Street Kiosk · Fermented Grain Drink

Boza

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Its alcohol content is usually well under 1%, low enough that it is sold to children as an everyday breakfast drink.

Boza is a thick, low-alcohol drink made by fermenting boiled wheat or millet with sugar and water until it turns tangy and faintly fizzy. In Bulgaria it is sold chilled by the glass or bottle from bakeries, kiosks, and banitsa shops. It is drunk year-round, most often at breakfast alongside a slice of banitsa.

Why it's made this way: Boza has been drunk across the Balkans and former Ottoman lands for centuries, and in Bulgaria it became a fixture of breakfast pastry shops, where a glass of boza with banitsa is still a standard morning order.