Milk & Yogurt Drinks

🇰🇬Kyrgyzstan

Airag

Айраг

Mare's milk fermented in a leather or plastic churn and stirred thousands of times, ending mildly alcoholic, fizzy and sharply sour.

🇭🇹Haiti

Akasan

Fine cornmeal cooked out with milk, star anise, cinnamon and vanilla into a thick, drinkable porridge served hot in the morning.

🇲🇺Mauritius

Alouda

Cold milk sweetened and thickened with soaked basil seeds and cubes of coloured agar jelly, flavoured with vanilla or almond syrup.

🇿🇦South Africa

Amasi (Soured Milk)

Amasi

A traditional South African fermented milk, thick and tangy, similar to yogurt or buttermilk. A national and traditional staple, drunk alone or with pap, a healthy and daily drink

🇨🇴Colombia

Avena Colombiana

Avena

Spiced oat drink simmered with milk, cinnamon, cloves and panela until silky, served chilled in glasses or from street-cart coolers. A Paisa breakfast and afternoon onces staple that predates the coffee wave.

🇮🇳India

Badam Milk

बादाम दूध

A sweet, creamy milk drink flavored with almonds, saffron, and cardamom. It is nourishing and served warm or cold.

🇮🇩West Java, Indonesia

Bajigur

Warm Sundanese coconut milk and ginger drink with palm sugar, creamy and warming.

🇲🇾Malaysia

Bandung

Rose syrup milk drink, pink and sweet.

🇨🇳Beijing, China

Beijing Set Yoghurt

老酸奶

Thick set yoghurt sold in a squat glazed clay pot sealed with paper and string, drunk through a straw or spooned out.

🇮🇳India

Bhang Lassi

भांग लस्सी

A cannabis-infused yogurt drink consumed during Holi and Maha Shivratri. It is psychoactive and legally regulated.

🇿🇦South Africa

Boeber

A Cape Malay milk drink of sago, vermicelli, milk, sugar, and cardamom, served warm at Ramadan.

🇧🇩Bangladesh

Borhani

বোরহানি

Salty, spiced yoghurt drink with mustard, mint, coriander and green chilli, served ice-cold alongside biryani at weddings.

🇹🇼Taiwan

Brown Sugar Boba

黑糖珍奶

A modern Taiwanese bubble tea variant with tapioca pearls simmered in caramelized brown sugar syrup, layered with fresh milk for a striking tiger-stripe pattern, a global boba trendsetter.

🇹🇼Taiwan

Bubble Tea

珍珠奶茶

Black tea shaken with milk and sugar and poured over chewy tapioca pearls, drunk through an oversized straw — invented in Taiwan in the 1980s.

🇲🇲Myanmar

Burmese Faluda

ဖာလူဒါ

Rose syrup, milk, basil seeds, jelly, ice cream and vermicelli layered in a tall glass and drunk with a spoon and a straw.

🇫🇮Finland

Buttermilk

Piimä

Finnish sour milk similar to buttermilk, considered 'the most Finnish' dairy product, served with meals.

🇳🇮Nicaragua

Cacao con Leche

A Nicaraguan hot cacao drink with milk and sugar, a daily and breakfast classic

🇲🇷Eastern Mauritania (Hodh / Assaba Pastoral), Mauritania

Camel Milk

Lebben

Lebben is the named Mauritanian camel-milk drink: fresh or lightly curdled milk with a thin, frothy texture, slightly salty-sweet flavour, and a tangy fermented form served in pastoral communities.

🇸🇴Somalia

Camel Milk

Caano geel

Camel milk, a traditional staple for Somali pastoralists; considered a traditional meal for nomads; more nutritious than cow's milk with higher vitamin C content; consumed fresh or fermented; Somalia has one of the world's largest camel populations; a glass of milk spiced with cardamom is often consumed before sleeping; the drink that sustains nomadic life.

🇵🇪Peru

Caspiroleta

A warm Peruvian milk drink with egg, cinnamon and spirits, served as a restorative evening cup.

🇮🇳India

Chaas

मसाला छाछ

Spiced buttermilk whisked with cumin, salt and coriander, drunk cool.

🇻🇪Venezuela

Chicha Andina

Thick drink of rice cooked soft and blended with milk, sugar and cinnamon, served cold with condensed milk and cinnamon on top.

🇻🇪Venezuela

Chicha Criolla

Chicha

A sweet, creamy Venezuelan rice drink of boiled rice blended with milk, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla, served ice-cold, a popular street and beach beverage.

🇭🇹Haiti

Chokola Peyi

Hand-ground Haitian cacao boiled with milk, sugar and warm spices into a grainy hot chocolate drunk at breakfast.

🇻🇪Venezuela

Cocada

Coconut flesh blended with its water, milk, ice and sugar into a thick cold drink sold from beach and roadside stands.

🇵🇷Puerto Rico

Coquito

Coconut milk, cream of coconut, condensed milk, rum and cinnamon blended and bottled, drunk cold in small glasses through December.

🇦🇫Afghanistan

Doogh

دوغ

Yogurt thinned with water, salted and flavoured with dried mint, often carbonated, drunk with kabab and rice.

🇮🇳India

Falooda

फालूदा

A layered dessert drink with rose syrup, milk, basil seeds, vermicelli, and ice cream. It is rich and fragrant.

🇳🇪Niger

Fura da Nono

Balls of spiced millet dough crumbled into fermented cow's milk and drunk thick from a calabash — the Fulani herder's staple.

🇧🇩Bangladesh

Ghol

ঘোল

Buttermilk thinned with water, salted and spiced with roasted cumin, drunk cold through the hot months.

🇭🇳Honduras

Honduran Horchata

Horchata de morro

Ground morro seeds, rice, cacao, cinnamon and sesame steeped and strained into a thick, grainy, chocolate-flecked cold drink.

🇨🇷Costa Rica

Horchata

Horchata de morro

Drink made from ground morro seeds and rice with cinnamon, smooth and creamy, a traditional Costa Rican refreshing beverage.

🇵🇷Puerto Rico

Horchata de ajonjolí

A Puerto Rican sesame horchata made from ground toasted sesame seeds, milk, and sugar, served chilled.

🇸🇻El Salvador

Horchata Salvadoreña

A Salvadoran cold, creamy drink from morro seeds, sesame, pumpkin seeds, and cinnamon, a daily and summer classic

🇳🇱Netherlands

Hot Chocolate

Chocolademelk

Dutch hot chocolate, often made with real chocolate and served rich and creamy, a popular winter drink with whipped cream.

🇷🇼Rwanda

Ikivuguto

Thick fermented milk consumed in many Rwandan households; a common drink throughout the country, reflecting the pastoralist Tutsi heritage; tangy and probiotic, drunk fresh or with porridge.