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The Fabled Pour
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Country

Mongolia

I have one sourced drink connected to Mongolia. The label on each card says how: where it began, what the country is known for, what people drink there, or where the origin is disputed.

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Mongolia on the world map. Boundaries are generalized Natural Earth data.

Drinks of Mongolia

Signature drinks and regional ones, with the evidence behind each. A drink marked non-alcoholic has no alcohol in the traditional serve.

  • Illustration of Airag: thin pale white milk with a faint fizz, in a wide shallow handle-less bowl of pale glazed ceramic.

    Airag

    Summer and the Naadam festival

    IconicRegional drink

    Mildly alcoholic fermented mare's milk at about 2 percent, served cold and sour; fermentation makes it carbonated. At Naadam and in summer gers it is offered in a large bowl that is passed around so each person takes a single sip in turn.

    Mares are milked from about mid-June to early October, so airag is a summer drink, and the ANU Mongolia Institute ties it to Naadam, held July 11 to 13. Wikipedia reports that William of Rubruck described the drink as cosmos in the 13th century and that Herodotus described Scythian milk processing in the 5th century BC.

    Made with: fermented mare's milk.

    Confidence: mediumEvidence: mongoliainstitute.anu.edu.au (opens in a new tab), en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab), discovermongolia.mn (opens in a new tab)

Map data: Natural Earth, public domain.