Drinking barley wine

The Tibetan people are very hospitable. When guests come from afar, the Tibetans traditionally offer barley wine to them. The wine, dubbed “Tibetan Beer” by foreign guests, is slightly yellow in color and a bit sweet in taste. It is made through fermenting cooked highland barley mixed with wine. The fermentation is carried out in a sealed pottery jar. When drinking, the host fills up a cup and the guest takes a sip. Then the host tops it up and the guest takes another sip. They then repeat it for the third time. After that, the guest empties the cup. The ritual is commonly known as “the three-sip cup”. When plying the guest with wine, the host usually sings heart-warming toast songs with great feelings. If a guest really can’t drink, he or she can dip the ring finger in the wine, then raises the hand and flips the finger for three times toward the right. And the host will stop plying the guest with wine.