Ayran[a] (/aɪˈrɑːn/ eye-RAHN) is a cold savory yogurt-based beverage that is consumed across Central Asia, and the Balkans, in Turkey and Iran.

airag in Mongolian: 'mare milk',[6] uyran (уйран) in Chuvash: 'buttermilk')[7] is mentioned in Mahmud al-Kashgari's 11th century Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk, although he did not give any information how ayran was made.

[15] A c. 1000 CE Turkic dictionary, Dīwān ul-Lughat al-Turk, defines ayran as a "drink made out of milk".

[13] Other similar drinks include t’an (Armenian: թան) in Armenia and lassi in the Indian subcontinent; however, they can differ from doogh.

[27][28] In some eastern parts of Turkey, ayran is made using a mixing method, which results in a very frothy drink which known as Yayık Ayranı.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a Turkish politician who has held the posts of President and Prime Minister, has promoted ayran as a national drink.

Speaking at a 2013 WHO Global Alcohol Policy Conference held by simar in Istanbul, Erdoğan contrasted ayran with beer, which he claimed was a recent introduction to Turkey.

[31] In 2015, Turkey's Ministry of Customs and Trade imposed a 220,000 TL fine (approximately $70,000) on state-owned Çaykur manufacturers, stating that ayran had been "insulted without reason" in one of their advertisements for iced tea, in which the rapper Ceza rapped that ayran makes him sleepy; the ministry halted advertisements of Çaykur's competing iced tea product.