Drinks & Beverages
In Turkey, what you drink is as important as what you eat. The rituals around tea, coffee, and ayran are inseparable from the culture of the table — and from the culture of conversation itself.
A glass of tea is never just a glass of tea. It is an invitation to slow down, a gesture of welcome, and the opening move of almost every social exchange in Turkey.
Çay — Turkish Tea
Turkey is among the world's largest tea producers, and Turks drink more tea per capita than almost any other nation. The tea belt runs along the Black Sea coast, where heavy rain and mild temperatures produce a strong, dark leaf.
Turkish tea is brewed in a stacked double-kettle called a çaydanlık: boiling water in the lower pot, a concentrated brew steeping in the upper. The guest pours a small amount of concentrate into a tulip-shaped glass and tops it up with hot water to taste. Sugar goes in as cubes, stirred and then rested on the saucer for a second dip. Milk never appears.
Rize Çayı
The standard Turkish black tea, grown in and around the Rize province on the Black Sea. Brewed strong and served dark amber — koyu — or diluted lighter — açık — according to preference.
Elma Çayı
Apple tea made from dried apple pieces and often blended with hibiscus. Found in tourist areas and bazaars; less common in everyday Turkish homes, where black tea rules absolutely.
Adaçayı
Sage tea, brewed from wild sage leaves. Favoured in Aegean villages as an herbal remedy and a lighter alternative to black tea. Served without milk, sometimes with a thin slice of lemon.
Türk Kahvesi — Turkish Coffee
Turkish coffee is one of the oldest coffee preparations in the world, listed by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage. It predates the filter, the espresso machine, and the French press by centuries — and it has not needed to change.
Finely ground coffee is combined with cold water (and sugar, if requested) in a small copper or brass pot called a cezve. It is heated over a low flame until a foam rises; this foam is the mark of a skilled hand and is divided between cups before the rest of the coffee follows. The grounds settle in the cup — you wait, you do not stir.
A small glass of water and a piece of lokum always accompany the cup. The water clears the palate; the sweet softens the bitterness. When the cup is finished, some turn it upside down on the saucer and read the dried grounds — tasseography, the art of the coffee reading, is a living tradition.
Sade
Turkish coffee with no sugar at all. Intensely bitter and served piping hot. The purist's order; you specify this when ordering so the sugar is never added to the cezve.
Az Şekerli
A little sugar — about half a teaspoon stirred in during brewing. The most common preference, balancing the coffee's natural bitterness without tipping into sweetness.
Orta Şekerli
Medium sweet. One full teaspoon of sugar is stirred into the cezve before heating. The middle path, and the safest answer if someone asks how you take it before you have decided.
Çok Şekerli
Very sweet, with two or more teaspoons of sugar. The foam on top may be visibly darker as the sugar caramelises slightly during the rise. Preferred by those who find the coffee too harsh otherwise.
Ayran
Ayran is cold, salted, beaten yogurt drink — and it is Turkey's true national beverage, older than the Ottoman Empire and still present at every kebab house, roadside rest stop, and family picnic. It is made by whisking yogurt with cold water and a pinch of salt until frothy.
The drink is deeply practical: it cools the palate after spicy food, aids digestion, replenishes salt lost in summer heat, and pairs with grilled meat better than almost anything else. In restaurants it arrives in a tall glass, slightly foamy on top. A factory-bottled version (Sütaş, İçim, and others) is sold in every market and corner shop.
Rakı
Rakı is an anise-flavoured spirit distilled from grapes or figs and redistilled with anise seeds. It is the traditional companion to meze and long evenings at the table. When water is added, it turns a milky white — which is why it is called aslan sütü, lion's milk.
Drinking rakı properly is a ceremony: it is sipped slowly over hours, never rushed, and always accompanied by food. A glass of ice water sits alongside; you drink from each in alternation. Rakı without meze or company is considered almost beside the point.
Other Drinks Worth Knowing
Şalgam Suyu
Fermented purple carrot juice acidified with turnip, flavoured with spices and sometimes spiked with hot pepper. Sour, deep red, and divisive. The classic companion to Adana kebab and rakı in the south.
Boza
A lightly fermented winter drink made from water, sugar, and fermented wheat. Thick, slightly sour, and very low in alcohol. Vendors carry it through Istanbul streets on cold evenings, calling out to apartments above.
Salep
A hot winter drink made from the powdered tuber of wild orchids, mixed with hot milk and sprinkled with cinnamon. Creamy and faintly floral — once common across the former Ottoman world, now protected in Turkey to prevent over-harvesting.
Menengiç Kahvesi
Coffee brewed from the roasted berries of the wild pistachio tree, without any caffeine. Popular in southeastern Turkey, where the trees grow wild. Nutty, earthy, and unlike any other coffee.