Kar Şerbeti – Turkey’s Perfect Hot Weather Refreshment

There is nothing better than seeing one of these signs in the Fethiye hot, summer months of July, August and September. When the weather is like this and you are dragging your weary body around the Tuesday market in Fethiye, the Kar Şerbeti sign is very welcome – think sighting of an oasis in the desert.

‘Kar‘ means ‘snow’ and ‘şerbet‘ means, well, ‘sherbet.’ Kar şerbeti is actually a handmade slush and on Tuesday, when we sat down to have one at the market, it was money well spent. Fruity ice on a roasting hot day; no comparison.

The three plastic bottles in the photo contain the fruit juices for the kar şerbeti. This particular stall has a choice of cherry, lemon and pekmez. Pekmez is the syrup of boiled down fruits with probably the most common fruit being grapes. This stall sells the grape pekmez.

No Slush Puppy machinery for a kar şerbeti. No, no, no, no. The big sack on the left hand side of the photograph is encasing a huge block of ice. When someone orders a kar şerbeti, a chunk of ice is chiselled off, placed in the metal bowl (like a pestle and mortar) and the lady expertly grinds it until it resembles slush.

The crushed ice is tipped into glasses, a glug of your chosen juice poured over the top and your kar şerbeti is served to you with a plastic spoon.

And why is this superior to slush made in a machine? Well it just tastes home made. You get some little chunks of ice as well as your slush and you get some bits that are more fruity than others. And if you’re reading this, sitting in a hot country, well, how good do those kar şerbetleri look right now?