The tea culture dominates in many Middle Eastern countries with centuries of history dating back to the ancient trading routes, most notably the Silk Road from China as well as routes from Sri Lanka and Darjeeling tea from India. The importance of tea trading continues to this day with Dubai now playing the role of a major re-exporter of tea and an international doorway for the tea trade. Tea drunk in the Gulf is predominantly black tea, usually drunk with sugar and sometimes with added spices, especially cardamom. Whether or not you add milk to your brew will depend upon the customs of the local area.
Turkish
men enjoying tea in a courtyard tea-house in a bazaar.
Tea is huge in Turkey. Turkey is number one
worldwide for per capita consumption and ranks number five for production. It’s
an integral part of everyday life – be it summer, winter, a big family
gathering or a quiet day at home. And it’s not the touristy apple tea that
Turkish people drink, it’s a strong black tea; though they do also dip into the
herbal arena with rosehip, sage and linden blossom teas.
The origins of tea drinking in Turkey go back to
the 16th century when the Silk Road caravans passed
through the country. But the real explosion in tea drinking occurred in 1878
after the publication of Çay Risalesi (or The Tea Pamphlet), touting the health benefits of drinking
tea by Mehmet Izzet, the then Governor of Adana.
Although coffee was still the preferred hot drink during this period of
history, tea consumption began to spread as tea houses opened in the
Sultanahmet area of Istanbul. Also, tea became cheaper; four glasses of tea could
be purchased for the price of just one cup of Turkish coffee.
The high consumption of tea is due to its
widespread availability in tea houses and tea gardens
all over the country, their role as hubs of social activity and the fact that
Turkey has a well-established tea-producing region along its eastern Black Sea
coast. Tea gardens, another social venue for drinking tea, gained popularity in
the 1950s, especially in Istanbul, and were the place where families went for
their social outings. As Turkish tea gardens are social hubs, expect to see
kids running around, hear music playing, and have plenty of lively conversation among
young and old.
Who knew?
Tea culture in Turkey is strong and traditional.
As a host you are supposed to serve tea for as long as your guests would like.
You can never say you’ve run out of tea! If you’re bargaining with a trader in
the bazaar and have had your fill of tea, simply put your teaspoon on top of
your glass the moment you finish your tea. This signals politely that you really
have had enough tea, thank you.
The tea – or should we say çay
– is prepared as a strong concentrate and then diluted with hot water and
sugar. Tea is prepared either in a samovar or in two separate pots. The lower pot boils the
water, the smaller upper pot contains the tea leaves and is where the tea is
infused to a strong liquor. This split of brewing allows each drinker to adjust
the strength of tea exactly to their taste: strong, straight from the top pot,
or in varying degrees of dilution by topping up with water from the bottom pot.
Tea is drunk from tulip-shaped glasses – nearly
400 million of these glasses are sold every year! The clear glass allows the drinker
to appreciate the crimson colour of the tea. Often two small sugar cubes are
served with tea and in some towns in Eastern Turkey tea is taken in the kitlama style, where a lump of sugar is placed between the
tongue and the cheek.
Turkish tea production began in the Black Sea
town of Rize in the early 20th century. The government was instrumental in
encouraging cultivation and production grew so much that some towns began to
change their names to have the word çay (Turkish for
tea) in them: the town of Mapavri became Çayeli and Kadahor became Çaykara (we
like this idea of creating new town names with the word ‘tea’ in). Today, the
Çaykur state-controlled company produces over 60% of all Turkish tea
production. Total tea production in Turkey is now enough to satisfy its
domestic demand and have excess to export. The tea industry is an important
economic player with over 200,000 families involved in the cultivation of tea
either as owners of tea-estates or employees in factories.
1 Make a really strong small pot of tea. arrange glasses on a serving
tray.
2 Fill the glasses a quarter full (half full produces an incredibly
strong tea) and top up with water; add sugar to taste. Be sure to leave a 1-cm
(½-in) gap at the top so that it’s easy to drink without spilling or burning
your fingers!
3 Hold the glass at the top with your thumb and index finger (there are
no handles) and sip and enjoy!
Drinking
tea in Bab Makkah, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia is the second largest consumer of
tea in this region with over 19 million cups of tea drunk daily. Drunk mostly
black and imported mainly from Sri Lanka and Southern India (often via Dubai), tea is drunk in most social situations and always
when business is being done. Glass cups are filled to the brim with hot tea,
which may also be sweetened.
Bags
of tea in Qaysari Bazaar, Erbil Kurdistan, Iraq.
Tea in Iraq is prepared in a samovar or using the double-pot method. Generally the tea drunk in Iraq is particularly
strong – it may be brewed for up to 15 minutes – and is served with at least a
couple of spoons of sugar. Tea-houses, called chaixane, are found all over Iraq and can range from a
simple roadside stall with an urn to an elaborate establishment where men
(rarely women) will gather to talk, play backgammon, smoke nargile
(hookah pipes) and, of course, drink copious amounts of tea.
“The Chinese say it’s better to be deprived of food for three days than
tea for one.”
Khaled
Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns
Iranians not only drink an awful lot of tea, but
they grow a massive amount of it, too. The fact that tea production exists at
all in Iran can be traced back to the imagination and determination of an
Iranian diplomat, Kashef Al Saltaneh. Around the end of
the 19th-century tea drinking in Iran was big business, the habit having been
established because of the country’s position on the Silk
Road, but by now the British had a monopoly over the supply of tea from India.
Spotting an opportunity, Kashef Al Saltaneh, a fluent French speaker, travelled
to India posing as a French businessman. After learning all he could about the tea trade and growing tea, he smuggled some tea saplings
back to Iran where he used all his experience to establish tea cultivation in
the northern states of Gilan and Mazandaran. The tea bushes flourished and Iran
is now the world’s 7th largest producer of tea. Kashef Al Saltaneh is known
today as the father of Iranian tea, and his mausoleum, in the city of Lahijan,
houses a tea museum. It is also in this region that the best-quality Lahijan
Spring tea is produced.
Despite producing its own tea, Iranians are such
heavy tea drinkers that they also import much from Sri
Lanka and India. Throughout the country the tea-houses known as chaikhanahs serve tea in glass cups of varying strength.
The tea is served strong from a samovar and may be diluted with additional hot
water, depending upon the drinker’s preference. Many Iranians like to sweeten
their tea with sugar, particularly a native variety known as kand. Traditionally this rock sugar is held between the
teeth and the tea is sipped through it.
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