Top 4 Tibetan Drinks

There are 4 kinds of drinks that Tibetan people cannot live without everyday. Barley wine, buttered tea, sweet tea, and yak Yogurt are quite necessary for the life on the snow land. Each one has its own special taste and meaning for local people.

Barley Wine

Barley wine, also called “Qiang” in Tibetan language, is made from the main grain in Tibet - highland barley. Tibetan people love drinking this wine the most. Tibetan barley wine has the unique style of refreshing fragrance, sweet and pure, no pain and no thirsty after drinking.

Buttered Tea

Buttered tea is a special beverage in Tibet. It has typical taste and making method. It is a daily necessity for Tibetans who live on the Tibetan plateau. It can drive out the coldness when encountering cold weather, can remove greasy when eating meat, can satisfy one’s hunger when hungry, can relieve and clear one’s mind when sleepy. The buttered tea contains vitamins that can reduce the damage caused by the lack of vegetables on the plateau. While many foreigners balk at the idea of drinking butter tea, it is tasty if you think of it as a kind of soup.

Sweet Tea

Sweet tea is another very popular beverage in Tibet beside buttered tea, especially in Lhasa, Shannan and Shigatse. Now the custom of drinking sweet milk tea has gradually spread to countryside of these cities.

Yak Yogurt

Yak yogurt in Tibet has a history of thousands of years as an indispensable food. The biggest holiday of the year, Shoton Festival, is named after yogurt. For thousands of years, yogurt is the only material to produce probiotics, and this invisible “probiotic” also brought the unique chivalrous style and efficacy of the plateau. In Tibet, it is recognized that the best yogurt is in Nagqu County where has the most yak in Tibet, which can be eaten plain, with a bit of sugar, or mixed with rice.

Check Bars to Enjoy a Drink in Lhasa.