Mmmmmmm, Koumiss!

Have you milked your horse lately?

A mare being milked in Suusamyr valley, Kyrgyzstan

A very popular and important drink in Mongolia that Marco Polo and his father and uncle drank was called Koumiss also spelled Kumiss. And it comes from a horse!

Did you know that hundreds of thousands of horses used to be kept in the Soviet Union just for making kumis?

Milking a mare isn't easy. The milker kneels on one knee and places the milk pail on the other. The pail is attached to the arm with a string. A foal is allowed to drink its mother's milk for a little while until the milk starts to flow, then another person pulls the foal way but continues to touch the mare so she thinks her foal is still drinking.

The milker wraps one arm around the mares rear leg and the other arm is wrapped around the front. Whew! Sounds tricky to me!


But that's not all there is to koumiss. After the milk is collected, the mare's milk is allowed to ferment by adding old, fermented koumiss to the new milk.

Koumiss is very good for you. Studies have proven what nomads have known for thousands of years. It has a lot of vitamins, and antibiotics that fight bad bacteria. Koumiss is good for the alimentary canal, metabolism, cardiovascular system, nervous system, blood-producing organs, your kidneys, glands, inner secretion and increases immunity. Wow, what a powerful drink!

Today kumis is sold in small bottles. People usually begin and end their meals with this drink.

It looks appetizing, doesn't it? What do you think it tastes like? Would you try it?