Butter tea
Butter tea in a bowl | |
| Alternative names | Boe cha, cha süma, goor goor cha, cha suskan |
|---|---|
| Type | Beverage |
| Place of origin | Central Asia, Tibet, China |
| Region or state | South/Central/East Asia and Caribbean |
| Main ingredients | Tea leaves, yak butter, salt |
Butter tea, also known as bho jha or po cha (Tibetan: བོད་ཇ་, Wylie: bod ja, THL: bö ja, "Tibetan tea"), cha süma (Tibetan: ཇ་སྲུབ་མ་, Wylie: ja srub ma, THL: ja sup ma, "churned tea") in Standard Tibetan, sūyóu chá (酥油茶) in Mandarin Chinese, su ja (Tibetan script: སུ་ཇ, Wylie: suja, "churned tea") in Dzongkha, cha su-kan or gur gur cha in the Ladakhi language, and su chya or phe chya in the Sherpa language, is a drink of the people in the Himalayan regions of Nepal, Bhutan, India, Pakistan especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan,Tajikistan, East Turkestan, Tibet, and western regions of modern-day China and Central Asia. Traditionally, it is made from tea leaves, yak butter, water, tsampa (roasted barley flour) and salt, although butter made from cow's milk is increasingly used, given its wider availability and lower cost.
in East Turkestan it is known as etken chay (Uyghur: ئەتكەن چاي, әткән чай).