Bhutanese frequently drink sud-ja, Tibetan style tea with salt and butter, which is more like soup than tea, and surprisingly tasty and warming on a cold day.

Filter coffee and espresso is available in the top end hotels and a few restaurants in Thimphu, but elsewhere ‘coffee’ is invariably of the instant variety.

Avoid tap water directly from the tap. Steps to purify water should be taken. The easiest of these is boiling your water. The best chemical purifier is iodine. It should not be used by pregnant women or those with thyroid problems.