Suutei tsai

Suutei tsai ('milk tea') is Mongolia's everyday tea and a pillar of nomadic steppe life: tea, milk and salt boiled together into a warm, savoury, slightly salty brew rather than a sweet one. The tea is traditionally chipped from a compressed brick of lower-grade leaf and stems — durable and easy to carry — though green or black loose tea is also used; milk comes from cows, sheep, goats, camels or horses, and butter, fat or roasted millet may be added for extra sustenance. Its origins are traced to the era of the Mongol Empire, when Mongolians adapted the tea-drinking habits of neighbouring China and Tibet to their mobile herding lifestyle. The result functions almost as a light broth as much as a drink: it is consumed many times a day, taken with meals and between them, and provides warmth and calories on the cold, open steppe. Above all it is the drink of hospitality — a bowl of suutei tsai is offered to any guest arriving at a Mongolian ger, and accepting it is part of the exchange of welcome.

How it's prepared

Water is brought to a boil with tea (green, black or chipped from a brick), then milk and salt are added and the mixture is simmered, often ladled and aerated by pouring. Butter, animal fat or roasted millet may be stirred in. The whole is boiled together as a decoction, not steeped.

The vessel

Drunk from bowls rather than cups, and brewed in a pot or large cauldron on the stove — practical for the ger and for serving a household or guests repeatedly through the day.

Its social role

Suutei tsai is the standard welcome offered to guests entering a ger; presenting and accepting a bowl is basic Mongolian hospitality. As a daily staple it also structures family meals and steppe routine.

What accompanies it

Often taken with bread, dried curds (aaruul), fried dough (boortsog) and other steppe foods; sometimes enriched with butter, fat or roasted millet within the tea itself.