Xinjiang Summer Drinks: Mulberry Sherbet, Frappé and Iced Tea

Xinjiang summers are ferocious — Turpan regularly tops 40°C. Locals do not sweat it; they drink. The cold-beverage culture is its own tour of the region, from street sherbet to iced tea, and learning it is one of the small pleasures of a summer trip.

Mulberry sherbet (sharbat)

In early summer the white and black mulberries ripen, and street vendors churn them into sharbat — a sweet, slightly tart purple drink served over ice. It is seasonal (roughly May–June) and gloriously local. I time trips around it. Our tea culture guide covers the hot side of the same tradition, because the same stalls switch to tea when the fruit is gone.

Milk-tea frappé

The Uyghur milk tea that warms winter mornings gets blasted with ice and sugar in summer, sold from silver urns as a thick, frothy frappé. It is richer than any coffee-shop version and costs a few yuan. Pair it with the Uyghur breakfast for the full dairy experience, or sip it solo against the heat.

Iced black tea

Every restaurant sets a pot of hot tea by default, but ask for it cold (lěng chá) in summer and you get a jug of weak, refreshing black tea. It is the default throat-saver on a long self-drive day and free at most meals, which makes it the unsung hero of the road.

Safety notes

• Buy sherbet from busy stalls where the fruit is fresh and the ice comes from a sealed machine.
• Bottled water remains the safest baseline; treat street drinks as a treat, not your only fluid.
• Our food-safety guide has the full rules for eating and drinking out across the region.

Hydrate hard, sip the local cold things, and the heat becomes part of the adventure rather than its enemy. The drink culture is also a cheap, cheerful way to meet people at a street corner.

The seasonal calendar

The drinks rotate with the heat. Mulberry sherbet is a tight May–June window — miss it and you wait a year. Milk-tea frappés run all summer. Iced black tea is eternal. In winter the same stalls switch to hot milk tea and the fruit gives way to nuts and dried things. I plan at least one early-summer trip specifically for the sherbet, because nothing else tastes like it.

Make it a habit

Build a mid-afternoon drink stop into your driving day. Pull into a town, find the silver urn or the sherbet cart, and reset. It is cheaper than air-conditioning, kinder than constant bottled water, and a reliable way to meet people who are not paid to talk to you. The cold-drink culture is one of the small joys of a Xinjiang summer.

What to actually ask for

Three drinks cover most of a Xinjiang summer. Mulberry sherbet (مەتتى شەربىتى) — a pale, not-too-sweet fruit drink — turns up in Turpan and Kashgar in June. Dugh (دوغ), a salted yoghurt drink, is the thing that actually cools you down on a hot plain. And kvas (كۋاس), a lightly fermented bread-root soda, is what the Russian-influenced north drinks. Point, or just say the name; vendors know the regulars’ orders by heart.

Sugar, melon and timing

These are sweet by default, so if you want less sugar say so early. The bigger summer story is fruit: Hami melon (哈密瓜) and Turpan watermelon are eaten like water, sliced and sold by the roadside, and after a hot drive a roadside melon stop beats any cafe. I carry a small foldable knife habit from locals, but a vendor will cut it for you. The rule I keep: drink the sherbet, eat the melon, and always have a bottle of plain water underneath it all.