Meet Gizem Salcigil White, aka the Turkish Coffee Lady! She is the Founder & CEO of Turkish Coffee Lady, the first and only authentic Turkish coffee brand in the U.S., dedicated to building a global community of coffee explorers and empowering women. With a brick-and-mortar coffee house in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, Gizem has created a space to share 500 years of Turkish coffee traditions—offering delicious coffee, cultural connection, and community.
Her journey began over fifteen years ago with a coffee truck and a mission to “bridge cultures over coffee conversations.” After studying Global Marketing Communications at Emerson University, she realized many people were unfamiliar with Turkish coffee culture. She started organizing social coffee events, which evolved into a “digital coffee house” with fellow entrepreneurs. While working at the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C., she expanded her events into pop-ups, eventually launching her own coffee truck first at GWU and then around the world.
Gizem shares the history of Turkish coffee—how it’s made, served, read (yes, read!), and enjoyed. In an era of to-go cups and laptop work sessions, she encourages guests to slow down, savor their coffee, and connect with one another. She also champions the concept of Culinary Diplomacy—bringing communities together over food and drink.
Despite facing personal challenges, including the pandemic, Gizem remained resilient, diving back into her business with renewed purpose. She founded The Turkish Coffee Lady Foundation, dedicated to community engagement, and has since launched her own coffee blend, opened her dream coffee shop, and continues to empower women to start their own businesses.
We know you’ll want to immediately go brew a cup after listening to this episode, or better yet, if you’re in the Alexandria area, stop by the Turkish Coffee Lady on King Street, where you will feel as though you’ve been transported to Turkey.
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Listen to the podcast here
Brewing Connections: How Gizem Salcigil White Is Bringing Turkish Coffee Culture To The World
In this episode, we have Gizem Salcigil White, also known as the Turkish Coffee Lady. She’s a Turkish American Entrepreneur with a unique mission to create a global community of explorers and coffee lovers. Gizem has been a Goodwill Ambassador for Turkish coffee culture since 2009. She’s the Founder of the award-winning nonprofit Turkish Coffee Truck Initiative.
She’s been working voluntarily to promote Turkish coffee culture in the US and abroad. Through her nonprofit project, more than 30,000 people in the US, Europe, and Canada were exposed to Turkish coffee for the first time. Gizem’s one-of-a-kind cultural diplomacy project made the headlines of major international publications, including The Washington Post and BBC. Her fans started calling her the Turkish Coffee Lady.
In 2012, she was honored by the US Congress for fostering friendship between the Turkish and American people through coffee conversations. In 2017, she founded Turkish Coffee Lady, a woman-owned authentic gourmet coffee business dedicated to bridging cultures one coffee at a time. In March 2020, she established the world’s first coffee diplomacy association, the Turkish Coffee Lady Foundation, which is also committed to inspiring women entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams.
She started Coffee Sayer, a platform that blends the rich tradition of Turkish coffee rituals with modern wellness practices. This particular platform offers personalized AI-powered coffee readings, daily affirmations, and a community of like-minded individuals. Her small business was selected as the success story of 2022 by the Small Business Development Center of Virginia. She was also named one of the Most Inspiring Women of 2023 by the VIP Alexandria Magazine. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with her husband and daughter.
Most people would know you as the Turkish Coffee Lady. I know my neighbors here in Old Town Alexandria would know you and your shop. As it happens, this is how the two of us connected, over a cup of coffee. I grew up with Turkish coffee. That’s what I remember my grandmother making every morning and bringing me in. We would have our little ritual together.
It gave me great joy to know that your shop is there in Old Town. You bring that same warmth, kindness, and joy that I have felt around our cultures over the years. Welcome. Bonnie and I are very excited that you’re here to share a little bit about your story. Maybe we can start with you telling us a little bit about what brought you and coffee together.
