Tibetan Drinks - the Sweet Tea

Sweet tea is one of the most favored Tibetan drinks especially in Lhasa, Shannan and Shigatse prefectures.

The Importance of Sweet Tea for Tibetan People

To some degree, barley wine and buttered tea are is synonymous with Tibet. But if you wander in the streets in Tibet, you will find many sweet tea houses, where many bicycles and motorcycles are placed before the door. When going inside, you will see all seats are occupied by people who are drinking sweet tea. In some small sweet tea houses, some customers just seat on the stools outside the door and drink teas. You can see people are drinking sweet tea in any time of the day. Although sweet tea is an imported good, Tibetan people have already make them one part of their life and become one of the essential Tibetan drinks for daily life. In the sweet tea houses, a recreation activity called “Geerrang” is popular among people. people use their fingers to beat a staff like Krone chess, which was introduced form India. But it has become a folk custom in Tibetans life. In addition to this, other recreation activities are also favored by people in the sweet tea house, such as playing Chinese chess and cards.

Production Method of Sweet Tea

To make sweet tea, people should use black tea as raw material. Other kind of tea could not replace for it. Extractive the black tea and eliminate the tea leafs and then put in milk or milk powder, white sugar or fruit juice. A delicious cup of sweet tea is completed. The making process is not complicated and the content of fat is less. Tibetans like sweet tea very much and it has become one part of the Tibetan traditional culture. Black tea were not produced in Tibet, it is introduced to Tibet by trading with Nepal and India. In Yatund region and Gyantse region, the production method of sweet tea is approximate to India and Nepal. Dinking sweet tea could prevent and relieve the discomfort of high altitude sickness.