Po cha is Tibetan butter tea: brick tea churned with yak butter and salt into a savory, high-fat drink built for the cold and altitude of the Tibetan plateau.
It starts with brick tea, compressed black tea boiled down into a strong, dark base, which is then poured into a churn with yak butter and salt and beaten until it emulsifies into something closer to a thin soup than a cup of tea. The result is savory rather than sweet, high in fat and calories, and traditionally served throughout the day rather than at set tea times. At elevations where food can be scarce and cold is constant, po cha functions as much as sustenance and hydration as it does a beverage, and offering a guest a bowl of it is a basic act of hospitality.
Po cha stands apart from tea traditions built around aroma and delicacy. It has more in common, functionally, with a warm broth than with a steeped leaf tea, and that’s by design: the point isn’t subtlety, it’s getting through a Himalayan winter.
