To Drink a Secret Brewed in Secret

Evening settles over Phobjikha Valley like a silk shawl, its rolling meadows bathed in the quiet glow of the fading sun. Inside her snug homestay kitchen, Kumbu Lhamo tips a shallow wooden bowl, grinning into its cloudy depths. The sip is warm, smoky, faintly chewy; the taste of Bhutan itself. This is ara, the country's most guarded home-brew, as beloved and unmistakably Bhutanese as ema datshi.

- KUNAL BHATIA AND SHUVAJIT PAYNE

eggs are whisked in; sometimes flames dance on its surface. But for all its symbolism, ara was, until recently, elusive to outsiders. A drink you stumbled upon only if a farmer's grandmother invited you into her kitchen. Now, slowly, Bhutan is pouring it out for the world.