I still remember my first sip of ayran, the salty yogurt drink popular throughout Turkey. It was a beautiful spring day in 2007, and a friend and I were having lunch on the patio of a Turkish restaurant in Menlo Park, Calif. I have a wide-ranging palate, so I ordered the ayran casually, sure that I’d like it. But as the yogurt hit my tongue, I winced, my eyes bulged wide, and I pushed the glass to the far edge of the table. “I can’t drink that,” I said simply. While I loved the whole sea bass, the lahmacun (charred flatbread topped with ground lamb) and the extra-smoky baba ghanouj, I couldn’t brook the drink’s unfamiliar salinity.
Oh, but how things change. Today, I love ayran’s tang and its unapologetically salty bite. As do so many others: Our collective exposure to the way the rest of world eats yogurt also includes the way the world drinks yogurt. We’re moving beyond ultra-thick, milkshake-y, berry-based smoothies to more globally inspired flavors and textures. Some are still sweet, but others paint with a broader palette, folding complex spices, invigorating fizz and, yes, even salt into the mix.
Companies such as Dahlicious Lassi in Leominster, Mass., and Dash of Masala in Austin, maker of Sassy Lassi, bring classic Indian flavors to the booming American yogurt drink market. Dahlicious focuses on Ayurvedic spices popular in Indian cuisine, offering fruit flavors such as mango along with spice-forward choices such as golden turmeric and banana masala, the latter spiked with cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and black peppercorn. Does the world really need another peach or vanilla?
Dash of Masala’s line of Indian-inspired sippers includes such flavors as celery and rose. A few months ago, the company (whose founder, Jaya Shrivastava, hails from the South Indian city of Chennai) introduced a plain flavor with no added sugar, which echoes a trend in the “cup” yogurt category as well.