The Journey To Becoming The Turkish Coffee Lady
Thank you so much for your kind words. It’s such an honor to be here with you. My story started years ago when I decided to travel the world with my coffee truck to bridge cultures over coffee conversations. I was a student in Boston, studying at Emerson College, Global Marketing Communications. I realized during my time there that people didn’t know about my country and were not familiar with Turkish culture. Americans loved their morning coffee. We have this incredible 500-year-old coffee culture. I thought that would be a great way to get to know each other better.
I started organizing social coffee events. It was going well and I decided to build a digital coffee house to bring more people into the conversation. I launched that with a couple of fellow entrepreneurs back in 2009. We started building a community where people could post pictures, videos, and articles about Turkish culture or their experience in Istanbul or other Turkish cities. This was the time when Facebook and Twitter were becoming trendy. We had great interest but I also realized we needed to drink the coffee together. We cannot just do it virtually.
When I moved to DC with my husband back in 2008, I was working at the Turkish embassy in the media department. I asked the Turkish ambassador if we could have events at the embassy building. He was very supportive. The first event was so successful that we had a big RSVP list and a waiting list. People were so curious about Turkish coffee culture. I did the same event in New York right after.
People were like, “Where can we find Turkish coffee? We couldn’t find it in coffee shops, restaurants, hotels, or airports.” I thought, “I have to think about a bigger project.” That’s how I came up with the Turkish Coffee Truck Initiative, which is a nonprofit volunteer-led project that started in 2012 at the George Washington University campus. My first stop was in front of Starbucks.
I know very well that Starbucks on H Street.
That corner was a big milestone for us. Students loved the experience and the idea of sharing a cup of coffee and learning more about Turkish culture, Turkish delights, and some fortune reading. It was a great day. I thought I should travel because I have wheels with the truck to go to other cities. I started traveling around the East Coast. I went to Baltimore, New York, Yale University, and Harvard University in Boston. That tour was a big success. After that, the BBC and the Washington Post started covering the story. That’s how I was named the Turkish Coffee Lady.
You’re the traveling cultural ambassador for Turkey here.
Thank you. Even beyond, I went to Europe. A year later, I traveled to the Netherlands, Belgium, and France with my truck. That was also another big success because the project was viral. People were coming and finding the truck. They were following our schedule. We had a great team and wonderful volunteers. They were keeping people happy with foamy, delicious coffee. We went to festivals, conferences, and downtown areas.
Back in 2016, I had another one in Toronto, Canada. We had another tour there. I was pregnant at that time, five months old. I realized I needed to do this professionally. I was just doing that on the side as a volunteer because I was about to become a mother. I wanted to bring something for my daughter and build something for her. I started my small business right after that tour. Here we are. It’s been growing since then.
Turkish Coffee: A 500-Year-Old Tradition
Give us a taste, and I use that word very specifically. What would we experience? Tell us about the ritual. What kind of smells and flavors? What does it entail?
That will be my pleasure. Turkish coffee is a 500-year-old coffee culture and it is the world’s first coffee brewing technique. If you go back to the 10th century, the first coffee beans were discovered in Ethiopia. Those coffee beans were brought to the Arabian Peninsula. A merchant from the Ottoman Empire, Özdemir Pasha, brought those coffee beans to Istanbul, to the palace. It was not just like a brewing technique at that time so they were either eating the coffee plants or boiling the coffee beans.
Turkish coffee is a 500-year-old coffee culture and it is the world’s first coffee brewing technique.
Turks were the first ones to roast the coffee beans and grind them. We created a pot called cezve and that is the mother of coffee. All the coffee brewing techniques are coming from that innovation. Another fun fact, the very first coffee house in history was also opened in Istanbul in 1554. Merchants, tradesmen, and ambassadors introduced that coffee culture to Europeans in the 17th century. People always associate Paris with coffee culture, but right after, a century later, the first coffee house was opened in Paris.
