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Fermentation Atlas

Soft drinks from Turkey, Bulgaria, Albania, North Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Romania, Volga, Caucasus, Central Asia, North Africa

Bozaboza

thick, sweet-sour, low-alcohol (~1%) drink. Made in 3 steps over 25 h – 26 h. The longest step, ferment, takes 24 h (Hancıoğlu O 1997). Leuconostoc paramesenteroides and Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 hMeasured[hancioglu1997]Ferment
Temperature25–30 °CTypicalCool, sieve, sweeten; add starter (old boza)
AciditypH 6.1 → 3.5Measured[hancioglu1997]Ferment

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedWhat goes in. No source gives amounts for this ferment.
millet, bulgur or wheat, maize or rice flour
water
sugar
Starter: backslop

Total time across the recorded steps: 25 h – 26 h

Start
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What changes: Cereal cooks in water to a thick porridge

Step 1 of 3
Cook cereal flour or groats in water to a porridge
Time
1–2 h
Typical
Temperature
~100
Unconfirmed
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
L. paramesenteroides
L. sanfranciscensis
Saccharomyces uvarum
Lactobacillus plantarum
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: thick porridge.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
starch gelatinises
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

Variants

  • Bulgarian bozaoften wheat or millet, thinner, darker (verify)
  • Albanian bozamaize-based (verify)
  • Egyptian bouzaWheat bread loaves and malt; pH 3.9–4.0 and 3.8–4.2 % alcohol; see bouza-egypt.
  • Romanian bragamillet, sold by Roma/Albanian vendors (verify)
  • Białystok bozamillet groats with raisins, lemon, sugar

Safety

spoils fast without refrigeration; historically a winter drink

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Kashgari's Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk (1073) as buχsum; 'boza' attested by Abu Hayyan (14th c.); Ottoman bans; Vefa Bozacısı (1876).

  1. [wp-boza] Wikipedia, Boza (citing Zorba et al. 2003 Process Biochem; LeBlanc & Todorov 2011), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bozawiki
  2. [fao138-ch2] FAO 1999 ch.2 (bouza), https://www.fao.org/4/x2184E/x2184e07.htmgov
  3. [tamang2016] Tamang J.P., Watanabe K., Holzapfel W.H. 2016, Review: Diversity of microorganisms in global fermented foods and beverages, Frontiers in Microbiology 7:377paper
  4. [hancioglu1997] Hancıoğlu O., Karapınar M. 1997, microbiology of Turkish boza, International Journal of Food Microbiology 35:271–274paper
  5. [osimani2015] Osimani A. et al. 2015, study of Bulgarian commercial boza, International Journal of Food Microbiology 194:62–70paper