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Tea Time in the High Himalayas At the road side Vegetable market Leh !, originally uploaded by Dreamzzzz.....

Usually Indian tea is the black tea with milk and sugar. Instead, I had the Ladakhi tea, which is green tea with butter and salt.

Ladakhis are particular about using fresh, not rancid butter for their tea. This is added with salt to a well-boiled infusion of tea to which a little bicarbonate of soda has been added. The mixture is then churned in a churn or `gur-gur` till all the ingredients are well blended. `Gur-gur` tea is made in bulk, can be kept hot, traditionally in a decorative copper pot on a charcoal brazier and more often in the prosaic thermos. This special kind of tea is drunk in enormous quantities by the Ladakhis, thirty or forty cups a day being quite a normal quota. It is both warming and nourishing, particularly when mixed with `tsampa` and is altogether a comforting drink in a cold climate.

It was evening time when I visited the market place in Leh and found these ladies having their quota of Tea/Chai :)