Local Drinks

1. སྲུ་ཇ།

   Su ja

   Suja (butter tea)

   Usage

   Tea churned with butter and salt — the drink that always appears when you are received as a guest. It is salty, not sweet, and catches first-timers off guard. ⚠ An empty cup gets refilled, so leave a little if you have had enough

   Grammar Note

   The English gloss is "butter tea, churned tea". It is usually romanised "suja"

2. མངར་ཇ།

   Ngar ja

   Ngaja (sweet milk tea)

   Usage

   The one to ask for if butter tea is not for you: Indian-style sweet milk tea, the standard in town teashops and eating houses. It arrives already sweetened, so say so at the time of ordering if you want it less sweet

   Grammar Note

   It means ཇ་མངརམོ, "tea made by adding white sugar (ཤེལ་གུ་རམ) and milk (ཨོམ)"

3. ཇ་ཐང་།

   Ja thang

   Ja thang (black tea, no milk)

   Usage

   The word to use if you are avoiding dairy. Both butter tea and sweet milk tea contain milk, so this is the one to remember if you are lactose-intolerant or vegan

   Grammar Note

   The English gloss is "black tea". ཐང means a decoction, so the compound names tea brewed from the leaf alone

4. ཇ་རིལ།

   Ja ril

   Ja ril (compressed ball tea)

   Usage

   The compressed ball of tea that butter tea is brewed from. Markets sell it as a lump rather than as loose leaf; you shave off a piece and boil it. The word to use when buying some to take home

   Grammar Note

   It means "the material for making ཇ་ཐང, tea formed into a round lump"

5. ཤིང་ཁུ།

   Shing khu

   Fruit juice

   Usage

   What you find on sale is mostly apple (ཨེ་པཱལ) and mandarin (ཚལ་ལུ) juice — both major Bhutanese crops, and in season sometimes pressed fresh

   Grammar Note

   DDC gives ཤིང་ཁུ as the first equivalent of "juice", explained as ཤིང་འབྲས་ཀྱི་ཁུ་བ ("the liquid of fruit"). ⚠ The Dzongkha-English gloss is "secretion, juice", so it can also mean sap in general

6. དརཝ།

   Darw

   Darwa (buttermilk)

   Usage

   The tart milk drink you are given in a farmhouse. Cheese (དར་ཚི) is made by boiling it, so it is where every datshi dish begins. You will rarely meet it in a town eating house

   Grammar Note

   It means "the liquid left after churning cattle milk and taking out the butter; boiling that yields དར་ཚི"

7. བསིལ་འཐུང་།

   Sil thung

   Soft drink

   Usage

   The cover term for bottled and canned fizzy drinks. ⚠ Refrigeration is limited outside the main towns, so it often comes at room temperature — say so if you want it cold

   Grammar Note

   The English gloss is "soft drink". བསིལ་འཐུང is paired with མངར་ཆུ, with the qualifier ཆང་གི་ནུས་པ་མེད་པའི ("containing no alcohol")

8. མངར་ཆུ།

   Ngar chu

   Squash / cordial (sweetened drink)

   Usage

   A sweet drink made by diluting a concentrated syrup — an Indian habit that also reaches Bhutanese living rooms, where it is offered to visitors. Distinct from a fizzy drink (བསིལ་འཐུང)

   Grammar Note

   The English gloss is "cordial, cold drinks, soft drink, squash"

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