There’s an incredible story behind it. It’s not just a caffeine rush or a to-go kind of coffee. This is culture. It’s also very fun because there’s this fortune-reading aspect. What you do is drink your coffee and set your intention. When you’re drinking your coffee, the coffee grinds are settling to the bottom. You drink one last sip and make a wish. You put the coffee on the saucer, twirl it three times, flip it, and let it sit for five minutes. The coffee grinds create shapes and patterns inside. The readers can interpret them and see your future in the cup. It’s a whole process.
I’m just curious. When did you have your first coffee experience? That’s what’s coming for me.
Turkish coffee is unfiltered. It was very finely ground, even finer than espresso. In our culture, you can have this coffee with milk as a child. It’s a very healthy drink. It’s an immune booster and antioxidant. I was drinking milky Turkish coffee when I was a kid, especially at my grandmother’s house. She had this wonderful friend who was an artist. God bless her soul. She was reading the coffee grinds for her. That’s why I was fascinated by this culture.
It was my grandmother and then I had an aunt who would always read. She and I would always spend time together. I would go and say, “Let’s go have a little coffee.” That’s for Albanians. We, too, use the cezve. For us, things have changed, but when we ever said, “Let’s go have a coffee,” it was always Turkish coffee. That’s what we call coffee. Later on, after the ‘90s, we started getting espressos and other kinds of coffee but that was what was called the coffee.
That’s incredible. It also symbolizes hospitality, peace, and friendship. It’s more than a drink. It’s a lifestyle. People come around these coffee rituals. It binds friendships. That’s why we say a cup of coffee is appreciated for 40 years because it means you’re sharing a cup together. That’s hopefully a long-lasting friendship.
That’s what stuck out to me when you were saying it’s not about a to-go cup. That’s so needed and interesting for modern culture, where everything needs to be multitasked, like movement and coffee. Everything is so sped up. What you’re talking about is the beauty of a slowed-down shared moment. I love that.
Brewing Turkish coffee teaches you patience. It’s a whole ritual. First, you put the pot or cezve on the stove and then add some coffee grinds, some water, and if you like, some sugar. You stir the mixture. That slow cooking method teaches you patience. You already feel the smell and fragrance that is waking you up. It’s a whole cultural experience. Americans love their morning coffee.
It’s incredible to find out that 100 million cups are being consumed every single day in this country. It’s growing. The industry is booming. People are willing to spend money on their daily coffee cups. They’re exploring new coffee cultures, especially after the pandemic. People are trying to learn more about the story behind it, if it’s health-conscious coffee or empowering small businesses. All these things are evolving.
The Turkish Coffee Shop: A Cultural Experience
Gizem, listening to some of these evolutions, how is your business, work, and story transforming along? What are some of the things you’re doing?
I always say I’m not a business. This is a mission. I never thought I would be a business owner. To be honest with you, I was always in the corporate world. I worked for Turkish Airlines, the World Bank, the Turkish embassy, and Turkish banks. I was so devoted and dedicated to bridging cultures over coffee conversations and spreading love for my cultural heritage that I understood the fact that you need to make this sustainable. That’s why I wanted to create a sustainable business, first of all.
I always call my little shop a coffeehouse. It is a Turkish coffee and culture house. It’s not just a regular coffee shop where you bring your laptop, isolate yourself, and do not socialize at all. It is exactly the opposite. We want people to connect, reflect, and get exposed to a new culture, music, arts, and all these incredible things that are out there for us, but we don’t realize them because we’re so busy with our daily routines. There’s this incredible world out there.
If you’re not able to go to Istanbul the next day, you can have a quick trip to different Turkish cities in our shop. We play a documentary all day long. We bring you the cuisine and the culinary arts. We have an incredible artist in-house who does coffee readings. He paints with coffee. He can also paint on tiny objects like coffee beans, watermelon seeds, or rice grains, you name it. It’s an incredible world you’re getting into.
