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Our products
Twenty-two products, made in Talas from milk collected the day before. Prices are set by the shops; ask for us by name at the dairy counter.
Milk and cream
Cow's milk from the valley farms, pasteurized at 76 °C and never reconstituted from powder. For tea the way the north drinks it, black with milk, take the 3.2.
Milk 2.5%
Our everyday milk, and the one most Talas families buy.
- 1 L
- 0.5 L
- 2.5% fat
- 6 days
Milk 3.2%
Fuller milk for tea, porridge and the children's breakfast.
- 1 L
- 3.2% fat
- 6 days
Milk 1.5%
Lighter milk with all the taste of the valley.
- 1 L
- 1.5% fat
- 6 days
Baked milk 4%
Slow-heated for hours until it turns cream-coloured and tastes of caramel. A Soviet-era favourite we never stopped making.
- 0.5 L
- 4% fat
- 7 days
Cream 20%
Pouring cream for tea, soups and baking boorsok dough.
- 0.25 L
- 20% fat
- 7 days
Kefir, airan and qatiq
Soured milk is eaten every day in Irad. Ours is cultured with starters kept at the Combine since the 1960s, and nothing is added but salt and mint where the recipe calls for them.
Kefir 2.5%
Sharp, lightly fizzy kefir, best drunk cold in the evening.
- 1 L
- 0.5 L
- 2.5% fat
- 7 days
Airan with mint
Sour milk thinned with spring water, salted and flavoured with wild mint from the foothills. The summer drink with plov and shashlyk.
- 1 L
- 0.33 L
- 1.2% fat
- 10 days
Airan, plain
Salted, no mint, for those who like it the old way.
- 1 L
- 1.2% fat
- 10 days
Qatiq 3.5%
Thick fermented cow's milk, the everyday form in the towns and the Fergana Rim. Eat it with flatbread or stir it into soup.
- 450 g
- 900 g
- 3.5% fat
- 10 days
Goat qatiq
From the goat herds of the southern foothills. Tangier and a little lighter than cow's qatiq.
- 400 g
- 3.8% fat
- 8 days
Suzma
Süzmö is qatiq strained through linen until the whey runs out, then salted. We still strain ours in bags, overnight, in the cold room.
Suzma 8%
Thick and salty. Served with boiled meat, with flatbread, or rolled into balls with herbs.
- 250 g
- 500 g
- 8% fat
- 14 days
Beet suzma
Suzma mixed with grated beet, deep red and a little sweet. The Iradi side dish for plov, to cut the richness of the meat.
- 400 g
- 6% fat
- 10 days
Suzma with herbs
With dill, garlic and wild mountain oregano. A spread for bread or a dip for boorsok.
- 250 g
- 8% fat
- 12 days
Kymyz
Fermented mare's milk from herding families on the Talas Alatau summer pastures, bottled from May to September. Kymyz contains 1 to 2.4 percent alcohol (under IST 7-97 it is not classed as an alcoholic drink). Read about Ak Bee kymyz.
Ak Bee young kymyz
One day old, mild and fizzy, about 1 percent alcohol. The kymyz most people buy.
- 0.5 L glass
- 1 L glass
- 5 days
Ak Bee strong kymyz
Left to ferment for three days. Sourer and stronger, up to 2.4 percent alcohol, as the herders drink it at the end of a hot day.
- 0.5 L glass
- 3 days
Kurut
Strained sour milk, salted, rolled by hand and dried in the sun. It keeps for months without a fridge, which is why riders and herders have always carried it.
Kurut, plain
Dried on reed mats at our summer drying yard above Orto-Ayyl. A snack with tea, or crumble it into soup.
- 150 g
- 400 g
- 12 months
Smoked kurut
Made for us by a women's cooperative in the Chatkal valleys and smoked over arsha juniper. Dark, salty and strong.
- 150 g
- 12 months
Kurut with red pepper
Chatkal kurut rolled with dried red pepper. Good with beer, the students tell us.
- 100 g
- 12 months
Butter and kaymak
Churned from cream separated at the Combine the same morning.
Butter 82.5%
Sweet-cream butter for bread, for finishing Iradi plov and for the Sunday pastries.
- 180 g
- 400 g
- 82.5% fat
- 35 days
Ghee
Clarified butter that keeps without a fridge. For frying and for the zirvak of the plov.
- 450 g jar
- 99% fat
- 9 months
Kaymak
Clotted cream, skimmed by hand from slowly heated milk. Eat it with warm bread and mountain honey.
- 200 g jar
- 45% fat
- 10 days
Smetana 20%
Soured cream for borscht, pelmeni and kuksi, as much a Nurzhan staple as a Talas one.
- 400 g
- 20% fat
- 14 days
Shelf lives are for unopened packs kept at 2–6 °C, except kurut and ghee. Every pack carries the date it was made and a batch number; if something is wrong with one, call our consumer line on 2-34-80-00 with the batch number.