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TURKISH DRINKS |
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TURKISH
COFFEE |
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Coffee has played an
important role in Turkish culture from the Ottoman
period through the present. The serving and consumption
of coffee has had a profound effect on political and
social interaction, gender customs, and hospitality
customs throughout the centuries. Although many of the
rituals perished in time coffee has remained an integral
part of Turkish culture.
Coffee is brought to Istanbul in 1555 by two Syrian
traders. It was known as " the milk of chess players and
thinkers." By the mid-17th century, Turkish coffee
became a part of elaborate ceremonies involving the
Ottoman court. Coffee makers known as "kahveci usta",
with the help of over forty assistants, ceremoniously
prepared and served coffee for the sultan. Betrothal
customs and gender roles also became defined through
coffee rituals. In the Ottoman period, women received
intensive training in the harem on the proper techniques
of preparing Turkish coffee. Perspective husbands would
judge a woman's merits based on the taste of the coffee
she made.
Coffee has been at the center of political and social
interaction for both men and women in the Ottoman period.
Women socialized with each other over coffee and sweets.
Men socialized in coffee houses where they were
discussing politics and playing backgammon. Coffee
houses played host to a new form of satirical political
and social criticism called shadow theater in which
puppets were the main characters in the early 16th
century. Over the years, Turkish coffee houses have
become social institutions where people come together
and talk.
Turkish coffee is made of finely pulverized roasted
coffee beans in special coffee pots called "cezve".
Roasting degree and duration differ according to taste.
Coffee is sold either green, or roasted beans or in
pulverized form. In old houses a brass-made hand
manupulated coffee mill would be used to pulverize
coffee beans. An electrical coffee mill is used instead
of brass-coffee mill at present time in many households.
Turkish coffee is prepared in 4 ways:
"Az Sekerli" means coffee has little sugar (about 1/2
teaspoon)
"Orta Sekerli" means coffee has standart amount of sugar
(1 teaspoon)
"Çok Sekerli" means coffee has more sugar than enough
which is 1 1/2 teaspoons.
"Sade Kahve" means black coffee, without sugar.
Turkish coffee is served in special Turkish coffee cups
made of porcelain. These cups are smaller in size than
ordinary coffee cups. An average Turkish coffee cup is
equal to 1/4 cup in volume. Coffee is served with
bon-bon, candy bar or with " Lokum " (Turkish Delight)
or with chocolate bars. It is served usually during
midday or following a lunch or dinner. There is an old
saying about coffee:" Bir kahve fincanin kirk yil hatiri
vardir ". This saying means that if one has offered a
cup of coffee to you you are obliged for forty years to
the one who offered the coffee. It means that the person
who offers the coffee is to be respected, honoured, and
remembered for a long time for the sake of his coffee
offering.
Are humans indeed free agents or just Shakespeare’s
players acting out our scenes?The answer may lie in the
bottom of your cup.
Personal experience implies there is not a reading
without a long journey, some kind of financial dealing (for
better or worse) and a metaphorical mountain involved
somewhere, but for most foreigners in Istanbul certainly
the journey, and in all likelihood the other two, do
indeed lie ahead. Just once in a long while, though, you
may find someone whose ability to infer the future from
the remnants of your drink is distinctly uncanny.
The theory is simple. Once you reach the sediment the
cup is turned upside down in its saucer, and, optionally,
the bottom is touched for luck. When it cools, the
grinds, in sliding down the inside of the cup, will have
arranged themselves into various readable signals which
forewarn of future events. The practice, however, (much)
more often than not, simply covers for probing questions
and gossip. “I see something going on with your X (brother/lover/work/etc.)...
What would that be?” And as such it serves a useful
purpose -boundaries are temporarily lifted and the
important issues that didn’t make up the conversation
over the coffee can be examined. Anyone who has been
jolted by a stranger reading their cup with an unlikely
amount of accuracy would probably be better off
consulting a statistician or a psychoanalyst for an
explanation, but here, for your amusemet and
clairvoyance, are just some of the signals that could
justify that X you’ve been promising yourself. |
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AYRAN |
Is a
drink made of yoghurt and water, popular in Turkey.
Ayran is a mixture of yoghurt, water, and salt. It is
thought to have originated as a way of preserving yogurt
by adding salt.
It can also be made with cucumber juice in place of some
or all of the water, or flavored with garlic. Sometimes
it is also seasoned with black pepper: this is uncommon
in Bulgaria, where Ayran is also often served without
salt. Another recipe popular in some regions includes
finely chopped mint leaves mixed into the Ayran.
Ayran is so popular in Turkey that it is often regarded
as a market separate to that for the juice and soda
industries. It is a challenge for "modern" soft-drink
companies such as Coca-Cola. International fast-food
companies such as McDonald's include Ayran in their
standard menu as a local menu addition. In Azerbaijan,
Syria, and Lebanon, it is available in all restaurants
and fast-food shops. In other countries, it may be found
at döner kebab outlets. In the United States, it's
available in Armenian, Turkish, Persian, and other
Middle Eastern stores under the names Ayran or Tahn.
In rural areas of Turkey, Ayran is offered as a "standard"
drink to welcome guests. Ayran is served cool, and is a
common accompaniment to döner, kebab, banitsa, gözleme,
or pastry. Some forms of fresh Ayran include foam. |
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TURKISH TEA |
Turkey
has over sixty years of tea producion experience. Year
after year, using this expereince, the flavor of our tea
has continued to be improved to satisfy tea drinkers.
