Tea Horse Road NatGeo

[spot52]

For those of you who may not have seen it, there is a nice story in the latest natgeo about the tea horse road.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/ ... nkins-text
Pretty interesting story about tea and its impact on life. Great pics too.
njoy

[geeber1]

Thanks, spot! I can't read it until I get home, but it's nice to see tea getting some major recognition!

[entropyembrace]

"For one little cauldron, 25 bricks of tea, 70 kilos of yak butter, 3 kilos of salt," says Drakpa, stirring this recipe for 200 with a wooden spoon tall as a human. "For the biggest cauldron, we used seven times that much."

Does not sound like a good brew to me

[spot52]

I don't know if I would like it, but how can you go wrong with butter and salt? They make everything taste better. But the tea uses the lowest quality tea leaves.

[rabbit]

I don't know if I would like it, but how can you go wrong with butter and salt? They make everything taste better. But the tea uses the lowest quality tea leaves.

yak butter and salt is the common way of preparing tea in Tibet, actually, salt was originally used in England as well as many other cultures.

When you think about it, salt and sugar serve essentially the same function- to define the flavors of the tea and sharpen them.

[bearsbearsbears]

I don't know if I would like it, but how can you go wrong with butter and salt? They make everything taste better. But the tea uses the lowest quality tea leaves.

They tend to prefer rancid butter yak that's a bit sour, but surprisingly it's not as gross as it sounds. The problem isn't the taste, it's the bowlingball-in-the-stomach feeling after drinking so much fat.

[entropyembrace]

I know in Darjeeling they sometimes put a pinch of salt in their tea

gross things for me are...butter...and brewing it by throwing everything in a cauldron

[debunix]

I was working on seasoning my yixing pots the other day, and discovered that a lot of some nice cooked puerh essentially stewed in a pot (yixing soaking inside a big pot with the tea soup) not only smelled quite nice, but also tasted pretty good despite a good hour of simmering.

[IPT]

Hi Spot, Thanks for this post. It was an interesting read.

Have you had Yak Butter Tea? I've always heard people hated it, but I actually was quite fond of it. I get yak butter shipped to me on a regular basis so I can make it at home. It sure does fill you up though. Great in the winter.

[spot52]

Hi Spot, Thanks for this post. It was an interesting read.

Have you had Yak Butter Tea? I've always heard people hated it, but I actually was quite fond of it. I get yak butter shipped to me on a regular basis so I can make it at home. It sure does fill you up though. Great in the winter.

I would be open to trying it, I am not opposed to trying new teas!

[CynTEAa]

Nice article! Thanks for sharing! Mmm yak dung fires.

[IPT]

They collect Yak dung and dry it out. You can see it in stacks, or stuck to walls drying all over. When dried, it burns well and has no poo odor. In Wisconsin, when I was young, in particularly bad winters when we couldn't get to the woods for more firewood, we used to burn cow pies (cow poop) too. It wasn't uncommon then.

[CynTEAa]

They collect Yak dung and dry it out. You can see it in stacks, or stuck to walls drying all over. When dried, it burns well and has no poo odor. In Wisconsin, when I was young, in particularly bad winters when we couldn't get to the woods for more firewood, we used to burn cow pies (cow poop) too. It wasn't uncommon then.

Beats being cold, that's for sure! The pics with that article are amazing!

[Poohblah]

They collect Yak dung and dry it out. You can see it in stacks, or stuck to walls drying all over. When dried, it burns well and has no poo odor. In Wisconsin, when I was young, in particularly bad winters when we couldn't get to the woods for more firewood, we used to burn cow pies (cow poop) too. It wasn't uncommon then.

It's a common (but not preferred ) technique among backpackers, too.

I saw the article in a copy of Natgeo. The article has reinforced my desire to visit Yunnan and Tibet when I am finished with my studies

[Tea_Rex]

Cow dung is used for fuel in India also. You often see walls covered in large rounds of drying dung, each one with a hand print in the center so that they actually make a wonderful abstract design. And the smell of the burning dung is actually very nice. Sort of like burning sweet grass if you know that smell.