No longer a monopoly, Turkey’s national drink is changing. Andrew Finkel takes us back to basics, to show how raki is traditionally enjoyed
The raki sofrasi (or “raki table”) is a deeply civilised and highly ritualised part of Turkish life, a moment of pleasure well up there with getting a hot towel at the barber shop or sipping a glass of tea on a spring day on a Bosphorus ferry. Is it possible a grey cloud will eclipse this pleasure? I ask this not because the raki sofrasi is in danger of disappearing, but because it risks becoming so very complicated.
For new readers: raki is the Turkish national tipple. It holds this title not because the population guzzles more of it than any other alcoholic drink. That distinction goes to beer, of which getting on for a billion litres per year slips down the country’s throats. Among women, raki comes in third, wine being their choice to accompany a meal. But just because more Americans go to the bowling alley than a stadium, doesn’t mean that baseball isn’t their national sport. As delightful as beer can be, it just doesn’t hold the same mystique as raki. This is the national Turkish drink because it is embedded in the culture, and because, like Château d’Yquem with foie gras or Dr Pepper with pulled BBQ pork, it goes with the food.
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