#buttertea

“Tibetan Flame” is a sub brand of the famous Xiaguan Tea Factory. The factory is most famously known for their productions of Toucha shaped Puerh (bowl shaped or sometimes referred to as bird’s nest). The sub brand known as Tibetan Flame, produces Puerh meant to be sold to the Tibetan market and is used for making Tibetan Butter Tea. You can find a quick homemade recipe for butter tea in my blog.

This 250g brick comes well packaged in a tight wrapper and box for easy storage. The aroma of the brick is noticeable as soon as the brick is slipped out of it’s box. It’s got a little bit of green still present on the leaf when you look up close and still has presence of both golden downy and a little silver downy as well. It is quite a tightly pressed brick so breaking a piece off took a little extra time and care.

The dry aroma in the warmed gaiwan is rich with a sweet brown sugar and malt aroma with a smokey presence  of tobacco. Very warming and comforting on a cold days, or sitting close the the AC as the temperature her starts to heat up. The wet aroma is earthy with damp soil notes, malt, cocoa powder and a mellow but not overpowering smoke aroma, maybe even closer to a camphor smell. It also has some nice fruity notes of cooked berries, and sweet purple grape.

The first infusion comes with a thick and heavy malt, astringent, mineral rich soil, aged parchment and raisins. It also showed a very woody earthy side of cedar and notable camphor flavor. This woody side of the tea became the prominent profile on the second infusion with strong and filling notes of cedar wood, camphor, while the notes of mineral and raisin seemed to disappear. The malty flavor remained but the astringency faded.

By the 3rd and four runs the tea was all powerhouse of wood and camphor with an aroma similar to a lumber yard. Fresh cut woods of all types filling the air with a clean and comforting scent. The thick remained think and robust. A perfect sessions for a cold winter day, a weekend evening at the cottage or to compliment a juicy protein and potato filled meal. Actually reminded me a lot of Yunnan Sourcing 2020 “Cozy” cake.

Doesn’t that just look delicious? But what exactly is Tibetan butter tea?

Butter tea is the Tibetan National beverage that has been around since the 13th century. The tea is used both to aid in warmth during the extremely cold weather and also used for it’s nutritional value. In the mountains of Tibet, people drink up to 60 small cups of this tea per day.

The process for making the beverage takes quite some time when making it traditionally. Usually the tea would be boiled for several hours during the day, then it would be poured into a long churner with a large amount of yak butter and salt, and would then be churned until blended, and thick, almost like a soup broth. Now it is very easy to make a delicious butter tea at home without boiling the tea for a long period of time, or using a butter churner. It’s easy, warming, and delicious. I know this sounds super weird but I beg you to give it a shot.

This recipe makes roughly 2-3 cup.

You will need:

2 Teaspoons of either ripe puerh tea or hei cha (dark tea)

2 cups water

1/2 Cup of milk (Regular cows milk is fine. You can also use heavy cream if you like, but if you do use less butter)

2 Tablespoons UNSALTED butter (If using salted, do not add additional salt. Using butter from cows milks is fine, unless you can find yak butter.)

A pinch of salt

1/4 Teaspoon sugar

Step 1

In a pot, add your water and bring to a boil. Once water is boiling, add your tea leaves and allow to simmer for 3-5 minutes. I recommend doing 5 minutes or longer if you want a stronger, thicker brew. Use less time if you like a lighter taste.

Step 2

Once your tea as finished simmering, strain the tea into a measuring cup or bowl to remove the leaves, then transfer back into your pot on high heat.

Step 3

Now to the strained tea on high heat, add your milk, sugar and salt. Traditionally sugar is not used, however I think is helps balance out the savory, salty flavor of the tea, without causing it to become too sweet. Stir and simmer for 2 minutes.

Step 4

While tea mixture is simmering, add your butter to either a blender or measuring cup if using an electric hand mixer. If you do happen to have a proper butter churner, then use that!

Step 5

Add the tea mixture to the butter. (Don’t be sloppy like me and spill the tea mixture everywhere!)

Step 6

Blend the tea and butter together for roughly 2-3 minutes until thick, and frothy. Pour the tea into your favorite cup, making sure to scoop in some of the delicious foam and enjoy!