Tea in Istanbul

In Istanbul they have a quite special attitude to the drink, named “tea” and the very ritual of its drinking. Let’s trace the peculiarities of the ancient tea tradition of Istanbul...

The history of the drink

It’s difficult to find such place on Earth, where people don’t drink tea. This drink occupies the second place by popularity after water.
Tea was first mentioned still in olden times. Numerous legends of China, India, and Japan tell about the discovery of wild-growing tea. According to one of them, tea appeared at the time of Earth and Heaven creation, and its appearance is connected with the name of the Ruler of Sun Emperor Yandi. According to another one, the emperor of southern China – Chen Nung once tasted a drink that resulted from leaves, which occasionally fell into boiling water. The drink turned out to be so aromatic and tasty that the emperor ordered to gather the leaves and prepare from them the drink for the whole country. Gradually tea has spread all over the world and became an extremely popular drink that it still remains today.

Tea in Istanbul

For the inhabitants of Istanbul tea is not a simple drink, tea-drinking here is a tradition, and as we know, in Turkey traditions are respected for ages. If you walk around the city and call on cafe and houses, you will observe that almost all inhabitants of this city drink tea from little glasses. Only Great Britain can compete with Turkey in its love for tea, in both countries the drink has already become a traditional one.
In Istanbul people do not like tea-bags. Here they infuse it on steam in a two-level teapot, sometimes with spices added. Most often tea is consumed with pieces of sugar and drunk from small glasses that are put on small glass or copper trays. In Istanbul it is customary to treat guests with tea, to drink it after breakfast, in many restaurants tea is served for free after dinner and supper. Tea and sugar is brought to the families, commemorating their deceased. In Istanbul tea is drunk in any weather, not just to get warm and enjoy its taste, but even when it’s hot. Moreover, the tea is hot anyway and it also goes with pieces of sugar. According to local population, it helps bearing the intolerable heat that often prevails in summer period.