Nepali Tea (Chiya) & Traditional Drinks: A Complete Guide

Chiya (चिया) is the Nepali word for tea and the country's most universal drink, served from roadside stalls to household kitchens across all castes, ethnicities and regions. The everyday default is dudh chiya, a milk tea in which black tea leaves (usually low-cost CTC tea) are boiled together with milk, water and sugar rather than steeped separately. It is strong, sweet and milky, and is offered to guests as a basic gesture of hospitality at almost any hour.

Masala chiya is the spiced version and one of Nepal's most-searched recipes among the diaspora. It builds on dudh chiya by simmering warming spices, commonly cardamom (alaichi), ginger (aduwa), cloves (lwang), cinnamon (dalchini) and black pepper, in the water before the black tea and milk are added. Households adjust the spice mix by season and taste; some add bay leaf, fennel or nutmeg. A widely followed technique is to infuse the crushed spices in boiling water first, then add loose black tea leaves, and only then the milk and sugar, so the spices bloom without the tea turning bitter.

Alongside milk teas, plain black tea (kalo chiya), often taken with lemon and sugar as nimbu chiya, is common, especially in the eastern hills and among those who prefer the flavour of the leaf itself. In tea-growing districts such as Ilam, drinkers may brew high-grade orthodox leaf without milk to appreciate its aroma, a habit closer to how Nepal's premium tea is consumed in export markets than to the milky roadside cup.

Nepal's tea story begins in the eastern hills. The Ilam Tea Estate, Nepal's first tea plantation, was established around 1863 (roughly 1920 BS), within a decade of the first plantations in neighbouring Darjeeling, followed by the Soktim Tea Estate around 1865. State-led development came later: the Nepal Tea Development Corporation was set up in 1966, and in 1982 five eastern districts were formally declared tea zones. Today Nepal produces two broad categories: orthodox tea, hand- or machine-rolled leaf grown at roughly 3,000 to 7,000 feet in the eastern hills, and CTC (crush, tear, curl) tea from the lower Terai plains of Jhapa, which supplies most domestic milk-tea consumption.

Orthodox tea is Nepal's premium, export-oriented product and the reason 'Ilam tea' carries a quality reputation abroad. It is produced mainly in six districts, Ilam, Panchthar, Dhankuta, Terhathum, Sindhupalchok and Kaski, with Ilam accounting for the large majority of orthodox output. Because orthodox leaf is prized for its aroma and character, it is typically brewed without milk, in contrast to the CTC-based dudh chiya most Nepalis drink daily.

Tea is a leading cash crop of the eastern hills and an important agricultural export. Government figures show total tea output rising steeply over recent decades, from around 5,085 metric tonnes in fiscal year 1999/2000 to over 24,000 metric tonnes in the mid-2010s, though the great majority by volume is CTC tea for the domestic and Indian markets. Orthodox tea, a much smaller share by weight, earns disproportionate value and is exported to markets including Germany, Japan, the United States and other EU countries. The sector is overseen by the National Tea and Coffee Development Board.

The National Tea and Coffee Development Board (NTCDB) is the government's apex body for the tea and coffee sub-sectors. It was established in 1993 under the National Tea and Coffee Development Board Act, 2049 (1992), and works under the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development on policy, promotion, quality and collective branding. In 2000, the government ratified a National Tea Policy aimed at improving farmers' access to credit and land and expanding the industry.

Tongba is a warm, mildly alcoholic millet brew closely identified with the Limbu people of eastern Nepal, and also enjoyed in Sikkim and Darjeeling. The word 'tongba' refers both to the drink and to the tall wooden or bamboo vessel it is served in. It is made from brown finger millet (kodo; Eleusine coracana), which is cooked, cooled and fermented for several days with a traditional starter, known as khesung among the Limbu and more generally as murcha in Nepali.

What makes tongba distinctive is that it is a 'living' drink assembled at the table. The fermented millet grains are packed into the tongba vessel, and near-boiling water is poured over them. After a few minutes of steeping, the warm, cloudy liquor is sipped through a bamboo or metal straw (pipsing) fitted with a perforated filter at the base that holds the grains back. Hot water can be topped up several times over the same batch of millet, so a single serving is enjoyed slowly and repeatedly.

Because it is served warm, tongba is especially popular in the cold hill and mountain climate. Its alcohol content is low, generally in the low single digits by volume, so it is a sociable, sipping drink rather than a strong spirit. Among the Limbu it carries deep cultural weight: offering tongba is a mark of respect and hospitality, and it features in weddings, religious functions and community celebrations.

