Tibetan Ethnic Minority: Buttered Tea

Tea is regarded as something belonging to the gods. For the Tibetan, from Zanpu (King) to Lama, from the rulers to ordinary citizens, they eat more cheese and meat than vegetable and fruit, so tea becomes an indispensable beverage to them in every meal.

Major kinds of tea drunk by the Tibetans include buttered tea, tea with milk, tea with salt, and green tea. According to a survey, 73.9 percent of the respondents voted the buttered tea as the most popular kind followed by the tea with milk.

The buttered tea takes tea as its main material mixed with some other food, so one will find various tastes when drinking it. The tea not only can get one's body warmed up, but also can nourish the drinker.

There is a set of rules to follow when one visits a Tibetan family and is invited to drink the buttered tea. One cannot drink up the whole bowl of tea in one breath, but lick the mushy tea while drink it. The hospitable host often keeps the guests' bowl filled up; so don't touch the bowl if you don't want to drink the tea. If you have had enough and cannot drink anymore, you may leave the bowl there for the moment and drink up the tea when you're leaving. Only one follows these rules in line with the customs and manners of the Tibetans can she/he receive a warm welcome from them.

Dai Ethnic Minority: Bamboo Tube Tea

The Dai ethnic minority is a hospitable people good at singing and dancing.

Bamboo-tube tea is known as Laduo in Dai language. The producing procedure of bamboo-tube tea is quite special, which can be divided into three steps. 1) Put the tea into bamboo tube. Put the dried spring tea (the tea growing in the spring time) or preliminary-processed tea into the bamboo tube. The bamboo used should be just chopped down and has a growing period of about one year. 2) Bake the tea. Put the bamboo tube on the fire for 6 to 7 minutes until the tealeaves is softened. Press the tealeaves with a wooden stick, and then fill up the tube again with more tealeaves. Repeat this procedure until tealeaves in the tube are compacted. 3) Take out the tea. When tealeaves are completely baked, cut open the tube with a knife and take out the column-shaped bamboo-tube tea.

After everybody sits at the round bamboo table, we can make the bamboo-tube tea. 1) Make the tea. Break off some bamboo-tube tea with fingers and put it into teacups, then pour boiling water with an amount of 7/10 or 8/10 cup. After 3 to 5 minutes of brewing, the tea is ready. 2) Drink the tea. The bamboo-tube tea has the pure taste of tea as well as the strong flavor of bamboo. One will find everything new and fresh when drinking the delicious tea.