Recipe
🥤 DRINK
Suja (Butter Tea)
Bhutan's savory butter tea, churned from brick tea, butter, and salt into a warming, soup-like brew for the high Himalayas.
Bhutanese · easy · serves 4
prep 5 min · cook 15 min
~96 cal · 1g protein · 2g carbs · 10g fat · 0g fiber · 2g sugars · 6g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Suja is the butter tea of Bhutan, and it belongs to the same high-Himalayan tradition as the po cha of Tibet, food and drink in a single cup. A strong decoction is boiled from a brick of dark tea, then churned hard with butter and salt until it emulsifies into something frothy, rich, and savoury.
It is less a beverage than a restorative broth. In the thin, cold air of the Bhutanese highlands, the fat and salt provide warmth, energy, and hydration, and a bowl of suja does real work for people living and labouring at altitude. Its savoury, buttery taste can startle a newcomer expecting tea.
Hospitality is bound up in it: a guest's cup is refilled the moment it is set down, and to keep drinking is to honour the host. Warming, filling, and endlessly offered, suja is the sustaining, sociable heart of a Bhutanese welcome.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
3 tbsp strong black (brick) tea
4 cups water
3 tbsp butter
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
1
Boil the brick tea in the water for 8-10 minutes until very dark, then strain.
2
Pour the hot tea into a blender or churn with the butter, milk, and salt.
3
Blend or churn hard for a minute until frothy and emulsified.
4
Serve hot in bowls or cups, savory and warming.
Bhutanese highland tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Thimphu. Thimphu treats chili as a vegetable rather than a seasoning, most plainly in ema datshi, chilies stewed in soft local cheese. Red rice, buckwheat, dried yak meat, and butter tea suit the altitude of Bhutan's Himalayan valleys.
🗺️
Bhutan. Nothing chilli-based in Bhutan is ancient, since the chilli itself is a post-Columbian arrival in the Himalaya. What is old is the grain: red rice grown in terraced paddies at altitude, buckwheat in the high valleys of Bumthang made into pancakes and noodles, and butter and cheese from yaks that graze above where rice will grow.
🌍
Asia. Fermentation is the thread that runs the whole way across: soy sauce and miso, Korean doenjang and kimchi, Southeast Asian fish sauces, the soured batter behind an idli. Chilli is the newcomer among them, arriving only after 1500 with Portuguese and Spanish traders, which makes the heat in Sichuan, Thai and Korean cooking far younger than the fermenting underneath it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Bhutan
Ema DatshiBhutan’s national dish: green chilies stewed as the vegetable, not the seasoning, in a silky cheese sauce.
Khur-leRustic buckwheat pancakes from the Bhutanese highlands, eaten with chili-cheese ezay.
Jasha MarooA soupy, spicy minced-chicken stew with tomato, ginger, and coriander, a warming everyday Bhutanese dish.
Browse all Bhutan recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Blender.
Storing it: Soup keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and freezes well. Reheat gently and loosen with a little water or stock if needed.
Make it a Bhutan meal
Ema DatshiDinner
KhabzeyDessert
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Drinks
Frequently asked questions
What is Suja (Butter Tea)?
Bhutan's savory butter tea, churned from brick tea, butter, and salt into a warming, soup-like brew for the high Himalayas.
Where does Suja (Butter Tea) come from?
Suja (Butter Tea) is a Bhutanese dish from Thimphu, Bhutan.
Can Suja (Butter Tea) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Suja (Butter Tea) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Suja (Butter Tea) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Suja (Butter Tea) take to make?
About 20 minutes total (5 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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