Tens of thousands of coffee lovers flock to festival in Istanbul

ISTANBUL

Tens of thousands of coffee lovers flocked to the Istanbul Coffee Festival held between Sept. 21 and 24 to sip on different kinds of coffees from all around the world. 

The 4th Istanbul Coffee Festival was held at Küçükçiftlikpark in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district, featuring workshops and seminars related to coffee, live performances and talks with coffee experts and the world’s leading baristas. 



Cookies and chocolate stands were also put up in the festival area, as well-known music bands and musicians took the stage to energize the coffee lovers. 

Most festivalgoers stayed loyal to the traditional Turkish coffee among a rich variety of coffees from all across the world.  

When asked why Turkish people did not give up on drinking Turkish coffee, Serkan Aksırt, the franchiser of the coffee brand Dimello, said the coffee culture was newly making its way into Turkey. 

“Before I established this business, I did a lot of research about coffee consumption habits all over the world. When I told people about iced coffee in Turkey, they said cold coffee would not be consumed in the country. But I see now that Turkish people have started drinking cold coffee in the recent years. These kinds of habits can change in time,” he said. 



Aziz Kaya, the general manager of Secco, another Turkish coffee brand, stressed that Turkish people’s taste started to change as they began getting to know the coffee culture better. 

“The type of coffee, water temperature, even the leaching process can change the taste of the coffee.

When people tasted our coffee, they said it was sour. But actually they tasted berry and cherry flavors in the coffee. But recently people became more aware about coffees. With this, their tastes began to improve,” he said.
Kaya said the festival contributed to the promotion of coffee culture in Turkey.