Ditch the yogurt spoon, and drink

I still remember my first sip of ayran, the salty yogurt drink popular throughout Turkey. It was a beautiful spring day, 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 I'd like it. As the yogurt hit my tongue, I winced, my eyes bulged, and I pushed the glass to the far edge of the table. "I can't drink that," I said simply. Though 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 many others: Our collective exposure to the way the rest of world eats yogurt includes the way the world drinks yogurt.

We're moving beyond ultra-thick, milk-shaky, berry-based smoothies to more globally inspired flavors and textures. Some are still sweet, but others paint with a broader brush, 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, Texas, 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 sips includes such flavors as celery and rose. A few months ago, the company (whose founder, Jaya Shrivastava, is from the southern Indian city of Chennai) introduced a plain flavor with no added sugar, which echoes a trend in the "cup-yogurt" category, as well.

You might not think of booze as a lassi add-in, but yogurt and alcohol are being paired more often these days. Mixologists, who are often the first to go rogue with creative drink ingredients, have been tapping yogurt's tangy, creamy properties for a while, and the trend seems to be holding.

Cucumber and dill feature prominently in Persian cuisine, so it wasn't a huge surprise that San Francisco chef Hoss Zaré used those ingredients in his take on doogh. What Zaré calls "basically a mixture of yogurt and water, especially if the yogurt is left out for a few days and gets a little more sour," doogh is a beverage staple in his native Iran. It always has salt and sometimes pepper, and although carbonated versions are common throughout Iran (Zaré says kebab houses give diners an option of still or sparkling), fizzy doogh was never popular among Zaré's American customers at his Fly Trap restaurant, which he recently sold to his business partner.

But great chefs are leaders, not followers, prone to coloring both outside and within the lines. One of Zaré's favorite cold Persian yogurt soups uses cucumbers, walnuts, mint, raisins, and rose petals. It became the blueprint for his favorite doogh twist. Instead of serving it in a bowl, he says, on special occasions, "I pour it in a big beer glass!" In other words, doogh version 2.0.

Though traditional yogurt drinks such as lassi and doogh are finding wider audiences, perhaps no other cultured dairy drink has won more recent converts or made greater inroads into the U.S. market than kefir. The probiotic-yogurt cousin, made with live bacterial cultures and kefir grains (a form of yeast), is earning fresh fans and muscling its way more aggressively onto grocery store shelves.

Coming from the Caucasus and enjoyed for centuries throughout the world, kefir is prized for its many health benefits. In the U.S. - Nancy's, a dairy brand in Oregon made by Springfield Creamery, has been selling it since 1975 - kefir has recently surged in popularity, thanks in part to our better understanding of gut health and the foods and drinks that seem to improve it. Kefir is commonly made from cow's, goat's, or sheep's milk, but a Southern California company called Desert Farms makes it from camel's milk.

Back to the ayran. Since my first ill-fated sip in 2007, I've learned to appreciate not just the flavor - that alchemy of salt, water, and yogurt - but also the cultural significance of the drink. Turkish food writer and culinary historian Nazli Piskin says ayran's three main ingredients, which are "available in each and every kitchen," are especially prized for their ability to cool and refresh during "hot summer days in Anatolia."

"No matter if you are working at a farm at noon," she says, "or come home late and are in a hurry to prepare a simple but nutritious dinner for the whole family, including the kids, ayran will be a real time-saver." In Turkey, Piskin says, it's the perfect accompaniment to borek (savory stuffed-phyllo pastries), pasta, rice, bulgur, even just good bread, in the tradition of the country's shepherds.

Think of it in terms of flexible ratios, changing them to suit your taste and the thickness of your yogurt. Piskin favors a 2-1 ratio of yogurt to water and whisks them to bring forth plenty of foamy bubbles.