It’s a little break from your busy routine or maybe a self-care moment, I would say. People like the positive vibes in the shop. They usually leave with new friends. They want to relax and take a break from everything. I appreciate the feedback. They say, “You’ve built an incredible place here. We want to bring friends and family. We feel comfortable here.” I’m grateful for all that.
You do feel held. I’ve been there several times and that’s part of the experience you’re talking about, hospitality and culture, taking care. I always leave with, in addition to coffee, an extra tea that comes to me. “Here’s tea on us.” It’s part of the care and fostering of the experience you’re speaking to.
I always feel like, especially after the pandemic, things are very different. People don’t experience that hospitality everywhere. They don’t feel welcomed sometimes. Our customers are very loyal because they say, “We feel good here. We know that we’re going to get good care, good service, nice conversation, good coffee, and good food.” People need that emotional support, especially when things are uncertain. The world is changing so quickly. You feel overwhelmed. You feel like some things are out of your control. We need each other.
We need community. Three things are coming to me here. It’s how much we need community and ritual because it marks certain moments and brings us to a higher experience than the quotidian. We also need to engage our senses. I’m sitting I don’t know how many miles away from you, but I can smell the brewing of Turkish coffee. I’ve salivated. I’ve licked my lips a couple of times thinking about the cuisine you serve. It’s a beautiful way to bring people back into their bodies and back into the heart space. You have another new venture along those lines. You mentioned self-care earlier. Would you like to talk about that?
Gastrodiplomacy And AI-Powered Coffee Therapy
Let me explain a little bit about culinary diplomacy, which I’ve been pursuing for all these years. I learned about this field when I was getting my Master’s degree from Emerson College. It’s so fascinating how cuisines bring people together over centuries. People sit at the same table. Even though they have differences, have different agendas, or maybe even religious preferences, people communicate through food and understand each other.
I call myself a gastro diplomat because the Turkish coffee truck journey symbolizes the diplomatic efforts of bringing different communities and societies together. It doesn’t have to be coffee. It can be tea. We love our Turkish tea and Turkish cuisine. I see that in other cultures as well. We should focus on gastro-diplomacy efforts when bridging cultures. I know the US has incredible diplomats working on this.
During all these years, I realized people were lonely. They wanted to talk to someone. It wasn’t easy because of all these issues going on around us. Life is already very challenging. It’s getting harder every day. This can be the economy, another family issue, or a career issue. You feel so overwhelmed during the day that I feel like I need to do something about it.
When I was working in my coffee shop, this blogger came. She wanted to experience the culture. This coffee shop was open after the pandemic. People were saying, “You’re so brave. How can you open a coffee shop? People are still isolating.” There are so many other coffee shops around you. I said, “This is not a coffee shop. This is where people feel good and motivated. They feel like they’re not alone.” That’s how we’re going strong still.
This blogger experienced the culture, had some Turkish delights and Turkish food, tried the coffee on the sand experience, and then our coffee psychic read her fortune. She posted that video a couple of weeks later and it went viral on TikTok, the power of social media. One day, my phone wouldn’t stop ringing. I was like, “What’s happening?” People were saying, “I need a cuff reading. I need my fortune read.” I was like, “Let’s see how we can handle all these appointments.”
It was incredible to listen to everyone’s story. I realized this was a problem. People are losing hope. They need help. Therapies are so expensive. People are having a hard time sharing their personal matters. I felt like maybe coffee could help. With this whole AI revolution, I thought it could be a gateway to engage more people. Maybe help with their challenges somehow, make them feel braver or bolder in making decisions, and maybe less depressed. This project, Coffee Sayer, was born.
We have an incredible artist and a coffee psychic in the house. He started painting some avatars. This person is going to be the coffee counselor or coffee advisor. We were exchanging some ideas. I got accepted to Founder Institute, where they nurture entrepreneurs and their technological business models. I came up with this idea and they said, “Let’s do it.” We built this business model and branding. The mission got so much stronger. It wasn’t just an idea or an in-person reading therapy. It was this whole virtual coffee therapy.
