A while ago I was talking with friends about Ätken-Chai (or Atkan-Chai), a drink made of black tea, milk, salt, and butter. That’s made by uyghurs and while hitchhiking through East Türkestan, I fell in love with that drink!
They also taught me how to make it by myself. I’ve never been able to get it quite as tasty as the various Uyghurs I met along the way made it.

The black tea must be strong, but not too strong, the amount of milk must be correct, it must be added at the correct time, there must be the correct amount of salt, there must be the correct amount of butter. It’s basically nutritional quantum chemistry.

But okay, I decided to learn how to really make it properly. It was made in front of my eyes, but I also asked for the instructions. So, the insturctions I received in East Türkestan went about his way:
– “The tea should be made strong”
– “How strong?”
– “Suitably strong so that the taste is best possible for you.”
– “And how much milk?”
– “According to taste.”
– “Salt?”
– “According to taste.”
– “Butter?”
– “According to taste.”

Okay. That’s one very useful recipe I had received! Hooray.

So, off I go to the depths of Internet. I get told that I can also add sour cream instead of butter? Probably yeah, but everywhere the made ätken-chai for me, it was always with butter. And there seemed to be something of a standard taste I got used to. I cannot find any reliable information for how to really make the perfect ätken-chai.

My ätken-chai is probably a lot worse than that made by any Uyghur on this planet, but it is probably among the 5 best ätken-chais made by Finns without Uyghurs in their family.

But how does this text fit here? It does, because if I had travelled in a way almost any other than hitchhiking, I would either not have encountered that tasty drink at all, or at least I would not have enjoyed it at people’s homes. Nobody would have taught me how to make it.

One of the reasons I love hitchhiking is in the many cultural contacts you would otherwise never make!