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Makes 2 servings

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1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt

1/2 cup peeled, diced English (seedless) cucumber

1 tablespoon golden raisins

4 walnut halves

1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh dill

Generous pinch kosher salt

Fresh-ground black pepper

Ice cubes (optional)

Ice water and/or chilled seltzer, for serving

Dried mint, for garnish (optional)

Dried, crushed (culinary) rose petals, for garnish (optional)

Ground sumac, for garnish (optional)

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1. Combine the yogurt, cucumber, raisins, walnuts, dill, salt (to taste), and a grinding of fresh pepper in a blender. Puree until smooth and slightly frothy.

2. Fill two glasses with ice, if desired. Divide the doogh between them, then top off with the ice water and/or chilled seltzer. If you like, garnish with dried mint, crushed rose petals, and/or sumac. Serve right away.

- Inspired by San Francisco chef Hoss Zaré, former owner of the Fly Trap

Per serving: 130 calories, 7 grams protein, 11 grams carbohydrates, 8 grams sugar, 6 grams fat, 15 milligrams cholesterol, 125 milligrams sodium, no dietary fiber.EndText

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Makes 1 serving

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1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt (may substitute Greek yogurt; see note)

1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)

1/2 cup cold water, or as needed

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1. Combine the yogurt and salt, if using, in a deep bowl. Gradually whisk in the water, as needed, until the mixture is foamy on top.

2. Pour into a tall, chilled glass and serve right away.

- From Istanbul food writer and culinary historian Nazli Piskin

Note: If you use Greek yogurt, thin with a bit more water.

Per serving: 170 calories, 13 grams protein, 12 grams carbohydrates, 10 grams sugar, 8 grams fat, 30 milligrams cholesterol, 105 milligrams sodium, no dietary fiber.

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Makes 2 servings

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1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt

1 cup ice

11/2 teaspoons powdered matcha (see note)

1 pitted date, chopped (see note)

1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch kosher salt

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1. Combine the yogurt, ice, matcha, date, vanilla extract, and salt in a blender, preferably an ice-crushing (high-powered) model. Puree until smooth.

2. Pour into a tall glass and serve right away.

- From Cheryl Sternman Rule, author of Yogurt Culture: A Global Look at How to Make, Bake, Sip and Chill the World's Creamiest Food (Rux Martin/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015)

Notes: Those without a high-powered blender should plump the date in hot water for 5 minutes and chop it finely before blending to ensure even distribution. Find powdered matcha at Japanese markets, specialty grocers, and online. Do not substitute loose-leaf or bagged green tea.

Per serving: 100 calories, 7 grams protein, 9 ramscarbohydrates, 7 grams sugar, 4 grams fat, 15 milligrams cholesterol, 125 milligrams sodium, no dietary fiber.EndText

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Makes 1 serving

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3 small dill sprigs

2 slices peeled English (seedless) cucumber, plus 1 long strip of peel for garnish

Ice cubes

1 ounce absinthe (may substitute pastis)

1/2 ounce fresh lime juice

1/2 ounce simple syrup (see note)

Scant 1/4 cup plain whole-milk yogurt

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1. Muddle 2 sprigs of the dill and the cucumber slices in a cocktail shaker.

2. Fill the shaker halfway with ice, then add the absinthe, lime juice, simple syrup, and yogurt; seal and shake vigorously for 30 seconds, then double-strain into a large coupe or tumbler.

3. Roll up the long strip of cucumber peel; secure it, along with the remaining sprig of dill, with a toothpick. Use this to garnish the drink; serve right away.

- Based on a recipe from Gymkhana restaurant in London; excerpted and adapted from The New Cocktail Hour, by André Darlington and Tenaya Darlington (Running Press, 2016)

Notes: To make a simple syrup, combine 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Bring to a low boil, then cool. Transfer to a heatproof container. Once it has cooled to room temperature, cover tightly and refrigerate until chilled through; store indefinitely.

Per serving: 180 calories, 3 grams protein, 24 grams carbohydrates, 22 grams sugar, 2 grams fat, 5 milligrams cholesterol, 25 milligrams sodium, no dietary fiber.EndText