Winter Drink · Fermented Millet
Boza
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Its low alcohol content (usually under 1%) let it survive Ottoman-era religious restrictions on drinking, since it was considered a food rather than a proper alcoholic beverage.
A thick, faintly tangy drink fermented from millet or wheat, boza is served ice-cold in winter, topped with cinnamon and a handful of roasted chickpeas (leblebi) on the side. Vendors still walk Istanbul's streets after dark in winter, calling out for customers the way they have for over a century.
Why it's made this way: Vefa Bozacısı, an Istanbul shop open since 1876, is credited with cementing boza as a Marmara-region winter tradition, and its wandering night vendors became one of the city's most recognizable street-food sounds.
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