Drinks · 3 min read ·
Turkish Tea and Coffee Culture: Çay, Kahve and Everything in Between
How Turks drink tea and coffee: the double teapot, tulip glasses, light or dark tea, Turkish coffee with its foam and fortune telling, plus salep and apple tea, and how it all compares with Pakistani chai.
Pakistanis and Turks share something important: a day organised around tea. But where a Pakistani reaches for a mug of milky doodh patti, a Turk lifts a small tulip-shaped glass of clear, ruby-red tea. And when it’s time for something special, Turkey has its famous coffee, thick, foamy and drunk from tiny cups.
Here’s how the two drinks work in Turkey, and how to make both at home.
Çay: the everyday drink
Turkey drinks more tea per person than almost any country in the world. Glasses of tea are offered in shops while you browse, carried on swinging trays to offices, and refilled at home from morning to night.
Black, no milk. Turkish tea is never made with milk. It’s grown on the Black Sea coast around Rize, and it’s brewed strong and diluted in the glass.
The double teapot. The has two parts: a large pot boiling water below, and a small pot of strong tea brewing gently in the steam above. Each glass is poured partly from the top pot and topped up from the bottom, so everyone chooses their strength. Light tea is açık, dark tea is koyu, and the ideal colour has a name: tavşan kanı, rabbit’s blood.
Tulip glasses. The small, curved glasses keep the tea hot and show off the colour. They’re held by the rim to avoid burning your fingers, and there’s always a cube or two of sugar on the saucer.
Our Turkish tea recipe shows how to brew it, even without a çaydanlık.
How it compares with chai
| Pakistani chai | Turkish çay | |
|---|---|---|
| Milk | Almost always | Never |
| Brewing | Boiled with milk and sugar | Steeped gently over steam |
| Leaves | Strong granules | Whole leaves |
| Sugar | Cooked in | Cubes on the side |
| Served in | Cups or mugs | Small tulip glasses |
| How often | Several times a day | Many times a day |
Neither is better; they’re simply different traditions. Many Pakistanis who live in Turkey drink both: çay with breakfast and in the bazaar, doodh patti at home in the evening.
Kahve: Turkish coffee
Turkish coffee is older than tea in Turkey: it arrived in Istanbul in the 1500s, and coffee houses became centres of conversation and news. It’s now recognised by UNESCO as part of Turkey’s cultural heritage.
Ground to powder. The coffee is ground as fine as flour and never filtered.
Brewed in a cezve. Coffee, cold water and sugar go into a small long-handled pot, the , and heat slowly until a thick foam rises. That foam, köpük, is the sign of a good cup.
Sugar is decided first. You order it sade (plain), az şekerli (a little sugar), orta (medium) or şekerli (sweet), because the sugar is cooked in.
Served with water and a sweet. A glass of water to clear the palate and a piece of lokum (Turkish delight) or chocolate.
Fortune telling. After drinking, many Turks turn the cup upside down on its saucer and let the grounds settle into patterns that a friend “reads”. It’s a social game rather than anything serious.
Try our Turkish coffee recipe; you’ll need coffee labelled “Turkish coffee”, which some Pakistani supermarkets now stock.
The other warm drinks
Salep is a thick, sweet milk drink made with orchid-root flour (or cornflour at home) and dusted with cinnamon, a winter favourite sold on the streets of Istanbul.
Elma çayı, apple tea, is popular with visitors and children. Made at home from real apples, cinnamon and cloves, it’s a caffeine-free evening drink.
Hosting the Turkish way
Turkish hospitality, like Pakistani hospitality, means offering a guest something to drink the moment they sit down. If you want to host a Turkish-style tea, set out tulip glasses of tea with sugar cubes, a plate of baklava or sigara böreği, and finish with Turkish coffee. It’s not so different from a Pakistani tea party, just with clearer tea.
