Do you live in an extremely cold place and are trying to beat the chills? Then butter tea is what you should try! This tea boosts your strength and also comes with a host of other benefits.

Would you like to know more? Keep reading the post!

Butter Tea – An Overview:

Butter tea, or po cha, is the traditional drink of Tibet. Po cha means churned tea in Tibetan, which is exactly what it is – a strong brewed tea, mixed with milk and churned with butter. Instead of churning, vigorously stirring with a wooden spoon or whisking also produces similar results. For this, a wooden churn is used. In the cold climate, it is drunk many times a day; although if you are trying it in a warmer climate, limit the drink to one or two cups per day. It is also quite beneficial and has several health benefits.

Following are a few popular butter tea recipes:

1. Traditional Po Cha:

Butter tea is a symbol of Tibetan culture because despite its eccentric, acquired taste, it is the taste of home – the chilly, snowy slopes of the Himalayas (1). Naturally, the traditional recipe calls for ingredients sourced from the very mountain range.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of water
• 2 tea bags or 2 teaspoons of plain black tea
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 2 tablespoons of yak butter
• 1/3 cup of full-fat yak milk

Method:

1. Like any tea, you need to boil the water and drop the tea bags or loose tea in it after turning the heat down to medium.
2. Add the salt and stir.
3. After the tea has steeped enough, take the tea bags out or strain the loose tea out.
4. Add the milk. If you don’t get yak milk – which is inevitable if you don’t live in Tibet – you can easily use cow’s milk. For a closer taste to the original, you can use goat’s milk.
5. Turn off the heat and tip this mixture into a churn called chandong. Although churn is traditional, you are not likely to find it outside Tibet. So you can easily use your blender or coffee-shaker to make a frothy cold coffee.
6. Add the butter to the tea. Again, you may replace yak’s butter with that of a cow or goat. Churn, blend or shake until the butter has melted into the tea.
7. Serve hot.

2. Ginger Butter Tea:

You can brew this tea just like the traditional butter tea. Just add thinly sliced ginger root in any of the steps, depending on how strong you like the taste of ginger to be. To get a deep, peppery ginger taste, add the ginger in the first step and strain it out along with the loose tea. Butter tea is usually drunk in winter to warm oneself. Ginger adds to its warmth. Also, if you have a sore throat, this will act better than just ginger tea.

3. Chai Spiced Butter Tea:

Chai spiced tea has a blend of Indian spices that give it a unique taste and adds to its health benefits. You can easily make a butter tea out of it.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of tea
• 2 teabags
• ½ teaspoon cardamom
• ½ teaspoon allspice
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• 5 tablespoons condensed milk
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Method:

• Make a uniform, dry mixture of the spices and keep aside.
• Bring the water to a boil and drop the teabags.
• Add the spices and mix well.
• Add the strained tea into the condensed milk.
• Add the butter and blend, churn or shake just like the traditional coffee.

4. Butter Tea Smoothie:

If you feel like having a taste of the butter tea on a hot summer day, make a smoothie instead of the warm drink, containing the same flavors.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of water
• 2 tea bags of a fruity black tea (made by almost all big brands of tea)
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 3 cups of frozen grapes
• 1 large avocado
• 2 tablespoons butter

Method:

• Brew the tea like regular tea – boil and steep.
• Let the tea cool, and to that add the honey and frozen grapes.
• Blend this mixture into a smoothie.
• Add the avocado flesh and blend too.
• Finally, add the butter and mix quickly before the butter solidifies.

5. Iced Butter Tea:

Ice milk tea takes you to another Asian country – China. Or Hong Kong, to be precise. Adding butter creates a unique, delicious drink.

Ingredients:

• 2 teabags
• ½ cup water
• ½ cup condensed milk
• Sugar to taste
• 2 tablespoon butter
• ½ cup crushed ice

Method:

• Boil the water and steep the tea bags in hot water.
• Let it cool down to room temperature.
• Add the condensed milk. You can alter the proportion of water and milk, because the creamier version is preferred by many.
• Add sugar if needed. But condensed milk is pretty sweet, so go easy on the sugar.
• Blend, churn or shake after adding the butter.
• Chill in the refrigerator and serve with ice.

Benefits Of Butter Tea:

1. Butter tea is quite warming, so its chief benefit when drunk in cold, high altitude places like Tibet is a boost of energy. It is very high in calories and can supply with energy for long hours.
2. It has butter in it, which is a good fat and can keep your skin from getting rough and weather worn in the cold, windy climate.
3. Tea itself has various health benefits that are present in butter tea too. It is a great anti-oxidant and helps in keeping the digestive system stay normal, which is difficult when you eat a protein and fat-heavy diet as they often do in cold climates.
4. If you add ginger or spices like cinnamon to the tea, as described in the recipes above, you get additional benefits. Ginger prevents sore throats, arthritis and stomach ailments. Cinnamon has antioxidant properties and increases insulin sensitivity (2).
5. Butter tea contains less caffeine than coffee. So, if you get jittery and fidgety after drinking coffee, butter tea is a more suitable alternative.
6. Butter tea reduces the chances of heart attack and stroke. Extensive studies show that those who drink tea thrice a day have 70 percent less chance of getting a fatal heart attack than those who do not.
7. Butter tea is good for your immune system. Butter contains conjugated linoleic acid that has muscle building and anti-cancer properties. It contains several minerals that strengthen the immune response and make you less prone to immune-deficiency diseases.
8. The polyphenols present in tea help in protecting your body against cancer. There is no conclusive proof of this property of butter tea, but it would never be counter-productive either.
9. Butter tea is full of vitamins – especially fat soluble vitamins. Vitamin K2 is present in dairy – cow milk butter, in this case – which is rarely found in anything else. It protects you from cardiovascular diseases, bolsters calcium metabolism, and wards of osteoporosis.
10. Butter tea contains butter which is a good source of fatty acid butyrate which is anti-inflammatory. It is protective of the digestive system.
11. The vitamin D present in butter tea helps in the absorption of calcium. Moreover, it contains iodine in an easily absorbable form.
12. Young children will also be benefitted by drinking butter tea. The cholesterol present in butter helps in developing the brain and nervous system. It also protects the gastrointestinal tracts of the young and elderly.

The benefits of a cup of butter tea are many like you already read. It is easy to brew, and a refreshing drink too! So, what are you waiting for? Put the kettle to boil!

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The post How To Make Butter Tea And What Are Its Benefits? appeared first on STYLECRAZE.

by Daiwik Suresh Gejji via STYLECRAZE