Uyghur tea

[mintaj]

Hi, i am interested in uyghur tea, especially in uyghur milk tea, but i could not find any recipe strictly from Uyghurs. I just found youtube video where someone is making this tea but it is in  uyghur so i do not understand anything. Does any of you have idea how to make it or know where i can find a recipe?
 

[abcdefg]

Hellow @mintaj and welcome to the Forum. I am not sure I've had authentic Uyghur tea. If, however it is similar to Tibetan tea 藏茶 then you might find this article helpful. 

 

https://www.yowangdu.com/tibetan-food/butter-tea.html

 

I've had this several times during trips up into far Northwest Yunnan, areas where Tibetan culture predominates over Han. The beverage I've had is made with yak milk and yak butter mixed well with strong boiled black tea. (The tea leaves are boiled with water; not just steeped or infused.) Salt is added instead of sugar. It's a very pungent brew, but delicious in cold weather. Personally, I enjoy it most as an accompaniment to roast meats and to a lesser extent with grain and flour-based tsampa. 

 

After you have found out more about it, I hope you will be kind enough to return and enlighten the rest of us. 

[mintaj]

Thank you very much and of course i will share if i will find anything.  I am writing an essey for my university, is it okay with you if i would ad your opinion to it ?
 

[abcdefg]

6 hours ago, mintaj said:

I am writing an essay for my university, is it okay with you if i would ad your opinion to it ?

 

Sure, that's OK. But please remember I've never had true Uyghur tea, only Tibetan tea in NW Yunnan, made by the ethnic Tibetans who inhabit that region. They might not be exactly the same thing. 

 

Part of the little known "back story" on this kind of strong boiled yak milk tea, and part of why it is so insanely popular in Tibet and Tibetan parts of Yunnan and Sichuan (Amdo and Kham) are that it combats constipation. That's not poetic and people don't like to talk about it in non-medical articles where they mainly comment on the taste.

 

But the truth is that during the long winter months in those regions there are very few green vegetables and almost no fruit except for some which was dried in the summer. People live on a diet of meat, fat, bread, onions and potatoes. It's light years from being a balanced diet. This fermented black tea helps the bowels move. Technically, it's a mild peristaltic stimulant. It gives you "the rumbles."

 

It's mentioned in a round about way in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) texts and in TTM (Traditional Tibetan Medicine) books or scrolls. They use indirect phrases to talk about this tea's laxative properties. They say oblique things like "It balances the body" or "it aids digestion and elimination."  

[Balthazar]

Have you tried getting in touch with tea researchers? "Famous" tea blogger MarshalN aka Lawrence Zhang is an Assistant Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, focusing on tea research. I don't know if he knows anything about Uyghur tea culture, but he might be able to get you in touch with someone who does. (His email address is available from the "About" section of the blog.)

 

[mintaj]

1 hour ago, abcdefg said:

But please remember I've never had true Uyghur tea, only Tibetan tea in NW Yunnan, made by the ethnic Tibetans who inhabit that region. They might not be exactly the same thing. 

 

Yes, i will point that out. Thank you very much for your help. Just some comparison with Tibetan tea  is something i can ad. I think maybe in future steps of my essey i will need something  also about Tibet, i hope you could answer my questions. thank you again 

[mintaj]

19 minutes ago, Balthazar said:

Have you tried getting in touch with tea researchers?

I didn't think about that, but now i sourly do. i will try to contact Lawrence Zhang. Thank you very much