Chhyang (also spelt chhaang or chyang) is a milky, mildly alcoholic fermented beverage enjoyed across many Himalayan communities of Nepal, including Tamang, Sherpa, Rai, Limbu, Gurung, Magar, Newar and others. It is brewed from rice, finger millet or barley, fermented with a murcha starter that gives it a slightly sweet, tangy character, and then filtered to a cloudy, milk-like drink. Its alcohol content is modest, typically in the range of a light beer, making it an everyday social drink rather than a spirit.

Jaand (jaanr) is the closely related Nepali term for fermented grain beer, and in practice the words overlap heavily by region and community. Beyond being a beverage in its own right, jaand is important because it is the fermented mash from which raksi is distilled, so the same base fermentation feeds both a beer-strength drink and a spirit. Serving customs vary with the weather: chhyang and jaand are often drunk at room temperature in summer and served hot in metal or wooden bowls in the cold season.

For many hill and mountain communities these grain beers are woven into festivals, family gatherings, harvest feasts and religious offerings. They are strongly associated with indigenous and Janajati traditions and, like tongba, function as both a hospitality drink and, at times, a ritual offering.

Raksi is Nepal's best-known traditional distilled spirit, a clear liquor produced by distilling fermented grain mash (jaand/chhyang). It is commonly made from kodo millet or rice, though barley and wheat are also used, with the choice of grain shaping the flavour: rice raksi tends to be smoother, millet raksi more robust. The key to fermentation is marcha, a locally made yeast-and-herb starter cake; the cooked, cooled grain is inoculated with marcha, sealed and fermented for roughly two weeks before distillation in traditional copper-and-clay stills over a fire.

Raksi is a strong drink, clear like vodka and often compared to sake, and is prepared at home and at rustic distilleries throughout the hills. It is central to festivals, life-cycle rituals and social gatherings, and among Kirati, Tamang, Gurung, Magar and other communities it is both an everyday drink and a ceremonial one. Because it is a home-distilled spirit, potency varies considerably from batch to batch.

Aila is the Newar counterpart, a distilled spirit essential to the ritual and social life of the Kathmandu Valley's Newar community. It is produced by distilling fermented rice and grains inoculated with marcha, using a distinctive set of clay and brass vessels (with names such as phosi, poташi and the aila bata) reserved for the purpose. Aila is graded by how many times it is distilled, ek paani (single), dui paani (double) and teen paani (triple), with more distillations yielding a stronger, cleaner spirit. It is traditionally poured from a narrow-spouted brass pitcher (anti) into small clay cups and is indispensable at Newar feasts, festivals and religious rituals such as pujas and family ceremonies.

Lassi is a chilled yogurt-based drink popular across Nepal, especially in the Terai and in summer. It is made by blending dahi (yogurt) with water or milk and either sugar (sweet lassi) or salt and roasted cumin (salty lassi), and is often flavoured and thickened, most famously as mango lassi, and garnished with cardamom, pistachio or a few strands of saffron. Because it is cooling and refreshing, lassi is a favourite hot-weather drink and a common accompaniment to heavy or spicy meals.

Chuk amilo is not a drink on its own but a thick, intensely sour Nepali concentrate that flavours drinks, snacks and pickles. It is a boiled-down, tart citrus- or lapsi-based paste whose defining quality is extreme sourness (amilo). Lapsi, the Nepali hog plum, is itself the base for a range of sour products, including a refreshing summer lapsi juice, tangy titaura candies and pickles. These sour concentrates and fruit drinks are a distinctive part of Nepal's flavour palette and are especially associated with street snacks such as pani puri and chatpate.

Both lassi and lapsi-based sour drinks are alcohol-free and enjoyed by all ages, filling the same everyday, refreshing role that fermented and distilled drinks cannot. They travel well with the diaspora, and bottled lapsi and citrus concentrates are now sold internationally to Nepali communities abroad.

Juju dhau, literally 'king of yogurt' (dhau) in Nepal Bhasa, is a rich, thick, sweet yogurt that is a specialty of Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu Valley and a signature Newar delicacy. It is traditionally set from buffalo milk, which is fattier than cow's milk, sweetened and often lightly spiced, then cultured in unglazed clay pots (kchi) that absorb whey and lend an earthy aroma. The result is a custard-like yogurt so thick it holds its shape even when the pot is tipped.

Local tradition ties its fame to the Malla-era kings of the valley: by one popular account, a yogurt contest among makers from Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur was won by Bhaktapur's curd, earning it the royal name 'juju dhau'. Whatever the legend, the clay pot is essential to both its texture and its cultural identity, and eating juju dhau from an earthen pot is treated as an experience in itself.

Juju dhau is deeply embedded in Newar ritual and feasting. It is a staple dessert at traditional feasts (bhoj), where yogurt is ladled to guests at the end of the meal, and it features in festivals, weddings and religious occasions. Though technically a food rather than a beverage, it belongs firmly within Nepal's dairy-drinking culture alongside lassi and milk tea.