Turkish Tea Blog

[caycek]

Hi There,
Do you know the most tea consumer country in the world is Turkey!
We have a tea blog in Turkish: http://caycek.com/

[BioHorn]

It would be quite nice to see reviews of Turkish teas. Thank you for sharing!
Anyone else out there have Turkish teas in their collection?

[bob]

Yes, they drink a lot of quite strong tea in Turkey. But I didn't notice many different varieties when I visited Istanbul a couple of years ago...

Istanbul caj.jpg (31.32 KiB) Viewed 1162 times

I brought some tea home, I'll try to find the box...

[BioHorn]

Yes, they drink a lot of quite strong tea in Turkey. But I didn't notice many different varieties when I visited Istanbul a couple of years ago...

Istanbul caj.jpg

I brought some tea home, I'll try to find the box...

Thanks! We were in Turkey two years ago. Trying to pick a chai in a big grocery store was bewildering! It took up an entire row! There must have been 20-30 kinds.

If you have them, please let us know more specifics.

[bob]

I found the tea and brewed it this morning the same way I usually do with black tea: ~2 teaspoons per 250 ml and 3 min steeping time:

Hazer Baba tea 1.jpg (29.36 KiB) Viewed 1141 times

Hazer Baba tea 2.jpg (23.15 KiB) Viewed 1141 times

Hazer Baba tea 3.jpg (73.55 KiB) Viewed 1141 times

The tea was a bit stale, this small quantity was sitting in this big container for a few years. The taste was mild and mellow, no bitterness/astringency, no maltyness, no obvious sweetness... but it did have an obvious taste/aroma that I find very hard to describe, it is a sort of fruity/floral thing, with a hint of sourness. I also find the same taste in Japanese Dokodemosora black tea.

I think this tea is very well suited to be prepared in Turkish style (i.e. very strong - see the instructions on the box).

Regarding the different varieties available: it seems I should look around more. I only visited a few smaller supermarkets and this box seemed the best thing available. But I didn't know then that they grow their own tea in Turkey, I thought it is imported and I was just looking for a simple tea souvenir...

To the OP: I'm sorry to derail your thread a little. It would be very interesting to read about the Turkish-made teas on your blog... Hopefully Google translate can do a good enough job...