Butter tea
Brick tea boiled for a long time, then churned with yak butter and salt in a tall wooden churn. Drunk many times a day on the cold, high plateau.
Life in Mainland China
Drinks: a Chinese conversation with pinyin and English
Hot water from the tap, soy milk at breakfast, milk tea on the way home, and at a banquet, a toast.
The conversation
Speakers: Haoran and Xiaoyu.
- Haoran
外头三十五度，你想喝点啥？
It's 35 degrees out there. What do you want to drink?
- Xiaoyu
来杯热水吧。
I'll have some hot water.
- Haoran
外头都三十五度了。
It's 95 degrees outside.
- Xiaoyu
多喝热水是日常标配，别用这种眼神看着我。
Hot water's a daily staple. Stop looking at me like that.
- Haoran
我懂，火车上都有直饮水，我妈出门还特地给我塞了个保温杯呢。
I get it. Trains always have direct drinking water, and my mom even made sure to pack a thermos for me when I left.
- Xiaoyu
那要是吃火锅，你得来杯冰镇酸梅汤。
If we're having hot pot, you've gotta get an iced suanmeitang.
- Haoran
乌梅、山楂加冰糖，冰镇着喝，也就是它能续我的命了。
Smoked plums, hawthorn, and rock sugar, served ice-cold. That's the only thing keeping me alive.
- Xiaoyu
那要是在正式宴席上，斟在小酒杯里的清香烈酒叫啥？
What about at a formal banquet? What's that clear, strong liquor poured into tiny cups called?
- 白酒 baijiu
- 黄酒 huangjiu
- 啤酒 beer
Answer
白酒 baijiu
- Haoran
白酒！一般四十到六十度。我叔说喝这个舒筋活血。
Baijiu! Usually eighty to a hundred and twenty proof. My uncle says it gets the blood flowing.
- Xiaoyu
你叔现在都趴桌子底下了。
Your uncle's already passed out under the table.
- Haoran
那还是喝黄酒适合我，绍兴的，温着喝。
Huangjiu sounds more my speed then. Shaoxing, served warm.
- Xiaoyu
东坡肉里不也搁这酒嘛，你这算吃两回。
They put that in dongpo pork too. You're practically eating it twice.
- Haoran
要是到了高原，人家就端上酥油茶来驱寒。
If you're up on the plateau, they'll serve you butter tea to warm you up.
- Xiaoyu
草原上就是咸奶茶。我都喝过，两样都喜欢。
On the grasslands it's salty milk tea. I've had both, and I love 'em.
- Haoran
你这是啥都爱吃。
You'll eat and drink anything, won't you?
- Xiaoyu
少废话，珍珠奶茶赶紧安排上。
Quit talking and get us some boba.
Words in the conversation
出门to leave the houseHSK 2一般ordinaryHSK 2日常everydayHSK 3要是if (supposing that)HSK 3就是preciselyHSK 3正式formalHSK 3底下underneathHSK 3适合to be a good fit for somethingHSK 3奶茶milk teaHSK 3赶紧hurriedlyHSK 3安排to arrangeHSK 3人家other peopleHSK 4白酒Chinese liquorHSK 5高原plateauHSK 5草原grasslandHSK 5珍珠pearlHSK 5外头outsideHSK 6热水hot waterHSK 6特地speciallyHSK 6
Notes
Hot water
Plain hot water is an everyday drink. Trains, stations and offices have hot water taps, and many people carry a flask. In restaurants, water often comes warm unless you ask for it cold.
Soy milk
Freshly ground and boiled soy milk is a breakfast drink, sweet or savoury, often with fried dough sticks to dip.
Sour plum drink
Smoked plums simmered with hawthorn, liquorice and rock sugar, served cold. A summer drink and a favourite with hotpot.
Salty milk tea
On the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, brick tea is boiled with milk and salt, and drunk through the day.
Butter tea
On the Tibetan plateau, tea is churned with yak butter and salt for warmth and energy at altitude.
Baijiu
A clear spirit distilled from sorghum and other grains, usually 40 to 60 percent alcohol, drunk in small cups at banquets. It is grouped by aroma: strong aroma, like Sichuan's Wuliangye; sauce aroma, like Guizhou's Moutai; light aroma, like Shanxi's Fenjiu; and rice aroma from Guilin.
Yellow wine
Rice wine brewed and aged in clay jars, amber in colour. Shaoxing's is drunk warm and used in cooking; it is the wine in Dongpo pork.