Şerbetçi: Grandpa's Recipe Book is a calm discovery game where you find new recipes by combining two ingredients. In Grandpa's shop in the Spice Bazaar there is an unfinished recipe book, and every correct combination fills in one of its pages. There is no timer, no lives and no way to lose: a wrong try costs you nothing.
On this page we first explain the combining rules, then customer orders and stars, how chapters unlock, hints and the modes that open once the book is complete. At the end you will find common mistakes and frequently asked questions.
The basic rule: two ingredients, one recipe
The shelf sits at the bottom of the screen, and in the middle there is a counter with two slots. Tap an ingredient on the shelf and it moves to an empty slot; you can also drag it there if you prefer. Once both slots are filled, the ingredients combine.
- Right pair: a new recipe is born, a short culture card opens, and the recipe is added to the book and the shelf.
- Wrong pair: nothing is lost; the game says "That didn't work. Try something else." If you try the same pair again, it reminds you.
Three rules always apply: the order of the ingredients does not matter, you can put the same ingredient in both slots, and an ingredient you use never runs out, it stays on the shelf. A recipe you find also becomes an ingredient that can go into other recipes.
The shelf, tabs and faded ingredients
The game starts with water and sugar. New basic ingredients are added to the shelf after a certain number of discoveries in a chapter. Mortar, Rolling pin and Cauldron are tools, and you combine with them too.
The tabs above the shelf sort ingredients by type: All, Basics, Sherbet, Sweets, Spices, Coffee, Table and Tea. The empty jars with a question mark at the end of the shelf show how many recipes are still left to find in the open chapter.
If an ingredient is faded and marked in the corner, there are no new recipes left to make with it. When the shelf gets long, you can hide these with the Hide finished button; when you give a recipe to a customer, they all show up again.
Grandpa's book and unfinished pages
The book is your map of which recipes you are looking for. Every recipe you have not found yet is an unfinished page: you can see the recipe's silhouette and its taste labels (such as Cool, Sweet, Rose or Sour), but not its name or ingredients. If both of its ingredients are already on your shelf, the page says Ingredients are on the shelf.
Reading unfinished pages is the real skill of the game: the labels hint at which ingredients are involved.
Orders and stars
After a few discoveries, customers start coming to the door. Each customer has a request and three wishes. You press the Give button and pick a recipe from the shelf.
- The first wish is a must; a recipe that does not meet it is turned down.
- Each wish the recipe meets is worth 1 star, up to 3 stars.
- In Give mode, the shelf shows how many stars each recipe will earn.
At the end of each chapter there is a story order (for example Snow sherbet, Mesir paste or Winter table). Here only the requested recipe itself is accepted, and it gives 3 stars. An order closes once it is delivered; if you got fewer than 3 stars, you can call the customer back with Try again on the Orders page of the book, and your best result is kept. There are 63 orders in the game in total.
How do chapters unlock?
The book has 7 chapters and 110 discoveries in total: Rose Garden, Spice Bazaar, Palace Kitchen, Feast Day, Wedding, Travel Notes and Winter Table. When you find three quarters of a chapter's discoveries, the chapter is complete and the next one opens; you can fill in the remaining pages later.
When you find the Feast page in the Wedding chapter, Grandpa's book is complete and the final scene plays. After that Travel Notes opens, and once it is finished, Winter Table.
Grandpa's note: hints
If you get stuck, press the light bulb button. Grandpa's note shows one ingredient of one of the recipes you are looking for; a second note on the same recipe reveals the second ingredient too. If a story order is open, the note shows that recipe first.
Notes are free: while the game is open, a note refills every 3 minutes, and up to 3 notes can build up. If you have no notes left, you can watch a short ad and use See the full recipe to see both ingredients at once; this is always your choice.
Today's orders and the Master's exam
Today's orders opens once the Spice Bazaar chapter is finished. Every day the same five customers come to everyone; you can give each of them only one recipe, and the shelf does not show stars. You read the wishes yourself, and the stars you collect and your daily streak are saved. During some periods (such as Turkish Coffee Day, Hıdırellez or Salep season), the first customers ask for tastes that fit the occasion.
The Master's exam opens for those who finish the book: ten customers, one recipe each, no hints. You can collect up to 30 stars, and every exam is different.
Score, badges and the shop
Your score on the leaderboard is 10 points for each discovery and 5 points for each order star. The Badges page in the book has 20 badges. As your total stars grow, decorations for your shop unlock, such as a Copper lamp, Tiled wall, Kilim cover, Rose pot and Golden shelves. Once the book is complete, you can write your own recipe on the last blank page with My recipe.
Tips
- When you get stuck, open the book first: unfinished pages that say Ingredients are on the shelf are recipes you can make right now.
- Read the taste labels: the Rose label points to an ingredient made from rose, and Sour usually means lemon, sour cherry, tamarind or pomegranate.
- Try each new recipe with the other ingredients right away: syrup leads to jam, and jam leads to sherbet.
- Do not forget to combine an ingredient with itself; Ice with Ice makes snow.
- For an order, after pressing Give, look at the stars on the shelf and pick the recipe that shows 3 stars.
- When the shelf gets crowded, press Hide finished, then use the tabs to search by type.
Common mistakes
- Trying at random: wrong tries cost nothing but they are slow; the labels on unfinished pages show the way much faster.
- Holding back because you think an ingredient will run out: an ingredient you use stays on the shelf.
- Not treating found recipes as ingredients: most new recipes come from a recipe you found earlier.
- Giving an order without checking the stars: a delivered order closes, and you need Try again to get the best result.
- Giving a similar recipe for a story order: there, only the requested recipe itself is accepted.
- Saving up notes and never using them: once you have 3 notes, no new ones come in.
Frequently asked questions
How many recipes are there in Şerbetçi?
There are 110 discoveries across seven chapters. On top of these come 45 basic ingredients and tools, and the game has 63 customer orders in total.
Do I lose anything when I make a wrong combination?
No. A wrong pair only says "That didn't work"; the ingredients stay on the shelf and you lose no points or lives. If you try the same pair again, the game reminds you.
Does the order of the ingredients matter?
No. Water with Sugar or Sugar with Water gives the same result. You can also put the same ingredient in both slots.
Why did the customer turn down my recipe?
The customer's first wish is a must. If the recipe you give does not meet that wish, it is not accepted. In story orders, only the requested recipe is accepted.
Why won't the next chapter open?
A chapter is complete when three quarters of its discoveries are found. Travel Notes opens only when the book is completed with the Feast page, and Winter Table opens once Travel Notes is finished.
What do faded ingredients mean?
There are no new recipes left to make with a faded ingredient. You can hide them from the shelf with the Hide finished button; when you fill an order, they all show up again.
How do I unlock the Master's exam?
It opens once Grandpa's book is complete. You give one recipe each to ten customers with no hints; you can earn up to 30 stars and your best result is saved.
Are the recipes in the game real?
The recipes, ingredients and facts on the culture cards are real and come from Turkish cuisine. The game simplifies cooking into two-ingredient steps, and it makes no healing or health claims.
