Local Drinks

1. Choy

   Tea (the drink at the centre of Uzbek hospitality)

   Usage

   Served with every meal and to every guest. A teahouse is a "choyxona"; no alcohol is sold in one. The pot is a "choynak" and the handleless bowl a "piyola"

2. Ko'k choy

   Green tea (the most commonly served tea)

   Usage

   "ko'k" means green or blue. In many places this is what arrives if you just say "choy". It is the customary partner to fatty dishes like palov and shashlik

3. Qora choy

   Black tea

   Usage

   "qora" means black — Uzbek calls it "black tea", not "red". You are often asked which of the two you want, so showing this card next to the green-tea one works well

4. Shirchoy

   Shirchoy (lightly salted milk tea, drunk at breakfast)

   Usage

   ⚠ It is not sweet. Tea simmered with milk (or qaymoq) and a little salt, taken at breakfast with bread torn into it. Do not expect a sweet milk tea

5. Qahva

   Coffee

   Usage

   From Arabic. In city cafés the Russian-derived spelling "kofe" is just as likely to appear on the sign or the menu

6. Ayron

   Ayron (the drinkable liquid left after butter is churned from qatiq)

   Usage

   What is left after qatiq is churned and the fat removed. ⚠ In some parts of Uzbekistan it is also called "chalob". A summer staple

7. Chalob

   Chalob (strained fermented milk thinned with water, a summer cooler)

   Usage

   Suzma (also called chakki) mixed with water, a village favourite in fierce summer heat. It differs in method and taste from the ayron of central and north-eastern Uzbekistan.

8. Qatiq

   Qatiq (thick, sour fermented milk; it can be drunk as it is)

   Usage

   Cow's milk soured with lactic bacteria — white and thick. Drunk as it is, stirred into mastava, or mixed into salads. Strain it and you get suzma

9. Qimiz

   Qimiz (fermented mare's milk)

   Usage

   Mare's milk, milked every three hours and fermented in a leather bag (mesh). ⚠ Depending on how far fermentation has gone it can contain a small amount of alcohol. A nomadic tradition, not a fixture of every city restaurant

10. Sharbat

    Fruit juice

    Usage

    Juice pressed from fruit or vegetables — grape, apple, cherry, plum and tomato are the most common here. The word is the ancestor of English "sherbet", but it means juice, not a frozen dessert

11. Kompot

    Kompot (a sweet drink of fruit simmered and then chilled)

    Usage

    ⚠ A drink, not the western dessert of the same name: fresh, dried or frozen fruit simmered with sugar and chilled. Canteens usually bring it in a jug

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