Taste the best drinks made of yoghurt in Azerbaijan: Dovga & Ayran

Among the variety of reasons for visiting Azerbaijan, one of the most remarkable ones is its rich and tasty cuisine. There are thousands of dishes in Azerbaijani cuisine, one more beautiful than the other. Moreover, the special drinks that are offered with those meals make the cuisine even more special and richer. There are plenty of them in Azerbaijan in different regions of the country. However, I will talk about 2 famous drinks that are common for all regions.

Main ingredient of Azerbaijani dishes is meat. Therefore, we believe that yoghurt drinks are the best option to have with them, as they have a soothing effect. The most famous drinks that you can see in Azerbaijan are dovga and ayran.

Dovga is one of the best tastes of Azerbaijani cuisine, which I would recommend you not to miss during your travel. It’s a kind of a drink made of yoghurt and greens in it. Although it is considered as a drink, it should be cooked. Dovga can be served as a cold drink, as well as a soup. Generally, if it’s cooked in summer, it is served as a cold drink, but if it’s winter time, it would be better to have it as a soup. Even though dovga belongs to all regions of the country, Ganja city is famous for its special dovga. Ganja people love to add chickpea to dovga, which makes it special.

Another traditional drink that will make your meal tastier is ayran. It is also made of yoghurt. Unlike dovga, ayran is not cooked and have an easy preparation process. The yoghurt is just shaken up and salt is added to it. If you wish, dry mint can be added as well, but it’s optional and not everyone adds it to ayran. Ayran is served as a cold drink. I would say that, ayran is the best option to order in the restaurant with any traditional meal in Azerbaijan.

Almost all restaurants offer dovga and ayran on drink menu. However, if you want to have special and more traditional one it is better to choose a restaurant, which is specialized on traditional Azerbaijani food. The most popular one is Mangal Restaurant that is located in Icherisheher and famous for traditional cuisine. Firuza Restaurant in Fountain Square, Sadaf Azeri Cuisine in Baku Boulevard are the other amazing places, where you can find the best ayran and dovga.

Firuza restaurant, Baku

14 Tərlan Əliyarbəyov, Bakı 1005, Azerbaijan

Sumakh restaurant, Baku

20/22 Xocalı prospekti, Bakı AZ1025, Azerbaijan

Sadaf Azeri Cuisine, Baku

9 Neftçilər Prospekti, Bakı 1000, Azerbaijan

Mangal Restaurant

9R8M+HR5, Baku, Azerbaijan