Tea Culture in Turkey: Customs, Words and History
From breakfast to bedtime: what çay means in Turkey, the words you hear at the table, and how tea came to the Black Sea hills.
Table of Contents
Tea (çay) is the everyday drink of Türkiye. The culture ministry’s record says it is drunk from breakfast to bedtime, and that serving tea and drinking it together shows friendship, hospitality and courtesy. This page explains the customs, the words you will hear and how tea came to the Black Sea hills.
In short · checked 22.10.2026
A glass of tea
says welcome.
- All day: tea is drunk from breakfast to bedtime. When breakfast is ready, people say çay hazır: the tea is ready.
- Offered, not only bought: serving tea and drinking it together shows friendship, hospitality and courtesy. A pot of tea is always ready at home and at work, for the family or for a guest.
- In a slim glass: tea is served in an ince belli glass (slim-waisted), often brewed in a çaydanlık, two pots stacked. Light tea is açık, strong tea is demli.
- Lemon, sugar or neither: Turks call their tea tavşan kanı (“rabbit’s blood”) and drink it at all hours, with lemon, with sugar or without, says ÇAYKUR, the state tea company.
- The most in the world: the agriculture ministry’s economics institute (TEPGE) ranks Türkiye first for tea use per person: 13.7 kg of fresh leaf, or 3.5–4 kg of dry tea, in 2023/24.
Tea from breakfast to bedtime
Tea is not saved for special moments. The ministry’s record says it is drunk at every hour, and that after water it is the drink people have most often in daily life.
- Breakfast: when breakfast is ready, people say çay hazır, “the tea is ready”.
- At home and at work: a pot of tea is always ready, to drink or to offer a guest.
- Meeting places: a çay ocağı (tea hearth, the small place where tea is brewed and served) and a çay bahçesi (tea garden) are where people meet and chat.
- Special days: tea is served at celebrations, ceremonies, events and meetings, when the family or guests come together.
- Rize: where tea growers and tea factories are most concentrated, life revolves around tea culture, says the ministry. Weddings and circumcision feasts are held after the harvest, and people call tea yeşil altın, “green gold”.
Sugar the eastern way
Especially in Gümüşhane and Erzurum, and in some cities of eastern Anatolia, tea is drunk kıtlama. The sugar is not dropped into the glass. Small pieces are broken off with sugar scissors (şeker makası) and held under the tongue while the tea is sipped.
Turks call their tea tavşan kanı, literally “rabbit’s blood”, ÇAYKUR writes in its sector report. They drink it at all hours, with lemon, with sugar or without, as the drink of conversation.
The glass, the pot and the semaver
Black tea is the tea most harvested and most drunk in Türkiye. The ministry’s record names the objects that tea and its harvest gave rise to. Tap a number.
- ÇaydanlıkTwo stacked pots. The water boils in the lower pot and the tea brews in the upper one, as the tea maker Doğuş Çay describes it. The ministry names the çaydanlık and the semaver as the tools of brewing.
- İnce belli bardak“Slim-waisted”: the glass tea is traditionally served in, says the ministry.
- Şeker ve şeker makasıSugar and sugar scissors, for kıtlama in Erzurum and Gümüşhane.
- Gümüş tepsiThe silver tray is one of the special tea tools with artistic value that the ministry’s record lists.
- SemaverA traditional vessel of copper, brass or other metal that heats or boils the water for brewing. Copper masters make it by traditional methods, mostly in Amasya and Samsun.
- Çay makasıTea shears, listed by the ministry among the tools made for harvesting tea.
- Ahşap çay sepetiThe wooden basket the picked leaf goes into, another tool of the harvest the record names.
For which pack to buy, what it costs and how long to brew it, see the Turkish tea brands page.
How tea came to Rize
Tea has been a drink in Istanbul since the 1600s. Growing it in Türkiye took until the 20th century. The first try failed. The one that worked grew out of a plan to give people on the Black Sea coast work and income.
