Turkish Tea

Turkish Tea

When I think of Turkey, I think of bath towels. Strange, I know, but hear me out. When my mom was in high school, she made friends with a girl from a big city when they were participating in one of those boring extra curricular things that adults love to encourage kids to do to make them look better on college applications. Her friend came from a poor family, and joined the Air Force after she graduated high school- so she could get enough to eat, and medical care. Yeah, that's the reality of several of the people I know who joined the military or National Guard. Anyway, mom's friend spent some time stationed in Turkey, and sent a bath towel to mom as a gift. The towel has never been used, but it is big and thick. It is brightly colored with a bold design. It's probably been well over 22 years since I've seen it, so I don't remember it exactly. I think there was a blue border, and the main part of the towel was orange with I think kind of a leafy, vine pattern in white. She also sent a fancy soap with it. It came in a box and has kind of a vine pattern in relief on the top. That's pretty much all I know about Turkey.

Whenever you search Middle Eastern tea, you inevitably get many hits for Turkish tea. A tea that is brewed in a double teapot, and served in tulip shaped cups with deep saucers. Sometimes the saucers are ceramic, but the cups are always glass. Thanks to Amazon, I got an affordable set of teacups and saucers. The brand is supposedly the most popular brand in Turkey, and what is used every day. I sprang the extra 40 cents for the fancy spiral pattern versus plain. Gold accents are also popular, but those cups cost more, and I'm cheap.

So, let's get started...

I started with a combination of loose leaf black tea and Earl Gray. The vloggers were all adamant that it should be loose leaf, so I used my Assam tea because it has a good flavor. It was either that or cut open a tea bag. I used a 2:1 ratio of Assam to Earl Gray.

(I didn't realize until I looked at the pictures that this looks a bit like a face with the mouth denoting uncertainty)

I started with the typical pan of water on the bottom, then placed the tea in the top pan when it was still dry.

Then I brought the water to a boil. One woman commented that this method is used to roast the tea before brewing. I was a bit skeptical. Somehow I doubt that this method really generates enough heat to make a meaningful change in the flavor of the tea in the short time it was roasted. When the bottom pot was boiling, I stirred the tea in the top pot, and did notice a vague scent coming off of it.




Next, I ladled some hot water into the top pot. You are supposed to pour around the tea, and let as much of it float as you can.

Then I added more water to the bottom pot and simmered for 15 minutes to brew.

After it was finished, I strained it into my small teapot for more control in pouring. I was originally going to show 3 cups of tea, but I only had enough tea concentrate for 2.

If you want weak tea, fill your teacup 1/4 full of tea.
Medium tea, fill your teacup to 1/3 full.
Strong tea, fill your teacup half way.
Then top off with hot water.

I made medium and strong. I preferred the medium strength. Tea is served with sugar. Often cubes that are dissolved in the tea.

Did roasting the tea make a difference in flavor? No. I wasn't surprised. Someday I may try toasting the tea in a dry pan and brewing it again. I have a box of roasted green tea bags from one of the local Asian markets. From this, I know that roasting really does change the flavor of the tea.

So, you should know by now that since a challenge was thrown down, I had to do some experimenting. Enter a hot, dry saucepan, and some new (dry) tea. It's really hard to tell how much of a roast you have on Earl Gray and Assam teas because they are already dark brown. I kind of went by smell because I figured if they turned black, things would have probably gone too far. So I brewed up a new pot of tea, and found that this did change the flavor of the tea. I will say that I prefer the flavor of roasted green tea, but I have definitely tasted the roasted Assam/Earl Gray before. I wish I had a way of describing it. It took on more of a plant taste, kind of approaching dirt, but not quite in the sense of a 4-H "deep earthy flavor". I will say that I preferred the tea more as non-roasted versus roasted.

And now for something completely different...

Whenever I watched videos about how to make Turkish tea, they inevitably pulled up videos about Turkish breakfast. Apparently breakfast is very important there. It's a country after my own heart. I don't care about caffeine in the morning, but you better feed me before trying to talk to me. Last night when I was planning to make my tea, I decided I should try Turkish breakfast. That means raiding what is in the house...

So tomatoes, cucumbers, soft cheeses, olives, eggs, yogurt, pastries or bread, and various jams/jellies seem to be popular. Along with tea.

As luck would have it, I started yogurt yesterday (and let it process overnight). I had some frozen pita bread that I pulled out for a photo opp. (It's been way too hot to use the oven lately.) I haven't started looking for recipes I can "bake" (or more accurately steam in a pressure cooker). While the yogurt usually sets up better if you refrigerate it in the pot you made it in, I had other plans for my pressure cooker today (yes, I'm one of the devotees of the Instant Pot - mostly for making yogurt and rice, but there are the occasional pots of Indian food that would take so much longer on top of the stove). While I have thought about getting a second liner for it, I'm not sure where I would store it.

The really amazing part of this whole thing is that I was up for over an hour before I ate breakfast, and there were no casualties.

Since I'm not a fan of olives, the can of sliced black olives stayed closed, but I did give breakfast a drizzle of EVOO, and dug in. I came from a family of creative breakfasts. One of the things that was nice about my mom was that she considered pie to be an acceptable breakfast - as long as it had fruit in it, or if it was pumpkin pie. Cold pizza was game for breakfast as well. This was right up my alley.

Finished.
(Doesn't that little spoon look so cute with the cups? Never mind the bowl of the spoon is so broad it won't fit down inside of the cup...)