What Is the National Drink in Turkey?

Ask ten Turks what the national drink is and you will likely start a friendly argument. There is no single official answer, but two contenders dominate every conversation: ayran, the cold salty yogurt drink, and rakı, the milky aniseed spirit. Ayran is the one the government has actually called “the national drink” out loud. Rakı is the one most people picture when they imagine a long Turkish dinner by the water. Both are correct, depending on who you ask and what you are doing that evening.

If you are planning a trip and want the short version: order an ayran with your kebab at lunch, and save rakı for a slow seafood dinner. Below is the longer, more honest answer, including how to drink each one properly so you do not look like a first-timer.

So what is the national drink in Turkey, officially?

Here is the part that surprises people. Back in 2013, then prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stood up at a health conference in Istanbul and called ayran “our national drink,” contrasting the humble yogurt drink with beer. That single sentence set off a genuine national debate. Tea drinkers objected, rakı fans rolled their eyes, and social media did what it does. But no law was ever passed crowning one official beverage, so to this day Turkey technically has no legally declared national drink.

What it does have is a clear cultural split. Ayran is the everyday, all-ages, alcohol-free champion. Rakı is the celebratory, grown-up, table-anchoring one. You will meet people who swear by each. My honest take after years of dinners here: ayran wins on sheer volume (it is everywhere, every day), but rakı wins on ceremony and meaning.

Ayran: the everyday national drink

Ayran is almost embarrassingly simple. It is yogurt, water, and a pinch of salt, whisked until frothy and served ice-cold. Some regions add a little dried mint. That is the whole recipe, and you can make it at home in about a minute.

What makes it special is how deeply it is woven into daily life. Kids grow up on it. It is the default drink with a doner or a lahmacun, because the cool, slightly sour tang cuts through rich, spicy, grilled meat better than any soda. On a hot İstanbul afternoon it genuinely rehydrates you in a way a cola never will.

You will see two main styles. The everyday version comes in a plastic cup or carton from any shop and supermarket fridge, costing very little (at the time of writing, around 15 to 25 lira for a small one). The good stuff is the foamy, churned ayran you get at a proper kebab house or at the roadside, often poured from a spinning copper machine that whips it into a thick head of foam. If you only try one, make it the foamy one. For the wider picture of what Turks sip all day, our roundup of Turkish drinks worth trying covers ayran alongside the rest.

A quick note on a common mix-up: ayran is salty, not sweet. If you want something sweet and yogurt-adjacent, that is a different world. Ayran’s whole point is that savory, cooling tang. It pairs beautifully with the spread on a proper Turkish breakfast table, too, though tea usually steals that slot.

Rakı: the spirit Turks call lion’s milk

Now for the other contender. Rakı is a clear, twice-distilled grape (or raisin) spirit flavored with aniseed, bottled at a minimum of 40 percent alcohol. Pour it neat and it looks like water. Add cold water and it turns cloudy, milky white in seconds, which is exactly why Turks nickname it aslan sütü, “lion’s milk.” That milky transformation is not a trick. The essential oils in the anise dissolve in alcohol but not in water, so when you dilute it the oils scatter into tiny droplets and the whole glass clouds over.

The name comes from the Arabic araq, meaning distilled, and rakı’s modern form took hold in the 19th century in the meyhanes (taverns) of Ottoman İstanbul. Back then the city was famously mixed, and these meyhanes became the social heart where Greeks, Armenians, Jews, and Turks gathered over small plates, live music, and long conversation. That spirit (pun intended) survives today. A rakı table is less about getting drunk and more about sitting for hours.

The dominant brand is Yeni Rakı, the one you will see on almost every meyhane table and the safe default to order. If you want to trade up, Tekirdağ Rakısı is the connoisseur’s pick, especially the oak-aged Gold Series, though it is pricier and harder to find by the glass.

How to drink rakı like a local

Get this right and any waiter in the country will smile at you.

• Use the tall, narrow glass (the kadeh). Pour the rakı first, roughly a third of the glass.
• Top it with cold water to taste, classically about one part rakı to one or one and a half parts water. Watch it cloud.
• Ice is optional and slightly debated. Many purists add water first, then a single cube, so the chill does not shock the anise oils.
• Sip slowly. Never shoot it. A rakı night is a marathon, not a sprint.
• Always, always eat with it. Rakı without meze is considered almost rude.

Speaking of meze, the food is half the ritual. A classic spread runs to white cheese and melon (the iconic pairing), grilled octopus, fried eggplant, stuffed vine leaves, and a fish course of sea bass or sardines to finish. If you want to build the perfect evening around it, our guide to Bosphorus restaurants with a view and the list of the best fish and meze restaurants in İstanbul will point you to the right tables.

One practical thing visitors ask: yes, you absolutely can drink it here. If you are unsure about the rules and where, we answer that plainly in can you drink alcohol in İstanbul.

The other drinks that almost made the list

Ayran and rakı get the crown, but Turkey’s drinking culture is wide, and a few others deserve a mention because you will be offered them constantly.

Turkish tea (çay) is, honestly, the real everyday king if we are counting cups consumed. It arrives in tulip-shaped glasses from morning to midnight and is the social glue of the entire country. Turkish coffee, thick and unfiltered, is the ceremonial one, served with a glass of water and often a piece of Turkish delight. It is so central that we wrote a whole guide on where to drink Turkish coffee in İstanbul.

Then come the seasonal and regional curiosities. Şalgam is a tangy, sour, fermented purple carrot juice, an acquired taste that locals adore alongside rakı in the south. Boza is a thick, mildly fermented millet drink sold in winter, dusted with cinnamon and roasted chickpeas. Both are worth one brave try.

So, which one should you call the national drink?

If you need a one-word answer for a quiz: ayran, because that is the title the government actually used. If you want the answer that captures Turkish life and hospitality at its warmest, it is rakı, the centerpiece of the long, loud, food-covered tables that define a proper evening here.

My advice for your trip is simple. Drink ayran in the daytime with grilled meat, the foamier the better. Save rakı for one unhurried seafood dinner, ideally somewhere you can watch the water. Do both and you will have tasted the two sides of Turkey in a glass. What is your own country’s national drink, and which of these two would you reach for first?