How to prepare tea in Turkey

  • Published
  • By Mehmet Birbiri
  • 39th Air Base Wing public affairs
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey --  As you have observed, tea is the main beverage in Turkey, in cold or hot weather. Turks follow only the British and Chinese in total amounts of tea we drink. Some people drink up to 15-20 cups a day.

As some other nations have their own way of preparing tea, so do we.

You'll need two kettles to do the job right; one large and one small. The small one sits on the top of the large one like a lid. If you buy the kettles as a set, they're designed that way.

First you fill the large kettle with water and put on fire to boil. Meanwhile, put tea leaves and a dash of water, enough to wet the tea leaves, into the small kettle. Then put the small kettle on the top of the big kettle which is set next to fire or on the stove.

The number of cups you want to serve dictates how much tea leaves should be put into the small kettle. Usually, it's about one teaspoon for each cup.

Once the the water in the big kettle starts to boil, fill the small kettle with the boiling water from the big kettle. Add cold water to the big kettle, filling it up.

Now, put the two kettles back on the fire, again with the small one on top of the larger one.

Wait until the water in the big kettle starts to boil again. By that time, the tea leaves have added their color, aroma and taste into the water.

As the water in the big kettle boils, your tea is ready to serve. Pour some tea from the small kettle into a cup then fill it up with boiling water from the big kettle.

You can adjust the strength of your tea by pouring more or less from the small kettle. Put the kettles back on the fire until you finish drinking your first cup, then serve the second. At that time you can reduce the heat for the kettles.

You can add more cold water to be boiled to the big kettle, but don't add water, cold or hot, to the small kettle. That doesn't help for having more tea, worse than that it makes the already good tea in the small kettle to become bad. If you need more tea, you should go through that process again and brew new tea.

The amount of sugar is also adjustable, depending on the person's taste. So many people drink Turkish tea without adding any sugar. In some parts of eastern Turkey, there's a special sugar called kirtlama. This is a piece of hard sugar people put under their tongues. They can drink several cups with one single piece of hard sugar that way.

Although it's not Turkish sytle, tea bags are available in the markets, both imported and domestic. You can also see tea of almost every fruit from apple and strawberry to orange and lemon. They are mostly sold in tea bags.

Many shops at the Alley serve apple tea to their customers. In fact apple tea has become more popular than the regular Turkish tea. Apple tea is instant and you put it in hot water and stir it up. It is concentrated apple juice and sugar, therefore, you don't need to add sugar to your apple tea.

Tea is grown only in one small area in Turkey, in Rize located in northeastern Turkey by the Black Sea.

Turkish tea is served in special tulip-shaped teacups, so people can hold them easier and feel the heat in their hands.

Turkish tea is always served hot. Therefore, the American concept of iced-tea sounds strange to Turkish people.

The apple tea which is popular among the Americans is totally different. It's the mixture of sugar and apple juice concentration. You put a teaspoon of it in a tea cup with hot water and stir. Your apple tea is ready.

Enjoy!