For anyone who's messaged me asking when Ural is coming back, this one's for you. I've got a big batch of yellow Ural clay arriving at Earthy Crunch UK in November 2026, and it isn't coming alone. There's a proper haul of Central Asian clays with it, Turkestan included, which I'm just as excited about if I'm honest.
If Ural is new to you: it's one of those clays people in this community talk about with a slightly faraway look. Dense, pale yellow chunks, sometimes with a bluish tinge running through them, and a crunch that's loud enough to make you check nobody's in the room. It usually gets described as mild, a bit nutty, a bit milky. I'll write up my own crunch notes once this batch is in my hands, because I'm not describing something I haven't actually had in my own mouth.
Why it's been such a faff to get
I'm going to be straight about this bit. Getting clay out of Central Asia has been difficult since the war in Ukraine started, and it hasn't got easier. Routes that used to be simple aren't any more, costs have crept up and up, and some of the sellers I'd happily have bought from have just stopped shipping to the UK.
I don't want to make this sound like a tragedy, because it isn't one. People in Ukraine are living through an actual war, and me paying more for a box of clay isn't in the same universe. But it is the honest reason Ural has been patchy and pricey in the UK for a while, and why when you have spotted it, it's often been resold at a mark-up or shipped from abroad with your fingers crossed at customs.
So when the chance came up to bring in a decent amount in one go, I took it.
What "Ural" actually means
Here's the bit that doesn't get said much. "Ural" is a bazaar name as much as it's a place. The Ural River starts up in the southern Ural mountains in Russia and runs south through western Kazakhstan, past the city of Oral (which was called Uralsk until 1991), all the way down to the Caspian Sea at Atyrau. That whole stretch is clay country.
In Kazakh markets, "Ural" has come to mean a particular style of clay: pale yellow, dense, dry and crunchy. That yellow, by the way, is iron. Iron oxides are what give yellow clays their colour wherever they turn up in the world. Whether a given bag was dug from one bank of the river or another, sellers aren't always forthcoming, and I'd rather admit that than pretend otherwise. To me the name tells you the style more than the GPS coordinates. I'll tell you everything I know about where my batch came from, and anything I don't know, I'll say I don't know.
Clay in Kazakhstan isn't a niche
This is the part I love. In a lot of the UK, crunching clay is something people keep quiet about. In Kazakhstan, chalk and clay are sold openly by the chunk, and sellers will happily tell you which ones people ask for most. A clay and chalk seller in Astana told Kazakh news a few years back that Ural is one of the most in-demand clays he sells, which tracks with every Kazakh shop listing I've ever scrolled through.
Clay runs deep there in the other sense too. Archaeologists have found clay vessels in Kazakhstan going back to the Andronovo period, roughly the 15th to 8th centuries BC. People have been digging, shaping and living alongside this stuff for a very long time, which is part of why I don't buy the idea that crunching it is some weird modern internet thing. It isn't. It's just that some places stopped being embarrassed about it.
And then there's Turkestan
Turkestan is one of the oldest cities in Kazakhstan, down in the south not far from the Uzbek border, on the old Silk Road. It's home to the mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, built at the end of the 1300s and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, all huge walls and blue tiled domes.
In the Middle Ages, when the city was still called Yasy, it was a major pottery centre with its own school of Kazakh ceramics, mostly known for blue-green glazes with the odd striking yellow piece. Potters there still rate the local clay as some of the most workable around, and honestly that tells you something about the ground before you've even picked up a chunk.
Edible Turkestan clays come in more varieties than you'd expect: cream, white, grey-green, brown, and the pressed tiles and balls. We have them in the raw chunk form. They tend to feel quite different to Ural in the mouth, which brings me to a genuine question for the regulars. Where does everyone sit on Turkestan versus Ural? I've seen people swear one is far better than the other, and I'm curious whether that's texture, aroma or just loyalty to whichever one you tried first.
What's coming, and when
Yellow Ural and a range of Turkestan clays will go live in November along with some other Uzbek items. Every listing will have its own test status on it, and if something hasn't been tested for contaminants, I'll say that plainly rather than leave you guessing.
If you've been waiting on Ural, or you've been ordering it from overseas and paying through the nose for shipping, I'd genuinely love you to get it from me this time. It's a small UK shop, it's one person packing it, and you'll know exactly what I know about where it came from. I'll shout on Instagram and Facebook the day it's live.
Ta x
Disclaimer
My clay and chalk products are natural materials sold for sensory, hobbyist and ASMR use. They're not certified food-grade, and I don't sell them as food, supplements or medicine. This article is general information based on my own research and experience, not medical advice, and I'm not a doctor or nutritionist. If you have any concerns about pica, geophagia or ingesting non-food materials, please speak to a GP or another qualified healthcare professional.
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