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Tea in Turkey

Turkey is one of the biggest tea producing and drinking countries. However, tea has been drank in Turkey only last 50 years. Before that coffee or herbal tea were the main beverage for them. Turkey prohibited importation of coffee for some period of time due to critical economic conditions. It became a trigger to switch their habit of drinking coffee to tea. Another reason is domestic production of black tea reached to the stable point, and tea became more reasonable in price. In Turkey, there are tea houses called "Cayhane". People go there, play cards, and talk while they enjoy their tea. Cayhane is also a place for a relaxation. In Turkey, people use two layered traditional tea thing called "caydenlik" for brewing tea. First, use a lower kettle to boil the water, then add some tea leaves and boiled water into the top kettle. They are layered on the stove, therefore, tea is always ready to be served. Most of the tea produced in Turkey are consumed domestically. The characteristic of Turkish tea is very similar to the tea from Russia. The color of tea is dark, and the fragrance of tea is mild and soft. People prefer to add sugar in their tea, but milk or lemon are rarely added. Total space of tea farm in Turkey is 1.4 times bigger than ours in Japan. The production of the year is 1.3 times greater than what we have in Japan. Total amount of tea consumption of each person is 2 times more than Japanese.

(Shigehiro Kodomari)