Talk:Kumis

This is a query: kumis is a common drink in rural Colombia. Can anyone explain the leap from Central Asia to South America?

I'm pretty much sure it's a different drink...

Source sought

A source is needed for the fact that Tatars created the drink first in the 13th century. I suspect the date is much earlier.

. You are right. Read this lamentation of a Han princess who was sent to the ruler of the Wusun between 110-105 BC, written down in the Shiji (c.123) and the Hanshu (c.96): The Wusun were nomads who lived in felt tents, ate meat and drank fermented mare's milk. Guss2 22:43, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Origin of the word

A point is missing from the article. Where does the word "kumiss" come from? It is mentioned both here and in Mongolia related article that the Mongolian term for the drink is Airag, so the name commonly used in the West does not match the one used by the people most associated with the drink. So, where was it borrowed from? --Svartalf 22:23, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

Partially answered in-article now. —Bunchofgrapes (talk) 22:56, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

"chigee" in addition to "airag"

No doubt, "kumis" is the same as "airag" in Mongolia. But, not all Mongols call kumis airag. There is another word widely used in Western Mongolia, meaning the western part of present day Mongolia and the Mongols in Sinkiang as the classical Western Mongolia is divided. "chigee" can also mean one or two other things sometime but mainly is refered to kumiz. The words "airag" does exist in all of Mongolia but it is refered to yogurt in dialects in which kumiz is actually called "chigee".

Alway's Alcholholic?

I've drunken Kumis with both Mongols and Kazakhs in Mongolia, as well as in Xinjiang and Kazakhstan. Although once (maybe because of heavier duty distillation, or because it was mixed with vodka)I had alcoholic Kumis, most of the time it has certainly not been alcoholic

Dear anonymous editor above, I recommend that you create an account! I too have developed a taste for kumis. Although it never had any alcoholic effect on me, that is not enough to conclude that there was no alcohol in the liquid. It might be as little as 1%, i.e. you would have to drink a litre to get 10 ml of alcohol into your system, so it might feel unnoticeable. However, the process by which it is made is one of alcoholic fermentation, and some traces of alcohol are bound to remain in the resulting product. An interesting comparator is beer, which in Europe was for centuries the drink of choice for most people -- parents even gave it to their children -- because the water supply was impure. Much of it was small beer, i.e. of very low alcohol content, but its production killed nasties in the water. BrainyBabe 11:02, 24 February 2007 (UTC)