter is fresh and without refrigerator smells because
>> those will carry over into the drink, nasty. I did use salted
>> butter...you might want to be careful about how much extra salt you add
>> if you use already salted butter. To taste.
>>
>>
>> Melinda
>
> Thanks. Melinda. I'd thought of the Tibetan mushroom too... Good point abt
> the butter -- I hadn't thought of that.


Hate to clue ya, but fresh butter is not
what this tea is all about. Rather the
opposite I have it on good authority.
Michael

yeah it's more of an attempt to make palatable a dramatic ingestion of fat
calories so a guy can work all day in the cold and at altitude.

I'd try it, to be sure, just to see what it's like, but unless you have a
hard, labor-filled life, a daily diet of the stuff will make you incredibly
fat and very unhealthy.

niisonge wrote:
> Why would you want to drink that kind of tea anyway? It's terrible.

I think if you live your life on the tundra or a highland, you develop
a taste for sugary and fatty foods. Or rather, they start to taste
like food instead of candy. Sugary bread, meat with huge swathes of
lard running through them, butter/cream in your tea/coffee, etc.

And if you live in a desert or a tropic, you start to love the chile.

(N.B. It's when you mix the two cuisines that you lose your friends
and your self-respect...)

--Blair

"Michael Plant" > wrote in message
...
> 7.1425/21/06
>
>
>> "Melinda" > wrote in
>> :
>>
>> <...>
>>>
>>> Ozzy, I wanted to try this type of tea too, I ordered several cooked
>>> puerh bricks from Yunnan Sourcing for this (and I did get the cheaper
>>> brick "flame" type puerh (the invoice says 2004 Xiaguan Tibetan Baoyan
>>> Pu-erh tea 250 gm brick) and made the tea according to the recipe at
>>> www. tanc.org. I don't ahve a churn so I jsut used a blender and of
>>> course fresh butter. While it was interesting it was too rich for me to
>>> drink frequently but it was really very unique. It really was quite
>>> brothy as someone said. It also reminded me a little (in that I was
>>> drinking a hot buttered liquid) of hot buttered rum, but the taste with
>>> the tea is brothy. I'd say give it a try, it's an interesting
>>> experience, but probably use a cooked puerh you like anyway, just so if
>>> you can't stand it with butter you can at least drink it plain. Oh, and
>>> make sure your butter is fresh and without refrigerator smells because
>>> those will carry over into the drink, nasty. I did use salted
>>> butter...you might want to be careful about how much extra salt you add
>>> if you use already salted butter. To taste.
>>>
>>>
>>> Melinda
>>
>> Thanks. Melinda. I'd thought of the Tibetan mushroom too... Good point
>> abt
>> the butter -- I hadn't thought of that.
>
>
> Hate to clue ya, but fresh butter is not
> what this tea is all about. Rather the
> opposite I have it on good authority.
> Michael
>

Yeah I know Michael, I was making a concession to my Westerner's taste.
Besides, I don't keep rancid butter laying around my fridge...that's called
unsanitary over here.

(Wouldn't a person have to leave their butter OUT to get it to go rancid? I
have no idea how to rancidify butter...)

Melinda

I seem to recall reading that rancid fats of any kind are the absolute
worst thing you can eat in terms of health, almost as sure a route to
cancer and degenerative diseases as smoking... Maybe old-time Tibetans
didn't have much of a life expectancy past 30s/40s anyway.


Melinda wrote:
> "Michael Plant" > wrote in message
> ...
> > 7.1425/21/06
> >
> >
> >> "Melinda" > wrote in
> >> :
> >>
> >> <...>
> >>>
> >>> Ozzy, I wanted to try this type of tea too, I ordered several cooked
> >>> puerh bricks from Yunnan Sourcing for this (and I did get the cheaper
> >>> brick "flame" type puerh (the invoice says 2004 Xiaguan Tibetan Baoyan
> >>> Pu-erh tea 250 gm brick) and made the tea according to the recipe at
> >>> www. tanc.org. I don't ahve a churn so I jsut used a blender and of
> >>> course fresh butter. While it was interesting it was too rich for me to
> >>> drink frequently but it was really very unique. It really was quite
> >>> brothy as someone said. It also reminded me a little (in that I was
> >>> drinking a hot buttered liquid) of hot buttered rum, but the taste with
> >>> the tea is brothy. I'd say give it a try, it's an interesting
> >>> experience, but probably use a cooked puerh you like anyway, just so if
> >>> you can't stand it with butter you can at least drink it plain. Oh, and
> >>> make sure your butter is fresh and without refrigerator smells because
> >>> those will carry over into the drink, nasty. I did use salted
> >>> butter...you might want to be careful about how much extra salt you add
> >>> if you use already salted butter. To taste.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Melinda
> >>
> >> Thanks. Melinda. I'd thought of the Tibetan mushroom too... Good point
> >> abt
> >> the butter -- I hadn't thought of that.
> >
> >
> > Hate to clue ya, but fresh butter is not
> > what this tea is all about. Rather the
> > opposite I have it on good authority.
> > Michael
> >
>
> Yeah I know Michael, I was making a concession to my Westerner's taste.
> Besides, I don't keep rancid butter laying around my fridge...that's called
> unsanitary over here.
>
> (Wouldn't a person have to leave their butter OUT to get it to go rancid? I
> have no idea how to rancidify butter...)
>
> Melinda

