If you’ve ever travelled to Turkey, you’ll know how important tea is in Turkish cuisine, culture and everyday life. Offering tea to a guest is customary and many friendships are bonded over a lovely, tulip-shapes glass of piping-hot tea.

The Significance of Coffee And Tea In Turkish Culture

Turkey is one of the world’s largest consumers of tea, even surpassing the United Kingdom in some years past. Tea is grown in the temperate climates of northern parts of the country bordering  the Black Sea coastline. Most tea growing and production happens around the city of Rize in the Northeast.

The most common type of tea is Turkish black tea. Ceylan is another type of tea grown in Turkey. Especially for Turkish breakfast, several more fragrant teas like Earl Grey are blended with black tea to give it a special flavor and aroma.

How To Brew Classic Turkish Black Tea

Alongside everyday black tea, you can find many types of herbal teas in Turkish cuisine. The most popular herbal teas are made with sage, chamomile, rose hips and anise flower. Many other teas made from local herbs and dried flowers are available at local bazaars and markets.

If you love the scent of roses, there is a beautiful tea made from tiny dried pink rosebuds. It looks as beautiful as it tastes and preparing it is just as enjoyable as drinking it. You can find dried rosebuds or petals for making tea in local bazaars and specialty markets. If you don’t live in Turkey, you can sometimes find rose tea on websites selling Turkish ingredients.

See Also

Turkish Tea And Coffee Culture

How To Make Turkish Coffee

How To Brew Turkish 'Chai,' or Black Tea

Ingredients

• ½ cup dried rose petals or buds, or Turkish rose tea
• 2-tiered Turkish tea pot, or ‘çaydanlık’
• 6 Turkish tea glasses and saucers
• 6 Small Turkish tea spoons
• small tea strainer

• Prep Time: 2 minutes
• Cook Time: 10 minutes

• Total Time: 12 minutes
• Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Preparation

First, put the rose tea into the smaller top section of the tea pot. Fill the bottom of the tea pot with water. Put the top section on the bottom with the lid on the top.

Put the entire tea pot on the stove and bring the water to a boil. When steam begins to escape, turn the flame to low. Remove the top section and pour about 1 cup of the boiling water on to the rosebuds. Replace the lid and put the top pot back on the bottom.

Allow the tea to ‘brew’ over a low flame for about 10 minutes. The boiling water on the bottom will keep the tea hot on the top.

After 10 minutes, place the tea strainer over the top of the first tea glass. Remove the top tea pot and pour enough tea to fill the glass about 1/3 of the way up. The color of rose tea should be a light, golden yellow. Repeat to fill each glass by 1/3.

Now, fill the glasses with boiling water to dilute the brewed tea. You can adjust the amounts of brewed tea and water to get the color you desire. 

Put a small tea spoon in each glass and serve them on a tray along with a bowl of sugar cubes. Keep the remaining tea on the stove over a low flame for refills.