Since arriving in Istanbul, tea has become a much bigger part of our lives. Here, the Turks have tea all the time. It is common to have it (in place of coffee) with your breakfast. You often see two people sitting at a cafe enjoying it, and if you go out to eat, it's really common for them to ask you if you'd like çay (tea) after your meal. You'll also see the street vendors making it over a little grill. It's a staple.
The tea here isn't like your average cup of tea in the US though. They make it from black tea leaves, add water, and serve with sugar.
I'm borrowing the recipe (and image) from this site:
http://www.deliciousistanbul.com/blog/2011/02/04/turkish-tea/
Prep Time: 5 Min
Cook Time: 20 Min
Total Time: 25 Min
Serves: 6
Ingredients:
1/3 cup black tea leaves
1 L water for tea brew
1 L water for serving
sugar to taste
Directions:
- Fill the bottom kettle with 2 L hot/boiling water and bring to boil at the high heat on your stove top.
- Meanwhile, put the tea leaves into a fine sieve and rinse them with cold water to remove the tea dust. Drain well. Transfer the washed and drained tea leaves into the upper kettle and stack the upper kettle on top of the bottom one.
- Once the water in the bottom kettle is boiled, pour half into the upper kettle to brew the tea. Reduce the heat to medium and let the tea in the upper kettle get brewed over the steam coming from the bottle kettle.
- Pour out some tea brew (with a Turkish tea glass the rule of thumb will be to pour out the brew to the waist, the narrowest point of the glass) and then dilute it with water
- Reduce the heat to low to keep your tea warm as you’ll be serving a few rounds. Once the tea drinking is over turn off the heat.
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