# Vefa and Boza: A Winter Taste Below Süleymaniye > Thick, tangy and topped with cinnamon and roasted chickpeas, boza has been poured in Vefa, just below Süleymaniye, since 1876. Here is how to drink it. **Boza** is a thick, cool, fermented drink made from millet, slightly sour and gently sweet, served in a glass with a dusting of cinnamon and a handful of *leblebi* (roasted chickpeas) on top. In Istanbul the name is almost inseparable from **Vefa**, the old neighbourhood just below Süleymaniye, where the Vefa Bozacısı has poured it since 1876. If you are on the historic peninsula on a winter evening, a glass of boza in Vefa is one of the oldest tastes the city still serves the way it always has. ## What is boza? Boza is made by cooking millet into a loose porridge, then letting it ferment with sugar until it thickens and sours. The result has the body of a soft pudding and the tang of yoghurt, with a natural sweetness behind it. It is served cool, from a glass, and you eat it as much as drink it. Fermentation leaves a trace of alcohol so faint that boza is treated as a non-alcoholic drink. It is very old. Fermented grain drinks of this kind were known across Anatolia, Central Asia and the Balkans long before the Ottomans, and boza is still loved in Bulgaria, Albania and parts of the Caucasus. In Istanbul it found its classic form: thick, pale gold, cinnamon on the surface, chickpeas on the side. ## How does boza taste? The first spoonful surprises most people. It is sweet and sour at once, a little like a drinkable rice pudding crossed with a mild sourdough starter, and dense enough to coat the glass. The cinnamon brings warmth, and the leblebi add crunch and a dry, toasty note that cuts the sweetness. Locals drop the chickpeas in and fish them out with a spoon, or eat them one by one between sips. ![A glass of thick golden boza topped with cinnamon beside a small dish of roasted chickpeas](/uploads/blog/inline/vefa-boza-inline.webp) A good glass is smooth, never grainy, and its sourness stays in balance. Boza that tastes sharp or fizzy has fermented too far. It is filling, so one glass is plenty, and it is best taken after a walk rather than after a large meal. ## Vefa, a short walk below Süleymaniye Vefa is one of the quietest corners of the historic peninsula, a few minutes on foot from the Süleymaniye Mosque, down slopes of old wooden houses, small neighbourhood mosques and the stone walls of Vefa High School. The arches of the Valens Aqueduct cross the city close by. It still feels residential, the kind of place where people buy bread and talk on doorsteps, and it rewards a slow walk downhill from the mosque courtyard. Our guide to [things to do in Süleymaniye beyond the mosque](/en/blog/suleymaniye-things-to-do/) covers the surrounding lanes. The **Vefa Bozacısı**, founded in 1876 by a family that came to Istanbul from the Balkans, is the address everyone means when they talk about boza. The shop has kept its old interior of dark wood, marble and mirrored shelves, with rows of glasses and bottles behind the counter. You stand at the counter or take one of the few seats, order a glass, and the server adds cinnamon and passes you the leblebi. Much of the pleasure is in the room itself, which feels unchanged by the decades. ## The street sellers of winter nights For generations, boza did not only wait in shops. It walked the streets. On cold nights, sellers carried it through the neighbourhoods in large containers, calling out a long, drawn “boo-zaaa” that families recognised from their windows, and people would come down with a jug or lower a basket on a rope. Orhan Pamuk built his novel *A Strangeness in My Mind* around one of these sellers, and his pages catch the sound of that call echoing between the wooden houses. The street trade has thinned, but in some districts you can still hear the call on winter evenings, and for many Istanbullus it is the sound of childhood. ## When is the best time to drink boza? Boza is a winter drink. Its season runs from late autumn, usually around November, through to March, when the cold makes its thickness feel right. Some shops pour it all year, but it never tastes as fitting as it does on a dark, damp evening. A few practical notes: - Go in the late afternoon or evening, when the neighbourhood lights come on and the shop is at its liveliest. - Take the leblebi. They are part of the drink, not a side dish. - Combine it with a walk through Süleymaniye and down to Vefa, which our [half-day historic peninsula walk](/en/blog/historic-peninsula-walk/) sets up well. - Pair it with nothing sweet. The glass is already enough. If you have never tried a fermented drink before, give it two or three spoonfuls before deciding. The sourness that startles you on the first taste is usually the thing you miss once you have left Istanbul. ## From Vefa back up the hill After a glass of boza, the walk back up to Süleymaniye takes only a few minutes, and the evening does not need to end there. At **Moss Lounge the Bosphorus**, on Fetva Yokuşu, Adem Özen keeps the terrace open until 02:00, with the mosque silhouette on one side and the Golden Horn and Bosphorus on the other. He treats it as a home rather than a restaurant, so an evening of endless çay, nargile (the Turkish water pipe) or a signature dessert can stretch as long as you like. Reservations go through WhatsApp.