Kvass and Local Drinks in Xinjiang: What to Sip on the Road

A vendor in Yining handed me a cold plastic cup of something the colour of weak coffee, fizzing faintly and smelling of rye bread. It was 34 degrees outside. I bought a second one before I had finished the first.

Xinjiang’s drinks tell the region’s story faster than its food does. A fermented bread drink carried in from Russia, salty milk tea poured on the Kazak grasslands, thick yogurt sold from a bucket in an oasis bazaar, pomegranate juice pressed in front of you in Kashgar. For a self-driver they are also practical: cold, cheap, widely available, and a much better answer to a Turpan afternoon than another bottle of mineral water.

Kvass, the northern surprise

Kvass (格瓦斯, gewasi) is a lightly fermented drink made from rye bread or malt, sweet and slightly sour with a soft fizz and a distinctly bready aroma. It arrived through Russian influence and settled deepest in northern Xinjiang, so Yining, Tacheng, Altay and the Ili Valley towns are where you will find the best of it, sold bottled in shops and, better, drawn from chilled barrels at bazaars and street stalls. Fermentation leaves a trace of alcohol, generally well under one percent, comparable to a ripe kombucha, so it is treated and sold as a soft drink. Expect to pay a few yuan for a cup from a barrel. I rate it as the single most refreshing thing available on a hot afternoon in the north, and it is worth seeking out the barrel version because the bottled product is sweeter and flatter.

• Rye or malt fermented, sweet-sour with light fizz
• Strongest tradition in Yining, Tacheng, Altay and the Ili Valley
• Barrel-drawn versions beat the bottled ones
• A few yuan a cup; trace alcohol, sold as a soft drink

Milk tea and the salty end of the spectrum

Head onto the grasslands and the default hot drink changes character completely. Kazak and Mongol milk tea is brewed strong, cut with milk, and salted rather than sweetened, sometimes with butter or cream stirred through. It arrives in a bowl, is refilled continuously while you sit, and is meant to be drunk with bread rather than as a beverage on its own. First-timers often find the salt jarring; by the third bowl on a cold morning at 2,400 metres in Bayinbuluke it makes complete sense. In the southern oases the tea culture is different again, closer to a plain strong black tea served in a pot alongside naan, sometimes scented with rose. If you want to understand how central the tea house is here, our guide to Xinjiang milk tea goes deeper into the regional variations.

• Grassland milk tea is salted, not sweet
• Served in bowls and refilled while you sit
• Drunk with bread as part of the meal
• Southern oases favour plain strong black tea in a pot

Yogurt, ayran and the dairy drinks

Bazaar yogurt is one of the great cheap pleasures of the region. It is sold thick in a bowl or a plastic tub, tart enough to make you blink, and you sugar it yourself from a jar on the counter. In the north you will also meet thinner drinking versions and, in summer on the grasslands, fermented mare’s milk, which is sour, faintly fizzy and mildly alcoholic. That last one is a genuine cultural experience rather than a refreshment, and a small bowl is plenty. Cow-milk versions are everywhere, safe when bought from a busy stall with visible turnover, and paired with a hot flatbread they make a perfectly good breakfast. The broader dairy tradition here, including the clotted cream sold beside the yogurt, deserves its own exploration once you start noticing it.

• Thick tart bazaar yogurt, sugared to taste
• Buy from busy stalls with visible turnover
• Fermented mare’s milk is summer grassland fare, mildly alcoholic
• Yogurt plus hot flatbread is a solid breakfast

Fruit juice pressed in front of you

From late summer into autumn the oases turn into juice stands. Pomegranate is the star, halved and pressed by hand-cranked press in Kashgar and Hotan from roughly September through November, deep red and tannic in a way no packaged juice manages. Earlier in the season you will find apricot, mulberry and melon, and Turpan’s grape season brings fresh grape juice alongside the raisin stalls. Prices are low, around 10 to 20 RMB for a large cup of pomegranate depending on the town and the season. The one caution is ice: ask for it without added ice if you are unsure about the water source, because the fruit itself is not the risk. Sticking to sealed bottled water for hydration and treating juice as a treat is the sensible split, and our note on drinking water covers the details.

• Pomegranate season runs roughly September to November
• Apricot, mulberry, melon and grape earlier in the year
• Roughly 10-20 RMB for a large fresh cup
• Skip added ice if unsure; the fruit itself is fine

Beer, and the rule every driver must know

Xinjiang does produce its own well-known lager, brewed in the city of Wusu and sold across the region and increasingly across China. Locals drink it cold with kebabs, and it is unavoidable on a night market table. The critical point for anyone with car keys is that China’s drink-driving threshold is effectively near zero: 20 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood counts as driving under the influence, and 80 milligrams crosses into the criminal category with severe consequences including licence revocation and detention. A single large beer can put an average adult over the lower limit. Checkpoints are frequent on these roads and breath testing is routine, so the only workable policy on a self-drive is to keep alcohol for nights when the car is parked and stays parked until morning.

• Local lager is brewed in Wusu and sold region-wide
• China’s DUI threshold is 20 mg per 100 ml of blood
• 80 mg per 100 ml is the criminal drunk-driving level
• Breath testing at a police checkpoint is routine here

What to keep in the car

My working kit for a long Xinjiang day is simple. Several litres of sealed bottled water per person, because the distances between services on desert stretches are long and heat loss is faster than you expect. A vacuum flask filled with hot water from the hotel, which lets you make tea at a viewpoint and is also the local habit. And whatever cold local drink the last town sold, bought fresh rather than stockpiled. Skip the sugary energy drinks; they spike and crash on a long afternoon at the wheel. If you are heading into the Taklamakan or across the Gobi stretches, treat water as safety equipment rather than refreshment and carry more than you think you need, particularly in July and August when cabin temperatures climb fast at any stop.

• Several litres of sealed bottled water per person
• A flask of hot water for tea at viewpoints
• Buy cold local drinks fresh in the last town
• Treat water as safety kit on desert and Gobi stretches