A national drink is a distinct beverage that is strongly associated with a particular country, and can be part of their national identity and self-image. National drinks fall into two categories: alcoholic and non-alcoholic. An alcoholic national drink is sometimes a liquor drunk straight/neat (e.g., vodka in Russia), but is most often a mixed drink (e.g., caipirinhas in Brazil and Singapore Slings in Singapore), beer, or wine. Non-alcoholic national drinks include Coca-Cola in the US, boba tea in Taiwan, Thai iced tea in Thailand, and many others.
A beverage can be considered a national drink for a variety of reasons:
In some cases, it may be impossible to settle on a national drink for a particular country. In the realm of food at least, it may be impossible to choose a single national dish, even unofficially, for countries such as Mexico, China, or India because of their diverse ethnic populations and cultures. At the other end of the spectrum, and now referring to drinks, sometimes different countries see the same beverage as their national drink (e.g., pisco sour in Peru and Chile).
The national drinks below are categorized within geo-political regions modified from the United Nations' five "regional groups". This list usually does not include moonshines or alcoholic beverages produced illicitly.[2]
The "beer belt" in Europe includes Belgium, Germany, the UK, and Ireland, whereas the "wine belt" includes the Mediterranean countries like Spain, Italy, and Greece. Several drinks are common and particular to Slavic countries. Vodka is a clear alcoholic beverage made most often by distilling the liquid from fermented cereal grains and potatoes. Countries where vodka is identified as a national beverage have been referred to as the "vodka belt". Kvass is a traditional fermented non-alcoholic beverage commonly made from rye bread and is drunk in many Slavic countries, as well as Latvia and Lithuania. Kompot is another drink that is traditionally popular throughout this region and made by boiling together different fruit including strawberries, apricots, peaches, apples, and raisins in large volume of water and served hot or cold, depending on tradition and season. Fruit brandies are popular in the Balkans, while Brännvin and Akvavit are popular in Scandinavia.
The Rum Swizzle is probably the most well known swizzled cocktail. It's the national drink of Bermuda and uses Bermuda Rum.
{{cite book}}
: |author=
has generic name (help)
{{cite book}}
: |author=
has generic name (help)
Surprisingly little is known for sure about the origin of Taiwan's national drink
It can almost be considered a national drink in Taiwan where it originated and took by storm in the 1980's
Milo Dinosaur's name appears to have originated in Singapore-based Indian-Muslim eateries during the mid-1990s. Labelling a turbo-charged version of ice Milo as Milo Dinosaur may have been a way to riff on Singapore's cinema culture, which during the 1990s was saturated with the exploits of giant reptiles in Jurassic Park and its sequels.
Turkey's national drink isn't just a beverage—it's an experience. A clear anise liquor that turns milky white with water and ice (sometimes referred to as "lion's milk")
Meet raki – otherwise known as Lion's Milk – the Turkish national drink made of twice-distilled grapes and aniseed.
That is what Turkey's often divisive prime minister did late on Friday when he pronounced that the national drink was not beer, nor the aniseed spirit raki – choice tipple of Turkey's founding father – but the non-alcoholic yoghurt drink ayran.
Ayran, which is also known as the non-alcoholic national drink of Turkey, is made of yogurt, water and salt.