During her afternoon in Shutka, Abi wandered into a local sweets shop and saw a big pitcher of icy cold chocolate-colored liquid, that she initially thought was Ice Coffee. When she asked the person that worked there if it is indeed coffee, he said "No, no, no! Not coffee!". So she left the shop in somewhat of a shock and went on wandering around Shutka. Few hours later, she comes back home and in her stories about what she saw, she mentions this mysterious looking "Not Coffee!!" liquid. I laugh and in between laughing a funny thought goes through my mind: it's been almost a year of hosting couchsurfers and not one of them has ran into this before? How strange.

To those of you from foreign lands beyond the Balkans, the Not-Coffee drink is called Boza. When I try to explain to Abi what it is, I realize that I am failing miserably to even come close to explaining both the ingredients, the method of preparation or even the taste of it. I mean, it's Boza! (For some reason, in this part of the world, we have a saying that goes "Easy as Boza", but I really find nothing easy about it, least of all trying to explain its taste). The sterile and clinical explanation of it is that it's a fermented drink made typically from one or another type of flour/fermented wheat (depending on the country -it's a regional popular drink - in some countries millet or maize enters the equation as well). Due to the fermented ingredients, it has about 1% alcohol content. But beyond this boring explanation, I find the color and the taste of Boze the most intriguing aspects of it.

In Skopje, the most famous Boza place is Apche (literal translation: the Pill, because the guy who founded the store claimed that his Boza cures everything). We didn't feel like walking all the way to Apche to get Abi a cold glass of Boza, but we crossed the street in front of our building and went to a local sweets shop. Abi was all nerves; we had talked so much about it, trying to explain to her what it will taste like (me telling her that it will be bitter and acidic and Ivica claiming that it is very sweet) and when the 3 glasses of Boza finally appeared on the table, it was a very emotional moment.

Abi takes a sip of Boza. And then she takes another one. For about a few minutes the verdict is not out, and we're shaking with the anticipation of whether she'll like it or not (my guess is "No."). And finally, the decision is made: "It tastes like eating a cake, drinking a beer and having a lemon on the side." Hallelujah, I don't think anyone has ever managed to describe the Boza taste this accurately!

Of course, Abi fails to finish her glass ("It's just too weird") but we're happy to have discovered one more weird thing we can introduce our future adventurous guests to. Oh and for those of you that this weirdness is not enough for: read this - I have no idea if it's true but it's one more weird thing to add to the Boza folder.