"Melinda" > writes:

> "Michael Plant" > wrote in message
> > [...butter tea...]
> > Hate to clue ya, but fresh butter is not what this tea is all
> > about. Rather the opposite I have it on good authority.
>
> Yeah I know Michael, I was making a concession to my Westerner's
> taste. Besides, I don't keep rancid butter laying around my
> fridge...that's called unsanitary over here.
>
> (Wouldn't a person have to leave their butter OUT to get it to go
> rancid? I have no idea how to rancidify butter...)

I don't know why it never occurred to me before, but now it has: do we
know for a fact that Tibetans *prefer* butter tea rancid? I mean,
there's plenty of reason for butter to turn rancid without
refrigeration, but is that what they're aiming for?

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

good point.. I guess the thing to ask would be -- if they had a choice, what
would they drink? Then drink that. Knowing that I bet we should be
drinking Coke.

Hi Ozzy,

I have some Hu Nan brick tea (black tea), dated 1966, which you may
find useful should you ever find some rancid yak-butter to go with
it... .

http://www.silkroadtrade.com/special...nblacktea.html

Regards,
Dan

>Yeah I know Michael, I was making a concession to my Westerner's taste.
>Besides, I don't keep rancid butter laying around my fridge...that's called
>unsanitary over here.
>
>(Wouldn't a person have to leave their butter OUT to get it to go rancid? I
>have no idea how to rancidify butter...)
>
>Melinda

Butter keeps an awfully long time if its salted, up to 6 months in a
fridge, 2 years in a freezer, and probably a month at most
unrefridgerated. You'd have to have a lot of butter laying around for
it to go rancid before the family uses it all. Growing up, we left the
butter out of the fridge in its covered dish, but a stick lasted at
most 2 weeks before we had used it. Imagine how much butter the
Tibetans must have lying around if they drink pots of it daily!

The butter at Makye Ame was not rancid, and the Tibetans working there
preferred to drink their Tibetan brandy over any butter tea they
served. After having some myself, and finding it a more delightful,
more fiery, less heavy version of kirschwasser, I can't blame them!

Lewis 5/23/06

> "Melinda" > writes:
>
>> "Michael Plant" > wrote in message
>>> [...butter tea...]
>>> Hate to clue ya, but fresh butter is not what this tea is all
>>> about. Rather the opposite I have it on good authority.
>>
>> Yeah I know Michael, I was making a concession to my Westerner's
>> taste. Besides, I don't keep rancid butter laying around my
>> fridge...that's called unsanitary over here.
>>
>> (Wouldn't a person have to leave their butter OUT to get it to go
>> rancid? I have no idea how to rancidify butter...)
>
> I don't know why it never occurred to me before, but now it has: do we
> know for a fact that Tibetans *prefer* butter tea rancid? I mean,
> there's plenty of reason for butter to turn rancid without
> refrigeration, but is that what they're aiming for?


A bit of projection, and off we go: It happened by
accident, and now we wouldn't have it any other
way. There are tons of examples of that, Pu'erh
first and foremost among them.
Michael

Melinda > wrote:
>
>Yeah I know Michael, I was making a concession to my Westerner's taste.
>Besides, I don't keep rancid butter laying around my fridge...that's called
>unsanitary over here.

I thought they called it cheese?
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

"Dan S" > wrote in news:1148441132.253458.311270
@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

> http://www.silkroadtrade.com/special...nblacktea.html
>

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the URL -- a trifle outside my price range, though ($399 for 3KG
*plus s&h*). :-)

Nicely designed page, though -- I think I must learn Javascript, because I
am impressed by clicking the thumbnail and having the full picture
immediately available.

