Saturday, December 26, 2009

A Local Drink Roundup from Turkey

From left: cherry juice, raki, and Efes beer

Given that I was here in Istanbul for such a short period of time, I didn't really pick up any locally branded drinks this time. But there were a few things beyond that ayran yogurt stuff that I did get to sneak in this morning at the Turkish Airlines lounge.

Fruit juice was very common at food stands around the city. But oftentimes atypical kinds of fruit were used, like pomegranate juice, or the red cherry juice pictured here on the left. Both of them tasted like they sounded; basically like their corresponding fruit but in liquid form.

The white one in the middle was not yogurt, but rather rakı, the anise-based liquor that I failed to get last night. Just as with Greek ouzo, this stuff was clear until one added cold water to it, and the licorice-taste of which made a great companion to salty food. Finally, Efes on the right was just a local lager that was cleaner tasting than I thought it would be.

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