It launched officially. I’m so excited. It’s called Coffee Sayer AI. We would like to engage especially women because women are the demographic group most impacted by the COVID-19 health crisis. We had to, probably most of us, take care of our kids, quit our jobs, and shut down our businesses for so long that some people unfortunately lost their purpose. They’re questioning their purpose in life. That’s why we’re targeting women especially and trying to empower them through spiritual readings, AI-powered daily insights, and a supportive community.
The Turkish Coffee Lady Foundation: Empowering Women Entrepreneurs
You’re like a guiding light opening up. I feel like the shop is a grounding space, but there are all these other weaving spaces that open people up. This is fantastic. The other thing that came to me because you’re talking about the spiritual readings, guidance, and the importance of hope but I know that you’ve had your journey of growth, development, and healing through this process. Do you want to say a little bit about that?
If you want me to, I’m happy to share my personal challenges. First of all, it wasn’t easy to become a female entrepreneur. I first opened my shop in 2017 after the coffee tractors. People were saying, “You did good because coffee was free. People love free complimentary things but are you going to sell?” “I don’t know.” I didn’t have much support. People didn’t think it would work.
When I opened my first shop in Tysons Corner Center in December 2017, it was an instant success. Right before the holidays, people were so excited to try something new and different. We had lines almost all day. I was so happy because I had my daughter at that time. I was like, “Baby, we’re doing this. This is going well.” I was delighted to see the community’s response.
After a month, I was getting my regular checkups and was told that I had breast cancer right after opening. My world was upside down. My heart sank. I have a new business and a newborn. I’m so young. How could this happen? I started questioning how I could overcome this challenge or this big test in my life. I started seeing doctors, but I wasn’t getting good guidance. They said I had to start chemotherapy next week.
It was impossible. I can’t start that soon because I have a shop and a daughter. Who’s going to take care of me? I didn’t even know what chemotherapy was. It was a very difficult time for me and my family but I was lucky that my family asked me to come to Turkey. I had my treatments there. I had to leave my new shop for six months. My team was able to keep it up and running. I was getting six months of chemotherapy and then another couple of surgeries because they had to remove the organ. Also, all these difficult processes of trying to recover from all those drugs and surgeries.
I came back to the United States. I started my radiotherapy. That was also another challenge because I wasn’t able to concentrate. I was in so much pain. The radiation burns your body. It was a long recovery. Anyhow, I survived after all those treatments. I was like, “Let’s do this. I’m fired up. Let’s get back to business.” The pandemic happened. I was like, “Another big test.” I had to close down my shop. I didn’t have a choice. Unfortunately, my lease was up also. I had to make a decision. “The shop is gone. What do I do?”
I realized this was a mission. This isn’t just one location that we lost, but we have to keep going. I started a foundation. It’s called the Turkish Coffee Lady Foundation. It’s a 501(c)(3). Since the opening, we have done a lot of community engagement. We got proclamations from mayors, like DC mayor, New York, Michigan, Florida, and all these big states. We were able to increase awareness of Turkish coffee culture, World Turkish Coffee Day. I was still doing the coffee tractors. I started my own coffee blends, selling them online. In the meantime, I was also trying to empower women through some mentoring programs, online and offline.
While busy with these projects, I got a grant from the US government. They asked me to open the shop again. They said, “You have this grant, so you have to start a new business.” I feel so grateful because that Old Town shop is my dream shop. When my real estate agent friend said, “You have to come and see this. It’s in Old Town on King Street,” I said, “Impossible. How can I afford King Street? I live five minutes away. I know how expensive it is.” She said, “You have to come and see.”
I fell in love with it. We signed the lease right after. It’s been going strong. I started franchising. I have another shop in North Carolina and it’s going well. We’re growing surely, but slowly. I’m so grateful to be healthy, my daughter is healthy, and my business is healthy. I want to pass on that know-how and all these experiences to other women entrepreneurs so they can also pursue their dreams.
