China’s Father of Tea and estimable Tea God, Lu Yu, wrote the world’s first book dedicated to the drink around 760 CE. His Classic of Tea (茶經 or chájīng) praised the drink and documented its production, consumption, and history. Many of his descriptions resemble modern tea practices, but some come as a surprise to the modern tea-drinker. Interestingly, to make his brew, the visionary always added salt to the boiling water. Lu Yu’s tea was salty.
Lu Yu was a tea purist. He frowned upon the adulteration of tea that was common during his day. Back then, tea production was not as developed or refined as it is today. Lu Yu’s contemporaries roasted tea leaves and ground them into a powder before boiling them with water. Loose leaf tea infusions did not yet exist.
To offset the bitterness of the brew, they would often add vegetables and herbs. Lu Yu found the practice revolting: “Boiling thoroughly with scallion, ginger, dates, orange peel, dogwood and mint, or whipping up a smooth liquor, or pouring away the foam when boiling, makes the tea no different from ditchwater but unfortunately this custom is all too prevalent.“ (Translation from Wu) These additions to tea, in the Tea God’s eyes, were unacceptable.
For all his strictures, Lu Yu clearly indicates that he brewed with salt. As he details the boiling process for tea making, he writes, “At the first boil, add a suitable measure of salt as seasoning according to the amount of water, remove a little to try the flavor and pour away the remainder. Do not make the water too salty, otherwise will not the flavor then also be too salty?” (Translation from Wu) In his catalog of 28 tea making utensils, he also includes the cuogui or salt box and jie or salt spoon. Salt, water, and tea, then, were the fundamentals of a good cup.
By most accounts, the Tang Dynasty had a tangy taste in tea. The Tang emperors ruled from 618 until 907, bookending the life and times of Lu Yu. It was common practice during this era in Chinese history to make tea from bricks of dried leaves with the addition of salt. Lu Yu’s descriptions were representative of his context. Later dynasties moved away from brick tea and ground tea as loose leaf infusions became common. In eastern China, salty tea disappeared entirely, but elsewhere it lives. Just look further west.
In the dizzying altitudes of the Himalayas, modern Tibetans proudly consume their traditional beverages བོད་ཇ or bö cha. In English, this drink is salt butter tea–the name infers its three main ingredients. For many Tibetans, bö cha is a daily breakfast thickened with barley flour to add caloric value. During cultural occasions such as funerals or weddings, salt butter tea is a traditional refreshment. Meanwhile, commercial tea houses, which are so central to modern Himalayan life, tend to sell sweet tea rather than the salty stuff. Tibetans have a second salted drink too. Cha thang or ཇ་ཐང་། is a black tea that is lightly salted. “Chinese Tea Culture,” Li claims that Tibetans will serve the most distinguished guests salt butter tea, ordinary guests plain salt tea, and Han guests who are from the East plain tea.
The ethnic neighbors of the Tibetans have their own rendition of salted tea unique to their cuisine. Between the mountains of Yunnan where the first tea bushes grew and the slopes of the Himalayas where the Tibetans enjoy bö cha, live the Nakhi (pronounced na he). This ethnic minority drinks ma’ley. Similar to the Tibetan drink, ma’ley is a salt butter tea, but with more ingredients. After brewing a strong base tea, the Nakhi mix in powdered hemp seeds, chilis, ground peanuts and raw eggs. They add butter and salt and thrash the mixture in a wooden vase. The drink may not be as common today, but it combines the caloric load of buttered tea with the medicinal qualities in its herbs and seeds.
On the other side of the Himalayas, where the world’s other tea giant sits, there is salty tea too. In the northern Indian region of Kashmir, salt tea is the everyday drink of the people. The people of the Kashmir valley call this tea noor chai (literally salt tea), but it can also go by sheer chai or namkeen chai. Unique to the region, Kashmiri people brew green tea in a solution of baking soda or sodium bicarbonate. After boiling the mixture for 45 minutes to 2 hours, a reddish tincture develops which locals call tueth (Wani). They then dilute the red solution with water and add in salt and milk. A daily drink for the Kashmiri, relatively high rates of esophageal and stomach cancers in the region have brought the chronic consumption of the noor chai under medical scrutiny (Dar, Wani).
The Chinese conceptualized life’s necessities in a list of seven basic commodities: firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and tea. It is no coincidence that two of these fundamentals commingle in ancient and modern cups. Much of the modern world is accustomed to shoveling sugar into tea to sweeten it. Don’t forget those that add salt for a bit more savor.
Dar, Nazir Ahmad, et al. “Salt tea consumption and esophageal cancer: a possible role of alkaline beverages in esophageal carcinogenesis.” International journal of cancer 136.6 (2015): E704-E710.
Heiss, Mary Lou, and Robert J. Heiss. The Story of Tea: A Cultural History and Drinking Guide. Ten Speed Press, 2007.
Li, Xiusong. “Chinese tea culture.” Journal of popular culture 27.2 (1993).
Wani, Imtiaz, et al. “Noon Chai and gastric cancer.” International Journal of Case Reports and Images 4.3 (2013):
Wu, Juenong, and Tony Blishen. Illustrated Modern Reader of ‘the Classic of Tea’. Chicago: Shanghai Press, 2021.
Zhou, Jiahua. “Tea Planting and Making.” Thirty Great Inventions of China. Springer, Singapore, 2020. 595-613.
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