Ozzy

Ozzy wrote:
> Thanks for the URL -- a trifle outside my price range, though ($399 for 3KG
> *plus s&h*). :-)

I wondered myself if $400 tea from the 60's was really the right thing
to be mixing with rancid butter.

Alex wrote:
> Ozzy wrote:

>> Thanks for the URL -- a trifle outside my price range, though ($399 for
>> 3KG *plus s&h*). :-)
>
> I wondered myself if $400 tea from the 60's was really the right thing
> to be mixing with rancid butter.

Well, that's about $133/kg or $13 for 100 grams. Not too bad. I probably
wouldn't drink it (or anything else) with butter though...

Stefan

Alex > wrote:
>Ozzy wrote:
>> Thanks for the URL -- a trifle outside my price range, though ($399 for 3KG
>> *plus s&h*). :-)
>
>I wondered myself if $400 tea from the 60's was really the right thing
>to be mixing with rancid butter.

So, umm... just how much would it cost to get your own yak?
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Scott Dorsey wrote:
> So, umm... just how much would it cost to get your own yak?

Less than $400. I seem to remember being quoted something in the $200
range for a healthy adult water buffalo in Guizhou.

"Alex" > wrote in news:1148504676.422039.141180
@i39g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:


> Scott Dorsey wrote:
>> So, umm... just how much would it cost to get your own yak?
>
> Less than $400. I seem to remember being quoted something in the $200
> range for a healthy adult water buffalo in Guizhou.

Yes, but the whole thing is to simulate Tibetan tea *over here*, right?

Well, this is a sign that I'm too tired to be computerizing, but DELYAKS, a
Colorado outfit <http://www.yakmeat.us/index.html>, just told me that their
prices range from a "green calf" starting at $1000 (hardly a milk source) up
to (I believe) $11,000 -- "depending on the quality of the animal". Honest.


Ozzy

OMG thank you so much!! I'm ordering some yak meat tomorrow. No joke.
I've been craving this all week!

Now where can I find a recipe for Tibetan stone-cooked yak?

Ozzy wrote:
>Well, this is a sign that I'm too tired to be computerizing, but DELYAKS, a
>Colorado outfit <http://www.yakmeat.us/index.html>, just told me that their
>prices range from a "green calf" starting at $1000 (hardly a milk source) up
>to (I believe) $11,000 -- "depending on the quality of the animal". Honest.
>

Alex > wrote:
>Scott Dorsey wrote:
>> So, umm... just how much would it cost to get your own yak?
>
>Less than $400. I seem to remember being quoted something in the $200
>range for a healthy adult water buffalo in Guizhou.

Different animal altogether, though. Water buffalo steak is pretty
good, but you can't get yak milk without a real yak.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Scott Dorsey wrote:
> Different animal altogether, though. Water buffalo steak is pretty
> good, but you can't get yak milk without a real yak.

That was just for the sake of comparison - what is the going rate for
large, hooved ungulates in rural China?

Water buffalo milk is probably pretty good, actually - it's super high
in fat and makes great mozzerella.

No problem and "thanks" for the comments regarding the page design. I,
actually, got that javascript code from one of those javascript sites
(forgot which one - try hotscripts). Anyway, if you know anyone who's
interested in some old black tea let me know... thanks.

Dan

I, also, prefer my tea w/o butter...

Rick Chappell wrote:
> > So, umm... just how much would it cost to get your own yak?
>
> Talk is cheap.
>
> Rick.

I'm not sure what the current exchange rate is, but most likely it's a
carton of cigarettes, a kidney, 3 goats, or some silly putty, a 6-pack
of Coke and the Sunday funnies.

- Dominic

"Tibetan Relics" > wrote in
ups.com:

> No problem and "thanks" for the comments regarding the page design. I,
> actually, got that javascript code from one of those javascript sites
> (forgot which one - try hotscripts). Anyway, if you know anyone who's
> interested in some old black tea let me know... thanks.
>
> Dan

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the coding resource -- looks good. Don't think I can help you
w. your main problem, though -- the Cantonese Chinese I know prefer Oolong
or Green; those of my other friends whom I have convinced to try brick tea
are pretty much like myself in budgetary restrictions.

I'm sure you've thought about it, but have you seriously thought of Ebay?
I just remember a news piece in the last year or so where a ghost
(actually it was a cane or some article believed to be haunted) was
actually listed for sale there.

Good luck.

Ozzy

Jason F in Los Angeles > wrote:
>
>Now where can I find a recipe for Tibetan stone-cooked yak?

I don't know, but I _did_ find some chinese black brick tea in the closet
if you want some.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."