To stay healthy is what feels like the core. Honor your health and stay healthy. It sounds like you had to navigate a lot, but there was this clear force or mission in you that kept guiding you. It brought you back to what mattered. I’m happy to see that you’re well and your mission is growing.
Thanks to the coffee readings.
Health, Family, And Mindset: The Keys To Success
I didn’t realize when we were scheduling this that it was the opening. You had just launched this new venture. What a wonderful moment to catch you in. Congratulations on the success. I hope this goes out to empower other women, which is your mission and something you embody.
Thank you. I appreciate that. It’s been a long journey but I learned a lot. Health and family come first. The rest we can deal with but as long as you’re healthy and your family is healthy, you can overcome anything. It’s the mindset, a clear mind, and the purpose and clarity. That’s why I’m working hard to engage as many women as possible through these ventures. I know people are feeling lonely, especially with everything going on and changing so fast.
As long as you’re healthy and your family is healthy, you can overcome anything.
Clarity is what is moving. You’re anchoring and grounding yourself to that. You’re removing all the other distractions and things move. It’s that anchor that brings people to the mission. Gizem, thank you so much for sharing a bit of your story with us. I will continue to come to the shop. I’ll be there. I hope our audience, especially if you’re here in Old Town in Alexandria, come by this way. As Gizem says, it’s not a coffee shop. It’s a coffee experience. It’s a cultural house and a way of being where you can step into the space, have a different kind of experience, and see yourself even in a new way, who knows, maybe through the coffee beans.
Build new friendships and make new friends. I feel like women can do anything if they support each other. The sky’s the limit when we empower each other. That’s how I feel.
That is so true.
Thank you so much for having me. This was so wonderful. I hope to see you soon at the shop, Ina, and hopefully Bonnie. We hope to see you, too.
I will be there. I’m still salivating. I need to say that. I’m starving and it’s because of this whole scene you’ve evoked in me. Thank you.
I appreciate you. Thank you so much, ladies. This was incredible for me.
Thank you, Gizem.
We’ll be in touch.
Important Links
- Turkish Coffee Truck Initiative on Instagram
- Turkish Coffee Lady
- Turkish Coffee Lady Foundation
- Coffee Sayer
About Gizem Salcigil White
Gizem Salcigil White is a Turkish-American entrepreneur with a unique mission to create a global community of explorers and coffee lovers. A goodwill ambassador for Turkish coffee culture since 2009, she is the founder of the award-winning nonprofit Turkish Coffee Truck Initiative.
For over 15 years, Gizem has worked voluntarily to promote Turkish coffee culture in the U.S. and abroad. Through her nonprofit, more than 30,000 people across the U.S., Europe, and Canada experienced Turkish coffee for the first time. Her one-of-a-kind cultural diplomacy project has been featured in major international publications, including The Washington Post and BBC, earning her the nickname The Turkish Coffee Lady among her supporters.
In 2012, she was honored by the U.S. Congress for fostering friendship between the Turkish and American people through coffee conversations. In 2017, she founded Turkish Coffee Lady, a woman-owned gourmet coffee business dedicated to bridging cultures one cup at a time. In March 2020, she further expanded her mission by establishing the world’s first coffee diplomacy association, the Turkish Coffee Lady Foundation, which also empowers women entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams.
Most recently, she launched Coffee Sayer, a platform that blends the rich tradition of Turkish coffee rituals with modern wellness practices. This innovative platform offers AI-powered personalized coffee readings, daily affirmations, and a supportive community. In recognition of her entrepreneurial success, her small business was named the Success Story of 2022 by the Small Business Development Center of Virginia.
She was also recognized as one of the Most Inspiring Women of 2023 by VIP Alexandria Magazine. Gizem lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with her husband and eight-year-old daughter.