We use a blend of proven cultivation methods along with
the modern technologies and equipment in our processing
so your Turkish tea experience will be a delight.
There are about 200 000 small tea growers in East Black
Sea Region of Turkey. They pick green tea three flush in
a year from May to October in hilly lands of east Black
Sea.
Annual fresh tea production is about 800 000 tons.
Between 155 000-160 000 tons black tea are produced in
Turkey annually. General Directorate of Tea Enterprises
(Çaykur) has 46 tea processing factories and produces
65% of total production. Private sector have a lot of
small tea processing factories and produces 35% of
Turkish tea. |
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TURKISH RAKI |
Is
a usually anise-flavored apéritif that is produced by
twice distilling either only suma or suma that has been
mixed with ethyl alcohol in traditional copper alembics
of 5000 lt (1320 US gallon, 1100 UK gallon) volume or
less with aniseed.[1] It is similar to several kinds of
alcoholic beverages available in the Mediterranean and
parts of the Balkans, including pastis, sambuca and ouzo.
The general consensus is that all these liqueurs
preceded arak, a similar arabic liqueur, but it remains
a theory. In the Balkans, however, raki refers to a
drink made from distilled pomace, similar to Italian
grappa, Bulgarian rakia, Greek tsikoudia, Cypriot
zivania and Spanish orujo.[2]
In Turkey, raki is the unofficial 'national drink' and
it is traditionally drunk mixed with water; the dilution
causes this alcoholic drink to turn a milky-white colour,
and possibly because of its colour, this mixture is
popularly called aslan sütü or arslan sütü, both
literally meaning "lion's milk" (aslan and arslan also
mean strong, brave man, hence milk for the brave men). |
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SHERBET |
Sherbet
(Soda powder; Etymology: Turkish & Persian; Turkish
şerbet, from Persian & Urdu/Hindi sharbat, from Arabic
sharba drink) (British and American English) or Sherbert
(Australian English and New Zealand English, also a
variant used in American English) historically was a
cool effervescent or iced fruit soft drink. The meaning,
spelling and pronunciation has fractured between three
English-speaking countries. It is usually spelled either
sherbet or sherbert. In the US, the most common meaning
of sherbet is a frozen dessert sorbet or a special kind
of ice cream: see sherbet (U.S.).
Sherbet in the United Kingdom is a kind of fizzy powder
made from bicarbonate of soda, tartaric acid, sugar etc
and usually cream soda or fruit flavoured. The acid-carbonate
reaction occurs upon presence of moisture (juice/saliva).
It used to be stirred into various beverages to make
effervescing drinks, in a similar way to making lemonade
from lemonade powders. Today, people usually buy
carbonated drinks rather than making them at home.
Sherbet is now used to mean this powder sold as a sweet.
In the United States, it would be somewhat comparable to
the powder in Pixy Stix or Lik-M-Aid/Fun Dip, though
having the fizzy quality of Pop Rocks effervescing candy.. |
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BOZA |
Is
popular fermented beverage in turkey it is made from
fermented wheat in turkey.it has a thick consistency and
a low alcohol content usually around %1 and has a
sightly acidic sweet flavor.
In the Republic of Macedonia boza is much thinner and
lighter, and tastes sweeter.
In Turkey it is served with cinnamon and roasted
chickpeas, and is consumed mainly in the winter months.
The Ottoman Empire was known to feed its army with boza
as it is rich in carbohydrates and vitamins.
In Bulgaria it is part of the traditional "Banitsa with
Boza" breakfast.
In Albania it is mostly produced and sold in the
northern part of Albania; you can easily find it in the
candy and ice-creams stores of the capital, Tirana.
In southern Serbia, boza is produced and sold in the
whole country.
The variant found in Romania is called bragă, and it is
sweeter than in Turkey and Bulgaria, but thicker and
darker than in Republic of Macedonia. |
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SALEP |
Is a flour
made from grinding the dried tubers of various species
of orchid, which contain a nutritious starch-like
polysaccharide called bassorin.
Salep is also the name of a beverage made from salep
flour, whose popularity spread beyond Turkey and the
Middle East to England and Germany before the rise of
coffee and tea. In England, the drink was known as "saloop".
The beverage salep is sometimes referred to as Turkish
Delight, though that name is more commonly used for
lokum. Other desserts are also made from salep flour,
including salep pudding and salep ice cream. The
Kahramanmaraş region of Turkey is a major producer of
salep known as Salepi Maraş. |
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TURNIP WATER (ŞALGAM
SUYU) |
Is a
popular beverage of southern Turkey, originating from
Adana. Although its Turkish name şalgam suyu (or
shortened, şalgam) does literally mean "turnip juice",
it is, in fact, the juice of purple carrot pickles,
heavily salted, spiced and flavoured with aromatic
turnip (çelem) and fermented in barrels. It is
traditionally served cold in large glasses with long
slices of pickled carrots, called tane. Hot paprika
relish is added just before drinking. Hot or regular,
it's a popular drink with Adana Kebab.
Şalgam is often served with raki (alcoholic beverage)—not
mixed, but rather in a separate glass. Şalgam is
commonly believed to cure hangovers, however excess
şalgam drinking is a reason for large amounts of
intestinal gas. |
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