What is a typical turkish beverage?

Back to Frequently Asked Questions Home Page

If you like strong and tasty food and drinks you gonna love Turkey.

Here are some of the most important alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages to try in Turkey and on your Turkish gulet.

Turkish alcoholic beverages:

Raki,
Wine,
Beer

Turkish non-alcoholic beverages:

Turkish black tea,
Turkish coffee,
Ayran,
Salgam.

The most significant drinks in Turkey are their black tea and turkish coffee.

Both are very strong and like Turks prefer very sweet. If you have a sleepy day and wish to have more energy they will boost you with extra energy.

Turkish black tea

The most popular drink amongst the Turks is their black tea, that is drinked from a tulip shaped cup. Contrary to the public’s belief of being turkish coffee the most popular drink amongst turks, black tea is.

When traveling through Turkey, on every corner you can see locals drinking their black tea. They consume it every day by the thousand gallons.

Turkish coffee

Turkish coffee is very important in turkish culture. The origin of drinking coffee goes back to the Ottoman empire.

It was a social practice for men and for women. Men discussed politics and day events in their “men clubs”, where women socialized and discussed by consuming coffee and eating sweets.

Turkish coffee is not for everyone’s taste. The tourists find it very strong and sweet. But this is how the turks drink it. It has an earthy taste and is extremely strong.

The turks saying is that the coffee needs to be “black as hell, strong as death and sweet as love.

Raki

Raki is a national alcoholic beverage of the Turks. It is very similar to the Greek ouzo but differs in the adding of water, where the white clear liquid becomes more milky white. That is also why the Turks call it the lion’s milk.

For a detailed description on history of raki just follow this link.

Raki is usually drunk with cold appetizers – mezzes. Like tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber and seafood. But for a true raki experience best to combine it with is:

Sea urchins,
Smacked mack,
Marcona almonds,
Vaguely Turkish kebabs,

Chickpeas with spinach,
Spice Islands ham and melon,
If you like your raki strong, it goes particularly well with a Turkish sour green plum,
Also good with fish.

The turkish people take drinking raki very seriously and have adopted a ritual on how to drink raki the right way. To learn how to drink your raki, just follow the link.

For your gulet cruise beverage option, all is available.

If you wish to taste some of the more specific turkish beverages, please just mention it to your personal concierge and he will organize for you some fine turkish tastings.