Turkish Çay
Also known as Turkish Tea, Cay, Rize Tea
Black tea from Rize on the Black Sea coast, brewed in a çaydanlık: two stacked pots, a strong brew on top and hot water below. Everyone dilutes it to taste – dark or light – and drinks it from small tulip-shaped glasses, often with sugar, almost never with milk.
Taste
Strong and clear, deep mahogany in the glass
How to brew
Boil water in the lower pot and steep loose black tea in the upper pot above it. Pour some of the strong tea into a glass and top it up with hot water from below until it has the strength you like.
Cultural background
Tea became popular after the First World War, when coffee was scarce and expensive. The first tea trials in Rize date from 1912; larger harvests followed in the 1940s. In 2022 UNESCO inscribed the culture of çay in Türkiye and Azerbaijan as intangible heritage: a sign of hospitality and part of daily life for everyone.
Where to drink it
No places on the map yet.
Sources
For everything above except our personal notes.