TEA TIME TALK
When you wake up in the morning in Turkey, your
first thought is to enjoy a tiny glass of ruby tinted tea. The day
goes on, and after lunch it is time to chat over more tea. Then
around 5 o'clock in the afternoon comes tea accompanied by crisp
simit rings sprinkled with sesame seeds with white cheese. Tea is
an important part of Turkish daily life, as it is in Britain, China
and Japan.
The most widely consumed drink in the world, tea
is made from the tender leaves at the tips of the branches of the
evergreen plant Thea sinensis or Camellia sinensis. There are three
principal varieties of tea plant, Chinese, Assam and Cambodian,
and many hybrids produced from these. Different processing results
in three categories of tea: fermented tea (black), unfermented (green)
and semi-fermented (oolong). Black tea is amber in colour and has
an astringent flavour, green tea is slightly bitter in taste, and
oolong has a delicate flavour and a pale greenish brown colour.
The first mention of tea in Europe is in Navigationi
e Viaggi, by the Venetian Gian Battista Ramusio in 1559, and tea
drinking began in France in 1636, in Russia in 1638 and in Britain
in 165o. Tea drinking quickly became fashionable in Britain, where
it was regarded as 'a warming and reviving liquid'. Tea inspires
different attitudes in every country and climate. In Britain, a
northern country with gloomy winters and rainy springs, tea is drunk
hot, as a strong, powerful nectar, with more stimulating properties
than other beverages. In the years before the invention of tea-making
machines, tea was prepared in large lined kettles which were kept
hot and poured throughout the day.
While the British like their tea well brewed, the
Chinese prefer their tea a pale greenish-gold and opaque. Due to
its miraculous properties, green tea has always been regarded as
the foremost requirement for healthy living in China, where a popular
adage says, 'Drinking green tea is better than any medicine'.
Devotees of tea sip it unhurriedly, savouring the
sweet flavour on their palate. Before taking the first sip, however,
tea drinkers in the East breathe in the aroma of their tea much
in the same way as westerners do with brandy. In China tea is drunk
for its flavour and fragrance, as a lubricant to conversation and
for its cooling effects.Unlike the noisy crowds in which westerners
consume beer, tea is drunk with a few friends while they settle
down to animated conversation into the night. When friends encounter
one another in the street, they are likely to ask, 'Would you like
a cup of tea?' before saying 'Hello'.In countries with very hot
summers tea is often preferred to cold beer or iced drinks, as a
thirst quenching drink which satisfies the body's need for fluids.
So that the swollen tea leaves do not adhere to
the lips of the drinker, the Chinese usually serve tea in individual
lidded cups. When the lid is lifted, the delightful scent wafts
into the air around.
In China and Japan tea drinking is a ceremonial
affair. Both its preparation and consumption involve sophisticated
and aesthetic skill. Every part of the ceremony, which is an ornately
formal way of entertaining guests, has its rigid rules. The tea
ceremony originated in China, and later appeared in Japan, where
Zen monks drank tea in order to stay awake during long sessions
of meditation. However, the Chinese and Japaneses tea ceremonies
are very different. In China the importance of the tea itself is
stressed more than the formalities of the ceremonial. Those participating
discuss the teasu flavour and fragrance, draw comparisons with other
teas, and taste various types. In Japan, on the other hand, the
focus is on the dignified and courteous hospitality shown to guests
at the ceremony.The world's foremost tea producers are India, China,
Georgia, Iran and Turkey. The first significant attempt to cultivate
tea in Turkey was made around Batum (now in Georgia) at the southeastern
extremity of the Black Sea in 1918.
Until the 1940s locally grown tea was processed
by hand in small workshops. Then in 1941 and 1942 came tea rolling
machines, and in 1947 the Rize Tea Factory was established, the
first in Turkey. The autonomous state tea corporation, Çay-Kur,
was founded in 1971 to coordinate both the cultivation and processing
of tea, and in 1973 it went into active operation. Çay-Kur
aimed to expand tea cultivation, keep up with innovations in tea
processing technology, and import and export tea as necessary. Until
1984, when tea processing and packaging were opened up to private
enterprise, Çay-Kur enjoyed a monopoly over Turkish tea production.While
British, Indian and Pakistani tea lovers mix their beverage with
milk, in Turkey tea is generally flavoured only with sugar and occasionally
lemon. Winter and summer, steaming hot fragrant tea is served in
little narrow waisted glasses, preferably crystal. The small metal
spoons produce an agreeable tinkling sound as the sugar is stirred;
a sweet impromptu melody.
Although tea drinking in Turkey has no particular
ceremony attached to it, and is drunk hurriedly standing up before
the rush to work on weekdays, on Sundays it enjoys a festive place
at the breakfast table. The inhabitants of southeast Turkey claim
that hot tea has a cooling effect in the blazing summer heat. The
eastern city of Erzurum is renowned for the habit of drinking tea
kitlama fashion, which involves placing a sugar lump in the mouth
and sipping the tea through it, rather than sweetening the tea in
the glass. Pondering our tea drinking habit, I realised that Turkey
has a tea culture in no way inferior to that of countries where
it is a habit of far greater antiquity.
* Meral Dösemeciler is Head of THY's Service
and Menu Planning Department
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