About a year and a half ago, in my January 29, 2022 post about Arak Razzouk, I promised/threatened that more articles about anise-flavored boozes were imminent. And then I got distracted, or forget entirely about this, I guess. Anyway, here we go. Today we'll be talking about yeni raki, from the Mey company, or to use their full title, Mey Alkollu Ickiler San VE TIC. A.S.
The history of this drink, raki, is a bit cloudy. One website claims that the first reference to it was a 1630 travelogue by the Ottoman Empire explorer Evliya Celebi. Another source maintains that it's older, saying that in 1326 the second Ottoman sultan Orhan Ghazi gave raki as a gift to Geyikli Baba and his dervish helpers for helping conquer Bursa. Whenever the true origin is, raki became much more popular in the 1800's. At this point it was made privately, in Turkish homes. However, after the modern Republic of Turkey was created in the 20th century, raki began to be made in government operated factories, starting in 1944. Then, in 2001 the production of raki was privatized, and so more companies began making it. The Mey company is still arguably the most popular producer of raki, aided by it getting the production rights from the previous Tekel government factory.
But what is raki, precisely? First of, the name itself is also convoluted. Some think that it derives from the Arabic word for sweat ("arak"), as the distilling process was thought by many to resemble sweating. Others claim that the name comes from the type of grape used as its base, razaki. Be that as it may, raki is the national drink of Turkey. Its creation is fairly strict. First, grapes, or sometimes raisins, are fermented into wine. Then this wine is distilled, into a powerful (over 90% alcoholic content) alcohol called suma. Water and then anise are added to the suma, and the combination is distilled a second time, usually in copper containers. Thus making raki. (Just to add to the confusion, the folks in Crete make a liquor also called "raki," but this one is completely different, as it's a brandy that doesn't use anise as a flavoring agent.) Aside from Turkey, people in neighboring Balkan nations and Kazakhstan also make and enjoy raki.
The company that I'll refer to as Mey for brevity's sake makes gin, liqueur, raki, vodka, and wine. They also import other kinds of wine, gin, liqueur, whiskey, vodka, and tequila. There are several different kinds of raki, too, all with descriptive names before "raki." "Yeni" means "new" in Turkish, and that's the sort I tried. Kulup means "club," civan means "around," tayfa means "crew," and vefa means "fidelity." I couldn't find translations of "tekirdag," "izmir," or "altinbas," so perhaps these are place names, or maybe people's names. Finally, the current head of the Mey business is general manager Levent Komur, and since 2011 Mey is a subsidiary of the giant Diageo company, which also owns the famous liquor brands Guinness, Tanqueray, Baileys, Smirnoff, Captain Morgan, J&B, and others.
Mey yeni raki: Had a clear color, and an anise-y odor. Pleasant taste. As with other anise drinks, some folks drink it with water, and/or ice, which cause a milky color called a louche. I had mine plain, as a shot. Much better than aguardiente, better than Sambuca, but not as great as Arak Razzouk, to compare it to other anise-flavored liquors. So a very good anise bite to it, and a significantly better than average alcoholic drink. If you like anise flavors in general, and also enjoy anise-flavored boozes I would recommend it highly. But it is quite powerful--mine was 45% alcohol, or 90 proof. So bear that in mind, and be careful.
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