The drink Boza.
Boza is a strange fermented wheat drink that you can find in almost every grocery store. Very often you can also find it in Bantitsa shops. I tried it once in August. I didn’t love it. Actually I thought: holy smokes, people actually drink this stuff!?!
But my cousin is here visiting me and I am trying to give her a Bulgarian experience so I bought a bottle of it. Thus far, we’ve had shopska salad, shepard’s salad, kebapche and kyufte, bantitsa, street pizza, frech fries with sirene cheese, and snezanka salad. Today, I made her drink boza.
The thing about this drink is that it’s slightly fermented and made out of wheat. It’s not alcoholic but it is really, really thick. Texture-wise, it’s kind of like drinking a yogurt smoothy in the States. The flavor however is uncompareable.
What makes this drink kind of strange is the conistency, the flavor and the color. I guess the people could say the same thing about egg nog. But just to be clear this drink does not taste anything like egg nog. However, maybe a big spash of whisky would make the Boza more palitable.
The best part of this experience is this:
My cousin trying Boza for the first time!
This is her Boza-Face. I couldn’t help but laughing and laughing. Lucky for me she’s a good sport and is up for trying anything. She didn’t finish her Boza but then again, neither did I. I have a hunch that she’s not going to take up Boza drinking.
After lunch, I did something I hate. I threw out the nearly full bottle. I bought the 1 liter bottle two days ago for .55 leva. This is next to nothing but I still hate not finishing things. Only I knew that I would never finish this bottle. Sorry Boza.
Why is no one commenting on our awesome adventures!!?
And for the record: it tastes exactly like dishwater, if dishwater came in yogurt smoothie form. GROSS!
FYI, boza uses aspartame these days, so I would strongly recommend against drinking it.
Carolyn,
I concur. Boza is NOT good at all. Maybe it takes years and years to get over the wretched smell, taste, and texture. I have no idea why people like this other than it’s very cheap and can fill your stomach for a long time. Yuck.
Okay, so how is it really different from that Russian drink you made us drink — Kvass? — when we visited Russia?
Oh, and there are no comments from me about your adventures because I didn’t check the blog. Somehow I didn’t think Carolyn had time to make posts considering what I figured the two of you were out doing. I’ve been checking Twitter and the photo link you sent and that has given me some idea of how busy you are.
Been thinking of you both having fun. Wish I could be a little mouse in the corner.
@Aunt Ruth– We’ve been having a wonderful time in Sofia. It’s been a good mix of sightseeing, tourism, shopping and eating but we’ve also had to do some work. Me: planning classes and B: doing some translating. So I’ve had a little bit of time here and there to write on the blog and we’ve done some things that are just to great not to write up!!
Boza…*shudder*. It tastes like fake sugar foremost. Then thick sludgy unpleasant boza taste that is yes, indescribable.
Supposedly, back in the past it was made fresh daily and could be procured at various cafes and other restaurants. My husband says the bottled kind they have now is nothing like fresh boza. There are recipes online to make it at home, though I think they would make the average American think twice about trying to make it.
http://www.omda.bg/engl/cook/boza.htm There’s one that is less icky sounding than some others I’ve found.
Make sure she gets tikvenik banitsa, meatball soup, shipka marmalad, nucrema (which kicks nutella’s butt), halva, turkish delight, local wine and rakia.
the boza i used to drink years ago was far better tasting…it used to come fresh in glass bottles and nothing could take the place of the famous pair banitsa boza but nowadays i agree with you that the taste of boza is revolting…especially the aftertaste!
…I was talking about Bulgarian Boza. As you may have noticed most of the food and drink in Bulgaria are actually Turkish or Greek in origin but mostly Turkish, dating back to Ottoman times. It is known that in 1600s there were more than 300 boza shops in Istanbul where 1100 bozacı used to work.(http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dosya:Turkish_bragagiu,_1880.jpg) In those times boza was sold on the streets by streetsellers called “Bozacı” calling, “Boooozaaaaaaa….Boooozaaaaaaaa” till the very late hours of the day. Still sometimes on special days you can hear them selling boza in this traditional way.
Here in Turkey boza is lighter in colour and it is not as tick as the one made in Bulgaria and it is seasoned and served with cinnamon and roasted chickpeas (I haven’t tried that one — if only i liked cinnamon!) Surely, It is a winter drink. One that is sold in supermarkets nowadays can stay fresh up to 25 days in +8C degrees. Fresh? How fresh?
http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dosya:Boza.jpg
http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/4940/bozabozaaaaaaef6.jpg
Here, one of the traditional Boza Shops in Istanbul:
Vefa Bozacısı
http://site.mynet.com/vefasemti/boza2.jpg
I talked a lot. I’m sorry.
Great pictures of Boza and Boza consumer. I think I will not have any thank you.
Love you despite your eating habits of late.
Hi,
Peanut Butter – I guess I never got “The GOOD ONE”
accidentally got here but felt obliged to defend my Boza:D (that equals lol).
Sometimes people consider their taste and customs the best and only correct thing. Completely wrong road to walk.
First time I was in US i tried few of the most weird tastes in my life:
1) American style “Pickles” – WTF?!?!
2) “Patty’s” – the ones in the burgers!!!??? Some grease with seasonings.
