The Art Of Making Ara - Bhutan's National Drink

In a Bhutanese farmhouse kitchen, a cylindrical pot sits over a wood fire. Steam rises. A woman watches patiently, occasionally lifting the lid to replace the cooling water on top. Drop by slow drop, a clear liquid collects in a small vessel nested inside the pot. This is ara — Bhutan’s beloved national drink — and the process of making it has remained essentially unchanged for centuries. To learn how ara is made is to understand something essential about Bhutan: the patience of its people, the richness of its agriculture, and the warmth of a culture that celebrates togetherness around every shared cup.

The Ingredients — A Map of Regional Diversity

Ara-making varies across the kingdom, reflecting the crops each region grows best. In eastern Bhutan, maize is the primary cereal, though millet, rice, and wheat are also used. In the highlands and valleys of central Bhutan, wheat and barley are the foundation, with buckwheat appearing occasionally. In the west, wheat, rice, and barley dominate. Nowadays, some households even use apples and potatoes — proof that ara is a living tradition that adapts to what the land provides.

How Ara Is Made

The process is intricate and demands patience — there are no shortcuts when making something this good.

Step 1: Boil the chosen cereal until thoroughly cooked, then spread it on a bamboo mat to cool.

Step 2: Sprinkle powdered yeast — typically a mix of plant powder and corn flour, produced organically — over the cooled cereal.

Step 3: Transfer the yeast-coated cereal into a large jar or container, usually made from bamboo or wood. Cover with thick blankets and keep in a warm place — traditionally near the kitchen stove. Allow to ferment for one month (or 2–3 weeks in warmer conditions). The result is lum, the fermented mash ready for distillation.

Step 4: Place one bowl of the fermented lum inside a cylindrical distillation pot called an arazang. Insert a small collection vessel inside the pot using a holder.

Step 5: Place another bowl filled with cold water on top of the arazang, sealing the cylinder.

Step 6: Light a fire underneath. As the lum heats, alcohol vapour rises and condenses on the cooler surface of the water bowl above, dripping down into the small collection vessel. When the water on top becomes hot, replace it with fresh cold water — this is the crucial step that drives the condensation cycle.

Step 7: After two to three hours of distillation, the drops collected in the small vessel are ara — clear, slightly creamy, and ready to serve.

How to Enjoy Ara

Ara is usually served warm and can be enjoyed in several traditional ways: neat, to savour its delicate, slightly chewy flavour (somewhere between sake and rice wine); with butter and a poached egg for a smooth, rich experience; or with scrambled egg and rice for a hearty, satisfying drink that doubles as sustenance on a cold mountain evening.

Typically creamy, clear, or white in colour, ara is the drink you will be offered at every farmhouse homestay, shared at every celebration, and passed around at every gathering. To accept a cup of ara from your Bhutanese host is to accept their friendship — and to sip it, warm and slightly fiery, while the night air cools outside the window, is to experience a centuries-old tradition that highlights the ingenuity, generosity, and strong community bonds that define this remarkable kingdom.