Kumis

Essentially mare’s milk alcohol, kumis comes from the fermented milk of a horse. Popular among the populations of Central Asia, the drink was once touted to Western audiences as a sort of cure-all health tonic. Russian author Leo Tolstoy wrote about it in his work A Confession, where he described drinking kumis as part of his regime to battle depression. Another famous Russian author, Anton Chekhov, drank kumis to cure his tuberculosis. He drank four bottles a day for two weeks, gained twelve pounds, but found no physical release from his illness. He was still coughing blood a month later.  

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