3) “BBQ Sauce” – don’t want even to comment it;
4) “Root beer”
5) “Corn Dog” (almost as awful as the HotDog but on a stick and deeply fried)
6) “Gumbo Soup” – it is shame to call that a meal
7) “Honey Mustard” – you have to choose one – the Honey or the Mustard
The list continues and never ends.
But after time (for some more for some less) I got used to it. Because that is that country’s way of life and if i’m there I adapt to it.
I’ve been traveling around, Spain, Egypt, France, US and on… Everywhere there is something different.
Just don’t deny it. If you don’t like it get something else.
@Mom: No, it’s nothing like kvas, because kvas is good.
Hey you guys, I don’t want any of the boza either. Don’t even think of bringing it back to Walla walla
Doug
Boza is awesome
Especially with banica. It’s a classic!:) You must have gotten some bad boza.. but yeah, it’s not for everyone. And the taste has changed a lot since now they add preservatives and other artificial stuff to it. Back in the days the bakery where my grandpa used to get me breakfast made their own boza and it was amazing.
Jeesus!
You should never drink commercial boza! It’s made from rotten pastries and other rubbish.
Find some recipes and make your own.
@A don’t worry we were unable to drink the stuff. I’ve never been able to drink more than a sip. It’s something about the texture, smell and consistency. But is it really that much better if you make it yourself?
Hmmm I liked boza, but nowadays they make it different from this we were drinking some years ago. It was sweaty and tasty, and the consistency was better – more liquid, but this was long ago.
)
Did u tried the classics – banichka s boza (or banitza with boza
Dear Karolinka,
I really regret that nowadays I can’t find the real fresh Boza in shops. In my childhood we used to drink litres and litres of Boza on my birthday party for example.
The original Boza is not prepared from wheat, but from millet. To get the real taste after preparation it was left digged in the ground in a water-skin for 12 days to ferment properly (the ground keeps the temperature constant during the fermentation). The advantage was the taste. The disadvantage – it lasts only for a day or two after you take it out from the ground. Because it’s made with sugar, the fermentation continues converting the sweet drink in a sour alcoholic drink, which can reach up to 12 alcoholic degrees and is really hard to swallow.
The nowadays Boza has nothing to do with that. You’d be lucky if your bottle of Boza is prepared by wheat (like it’s written on the bottle). Mostly it contains wafers, sweets and other products not sold on time in the shops. Furthermore, to avoid later fermentation, instead of sugar they use aspartame (as you already know from previous posts).
The most notorious region in Bulgaria for the production of Boza was Radomir. It’s a village nearby Sofia, where it was a family business and a well preserved tradition. Nowadays it’s hard to find someone producing the real Boza.
Some advises to recognize real Boza:
1. The real Boza is not suitable for consumption more than 3 days after it was produced.
2. The real Boza is not so dense, like the one I saw in the pictire
3. The real boza is not prepared from wheat.
If you have the luck to find the real Boza, please give it a try. I’m sure you’ll find the difference. Like you’ve said in other posts, most probably it would be prepared at home by someone. You have the right to like it or not. But at least you will know that you have tasted Boza!!!
))
Good luck.
P.S. The same chain of thoughts is valid for the Bulgarian “Kiselo mljako”. Someone call it Yoghurt. If you haven’t had the chance to taste a home made kiselo mljako, it means you haven’t tasted kiselo mljako. But that’s another topic.
))
Well, it’s quite normal not to like Boza. Even as a Bulgarian, I don’t like it too. Maybe the older generations got used to it,but nowadays the young people don’t drink it too much.
P.S. I have never seen a westerner to like Boza. Never ever. And it’s normal I believe.
We cannot all like the same things. I like boza. I don’t drink it often, since they put aspartame and preservatives in it, but every once a month I drink a bottle. And I like it.
The trick is to buy a boza from a producer you trust. Otherwise, the risk to throw the bottle is big-the variety in the quality is immense. It’s not so much about the consistency (or the color-I mean what do you think a coke looks like before adding all kind of chemistry in it?). It’s about the taste-not all the drinks have the same taste.
And the boza is very economic way to get lunch
I drank a small bottle and I was full for 4 hours 
P.S. to the nice person who claimed that most of the Bulgarian meals come from Turkey and Greece-dude, 1.5 century ago, we were all part of the same empire. There was no Greece, no Turkey and no Bulgaria back then. It’s hard not to share meals when you shared everything else!
Hey Carolyn,
))) I just hope it’ll be the same as the one from Bulgaria.
like some of the readers of your blog, I accidentally found it. I am a Bulgarian living in Connecticut for nearly 5 years and most likely staying here since my husband is American plus we just bought a house in CT. So, here I am missing the ‘boza’ drink and thinking how to explain ‘boza’ to my friends from work… I googled ‘bulgarian boza’ and your article was the 4th choice (which should tell that you did a really nice job with this). Of course I read it and curiously looked at your blog. Well, just realized I spend about 2 and half hours reading (it’s 3am) and looking at your photos. Your stories are very interesting; I truly enjoyed them. Moreover, part of this reminded me of my own experience, when I went back to Bulgaria last summer. Keep on doing the good job and enjoy the summer!
Since there is no place I can buy boza from here, I might try to make it.
Best of luck,
Maggie