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The Fabled Pour
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Country

Nepal

I have one sourced drink connected to Nepal. The label on each card says how: where it began, what the country is known for, what people drink there, or where the origin is disputed.

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Nepal on the world map. Boundaries are generalized Natural Earth data.

Drinks of Nepal

Signature drinks and regional ones, with the evidence behind each. A drink marked non-alcoholic has no alcohol in the traditional serve.

  • Illustration of Tongba: cloudy milky white hot water over a bed of fermented millet grains at the top of the vessel, in a hollow bamboo vessel with a fine bamboo straw.

    Tongba

    Eastern Nepal (Limbu)

    IconicRegional drink

    Fermented finger millet placed in a hollow bamboo vessel and covered with boiling water. It steeps for a few minutes and is sipped through a fine bamboo straw whose base filters out the grains. The same millet takes several refills of hot water, each round milder than the last.

    Wikipedia calls tongba the traditional drink of the Limbu people of eastern Nepal and the neighboring Indian regions of Sikkim and Darjeeling. Offering it to a guest is a sign of respect, and at weddings the couple shares it as part of the ceremony.

    Made with: fermented finger millet, hot water.

    Confidence: highEvidence: en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab), nepaltraveller.com (opens in a new tab)

Map data: Natural Earth, public domain.