Where It All Began

The Turkish Coffee Lady Foundation is founded in 2020 by a Turkish-American mother entrepreneur who traveled the world with a coffee truck since 2012. Gizem Salcigil White, aka the Turkish Coffee Lady started the award-winning Turkish Coffee Truck project to share her passion for her heritage and bring societies together over their mutual love for coffee.

In 2012, with a group of dedicated volunteers on board, Gizem set off around the globe in the world’s first authentic Turkish Coffee Truck. This adventure of a lifetime was driven by a vision – that the exquisite tradition of Turkish coffee could bring people of all walks of life together. Through her cultural diplomacy initiative, White and a group of dedicated volunteers traveled across America, Turkey, Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Canada over the past six years. Gizem’s one-of-a-kind cultural diplomacy project made the headlines of major international publications including The Washington Post, Washingtonian, PRI/BBC and her followers started calling her the “Turkish Coffee Lady”. The name stuck – and the rest is history. In May 2012, the Turkish Coffee Lady was honored by the U.S. Congress for fostering friendship between the Turkish and American peoples through their shared love of coffee.

That how our foundation was born. With the messaging “Turkish Coffee: Taste of Friendship for 500 years”, our Turkish Coffee Truck tours aim to promote rich culinary traditions among to larger audiences and educate them about the history of Turkish coffee.