Boza and roasted chickpeas are the perfect couple… If you want to taste these two flavours at a historical place, you should visit Vefa Bozacısı – the capital of Boza!

Boza is the signature drink of the cold days in İstanbul!. Known for its vitamin B store and probiotic properties, boza dates back to 400 BC. Vefa Bozacısı and Vefa Leblebicisi (roasted chickpeas) are two historic shops established during 1870’s next to eachother at Vefa, Fatih district.

The Journey of Boza

Vefa Bozacısı, was founded by Hacı Sadık Bey in 1876. When Hacı Sadık Bey came to İstanbul from Prizren,Albania in 1870, he started to sell home-made boza to the palace in copper buckets that he was carrying on his shoulders on winter nights. He continued this for six years and in 1876 he opened the first official boza shop in the world Vefa Bozacısı in Vefa district, where aristocratic families and bureaucrats of the time lived. With this shop, Hacı Sadık Bey not only set a standard for boza culture, but also ensured that it became a profession and continued for generations.

148 Years of Flavour

There is a ritual here. First, you stop by Vefa Leblebicisi, you buy your freshly roasted hot chickpeas… Now you have to take a few steps to enter the historical Vefa Bozacası. Sit down on the first empty seat you find and enjoy the boza in a glass, chatting while you drink it. As you drink your boza, you can enjoy the colours and motifs of the historical tiles on the walls.

You may not notice as you enter the shop, but when you sit down, the old marble across the doorway will catch your eye. This is the glass of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk who had boza here at 6 p.m. on a Monday in 1937… Isn’t that impressive?

Enjoying Boza at Home

If the glass of boza you drink here is not enough, you can take the litres home with you. If you like, you can also buy their own brand of grape vinegar, must or lemon sauce. By the way, the joy of Vefa Bozacısı is unique on snowy winter days. You can enjoy the snow in this cosy place by looking out of the big round windows.

As I leave Vefa Bozacısı, I realise that drinking boza here was an experience that left a mark not only on my palate but also on my memory. Anyone who wants to discover the living history of İstanbul should visit Vefa Bozacısı. It preserves traditional flavours and brings the warmth of the past into the present.