Milk and fat — which are their own — goat, cow, sheep, camel.
The finished tea is filtered into a teapot. And from the teapot it is poured into thermoses. Tea is not considered food. However, some dishes from other cultures, such as porridge or dumplings, are disguised as tea. Tea with rice — rice porridge with milk, tea with dumplings — dumplings in broth with milk. Just a tea with bortsagh can be food.
The tea itself is taken green. Stored in a rag bag. The steeping portion is chipped off the bar with a cow's horn. The hostess hits without missing. When brewing, the hostess collects such a large scoop of future tea, picks it up and pours it back into the basin. Perhaps this plays the role of stirring.
Mongols drink tea from bowls. The first bowl is given to the house head, even if, as it seems to me, he is not going to drink tea at that moment.
There is always tea in the yurt.
Similar traditions of tea making exist in other places. I met similar tea traditional preparating called Buryat tea, or Kalmyk tea, or Khan tea.
Place: Snow leopard expedition site, Ubsunur Nature Reserve, Mongolia
Photo by Elena Mashkova Елена Машкова