Recipe
🥤 DRINK
Tongba
A warm Himalayan millet beer sipped through a bamboo straw from its own wooden vessel, refilled again and again with hot water.
Nepali · advanced · serves 4
prep 20 min · cook 0 min
~647 cal · 18g protein · 126g carbs · 7g fat · 14g fiber · 3g sugars · 1g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Tongba is the warming communal brew of the Limbu and other Kirat peoples of the eastern Nepal hills, as much a social ritual as a drink. Whole finger is cooked and for days or weeks, then packed into a wooden or bamboo vessel, itself called a tongba, that gives the drink its name.
To serve it, hot water is poured over the grains and left to briefly, and the mildly alcoholic, warm, slightly sour liquid is sipped up through a narrow bamboo straw, the pipsing, notched so it draws the liquid but holds back the grains. When the bowl runs low, you simply top it up again with more hot water.
That refilling is the whole charm: a single pot of yields round after round over a long, sociable evening, shared among friends against the mountain cold. Warm, gently boozy, and endlessly companionable, tongba is how the eastern Himalaya passes a cold evening.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, 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
4 cups finger , (weeks ahead)
8 cups hot water
2 tbsp yeast/starter culture (murcha)
1 tbsp a little sugar (optional)
Instructions
1
Weeks ahead, cook the finger millet and cool it completely.
✎ Chef’s note
Let the cooked millet cool to lukewarm before adding the murcha starter. Mixing it in while hot kills the culture, and the fermentation never takes.
2
Mix the cooled millet with the crushed murcha starter and seal it in a vessel to ferment until pleasantly boozy and sour.
3
Pack the fermented millet into a wooden tongba (or a tall mug).
4
Top with just-boiled water and let it steep for about 5 minutes, so the warmth draws out the brew.
5
Sip through a bamboo straw, refilling with hot water for several rounds from the same grains.
Limbu tradition, eastern Nepal.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Kathmandu Valley. The Newar festive plate is samay baji, a set rather than a single dish: beaten rice at the centre, ringed by fried black soybeans, lentil-flour bara, spiced buffalo chhoila, a boiled egg, chopped ginger and a pour of the rice spirit aila. It opens pujas, festivals and death anniversaries alike.
🗺️
Nepal. Dal bhat is only two thirds of its own name: dal bhat tarkari, lentils and rice and the vegetable curry, with the tarkari counting as much as the other two. It is eaten twice a day and refilled without being asked, which is why the phrase dal bhat power is a running joke on the trekking routes.
🌍
Asia. A grain line runs across the continent. Rice dominates the wet south and east, wheat the drier north and west, and the tools follow it: the wok and the steamer where rice is milled, the tandoor and the griddle where wheat is ground. Tea travels the other way, drunk green, black, salted, buttered or with milk depending how far it got from China.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Nepal
Yomari (Newari Sweet Rice Dumpling)Fig-shaped steamed rice-flour dumpling filled with chaku (jaggery molasses), toasted sesame, and coconut, made for Yomari Punhi.
Dal Bhat TarkariThe Himalayan daily plate: tempered black lentils, rice, and a turmeric-spiced vegetable curry.
Sel RotiA ring-shaped, lightly sweet fermented rice bread, crisp outside and soft within.
Browse all Nepal recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
Make it a Nepal meal
Aloo Tama Bodi (Potato, Bamboo Shoot and Black-Eyed Bean Curry)Dinner
Juju DhauDessert
Similar dishes from around the world
Bili-BiliChad
OshikunduNamibia
BusheraUganda
Leting la MabeleLesotho
TchoukoutouBenin
Botswana Ginger BeerBotswana
Drinks
Frequently asked questions
What is Tongba?
A warm Himalayan millet beer sipped through a bamboo straw from its own wooden vessel, refilled again and again with hot water.
Where does Tongba come from?
Tongba is a Nepali dish from Kathmandu Valley, Nepal.
Can Tongba be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Tongba 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 Tongba 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 Tongba take to make?
About 20 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 0 minutes cooking), serving 4.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.