Turkish Tea

I thought I'd take a few moments and share about the greatness of Turkish tea. Turkish tea is called Çay, pronounced chai. I never really liked tea. Hard to admit, but one of my non-southern qualities for a long time was not liking sweet tea. Went I went to London I discovered I liked some hot tea. I tried sweet tea when I got back to the states, but I still didn’t like sweet tea.

Then I visited Turkey. When I first visited Turkey five years ago they would always serve us tea, but it would be tourist tea, which is apple tea. It really tastes like a sweet apple cider. My dad really liked it. Once I moved here though, apple tea was hard to come by. You really only find it in touristy places.

After every meal here you are offered tea. Often you don’t get a choice whether you want to accept it our not. It is complimentary, so are the refills. I discovered I LOVED Turkish tea. And, consequently when I came back to America I discovered I love sweet tea!

Turkish tea is always served very hot; you can see the steam coming off the glass. It is served in small glasses so it will stay hot and also in real glass that is curved in shape. I’m a two sugar cube kind of girl, Jenna only takes one sugar cube.

What makes Turkish tea so much better? I don’t really know. It is loose-leaf tea that is cooked in a double pot, a çay dunlik. You put the tea in the top part and water in the bottom. When the water boils in the bottom pot you pour it into the top pot and let it simmer for about ten minutes.

I think what really makes Turkish tea so special is what it symbolizes. Turks are very relational people, I think they are a lot like southerners. You sit, you have tea, you have several cups of tea, and you talk. When Jenna & I go out to dinner we are at least two cup tea drinkers, and we really like three. Things are not rushed here, and neither is the tea.