Name: Turkish Tea (Çay)
Cuisine: Turkish
Ingredients: To make the tea, fill the larger pot with water and put over a flame. Select the tea-leaves of your choice, then put the required quantity into the smaller pot, with ½ teaspoon of sugar and 1 tablespoon of water to moisten them, and place it on top of the larger pot. When the water has boiled, fill the smaller teapot, replace it on top of the larger one, and put them over a low flame. Let the tea brew for a further 4-5 minutes, then pour some into a tea glass and top it up with the boiled water from the lower teapot. In this manner, tea can be drunk all day if the bottom pot is filled regularly with water and the tea is refreshed from time to time with new leaves and a little extra sugar.

Preparation info

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Classic Turkish Cooking

By Ghillie Basan

Published 1995

About

Traditionally tea was made in a samovar. This is often an elaborate vessel with a compartment for burning coals at the bottom of an internal tube, which heats the water in the ‘kettle’ section that wraps around it, on top of which rests a small teapot in which the tea brews over the rising heat. The teapot and tea glasses are topped up with boiling water from a tap at the side of the kettle section. Although the samovar is still used, most people prefer the practical, if crude, modern versi