| Year | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1600s | Tea is known as a drink in Istanbul. | ÇAYKUR report |
| 1888 | The Ottoman trade minister, İsmail Pasha, has tea saplings brought from China and planted in Bursa. The planting fails because the climate does not suit tea. | ÇAYKUR report |
| 1917 | A group sent to study Batum (today Batumi, in Georgia) reports that the eastern Black Sea coast, with similar growing conditions, could grow tea and citrus. One of its members also points to the high sum paid for imported tea. | ÇAYKUR history page and report |
| 1924 | After the First World War the region has unemployment and heavy emigration. With the 1917 report in mind, parliament passes a law on growing hazelnuts, oranges, mandarins, lemons and tea in Rize and Borçka. Zihni Derin is put in charge of the tea work. | ÇAYKUR history page |
| 1937 | Tea seed is bought from Batum: 20 tonnes. Gardens are planted from it. More seed follows: 30 tonnes in 1939 and 40 tonnes in 1940. | ÇAYKUR history page and report |
| 1938 | The first harvest: 135 kg of fresh leaf. The first black tea: 30 kg. | ÇAYKUR report |
| 1940 | A tea law requires a licence for anyone who plants a tea garden. | ÇAYKUR history page |
| 1946 | The first tea factory opens in Fener, Rize, for 60 tonnes a day. | ÇAYKUR report |
| 1964 | Tea production reaches the level of national use, and imports stop. Small exports start after that. | ÇAYKUR report |
| 1971–1984 | ÇAYKUR is founded in 1971 and runs tea as a state monopoly until a 1984 law opens it to private firms. | TEPGE report |
| 2022 | UNESCO lists the culture of çay. The ministry names exchange programmes with Azerbaijan among its safeguarding measures. | Ministry of Culture and Tourism |
Why Rize, and how much tea
Turkish tea grows on the eastern Black Sea coast. TEPGE counts about 81,000 hectares and 1.4 million tonnes of fresh leaf for 2024, and splits the harvest between four provinces. TEPGE’s tables name TÜİK, the Turkish Statistical Institute, as their source.
- Four provinces: Rize grew 68% of the 2024 fresh leaf, Trabzon 19%, Artvin 11% and Giresun 2%.
- A six-month season: tea is harvested from May to October, in three flushes (new growth of leaf).
- Gardens beside factories: picked leaf starts to spoil at once, so it must reach a processing plant fast. The gardens and the plants have to be in the same region.
- Mountains by the sea: in Rize the mountains run parallel to the sea. “Rize Çayı” has been a registered designation of origin since 26.03.2021, tied to the climate, the soil and how the leaf is grown and processed there.
- Per person: TEPGE counts 13.7 kg of fresh leaf in 2023/24, or 3.5–4 kg of dry tea, and says Türkiye is first in the world.
Çay at UNESCO
The culture ministry entered çay culture in its national inventory on 12.03.2020. The record says the culture covers the knowledge, skills and customs of growing, preparing, serving and drinking tea. The ministry’s list of Türkiye’s UNESCO elements carries it as “Culture of Çay (tea), A Symbol of Identity, Hospitality and Social Interaction” (2022). Among the measures to keep the tradition alive, the record names exchange programmes with Azerbaijan.
Brands, prices and brewing
Which pack to buy, what it costs and how long to brew it belong on another page: the Turkish tea brands, with a brewing calculator and the price per 100 grams.
Quick answers
How much tea does Türkiye drink?
TEPGE ranks Türkiye first in the world for tea use per person: 13.7 kg of fresh leaf, or 3.5–4 kg of dry tea, in 2023/24. TEPGE’s tables name TÜİK as their source.
What do açık and demli mean?
Light and strong. Ask for açık for a lighter glass and demli for a stronger one.
What is tavşan kanı?
Literally “rabbit’s blood”. ÇAYKUR’s sector report says Turks call their tea by this name and drink it at all hours, with lemon, with sugar or without.
What is kıtlama?
A way of drinking tea found especially in Gümüşhane and Erzurum, and in some cities of eastern Anatolia. The sugar is not dropped into the glass. Pieces broken off a lump with sugar scissors are held under the tongue while the tea is sipped.
When did Türkiye start growing tea?
The first harvest was in 1938, after a law of 1924 for Rize and Borçka and a seed purchase in 1937. A first try in Bursa in 1888 failed.
Is Turkish tea only from Rize?
Most of it is: Rize 68%, Trabzon 19%, Artvin 11% and Giresun 2% of the fresh leaf in 2024, says TEPGE.
Sources and dates checked
The pages below were checked on 22.10.2026. Each fact on this page comes from one of them.
- Çay Kültürü / Tea Culture — Ministry of Culture and Tourism (T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı), Living Heritage directorate: national inventory record for çay culture, entered 12.03.2020, checked 22.10.2026
- UNESCO Somut Olmayan Kültürel Miras Listelerinde Türkiye — Ministry of Culture and Tourism (T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı), Living Heritage directorate: the entry for çay culture (2022) in Türkiye’s UNESCO lists, checked 22.10.2026
- Çay Kültürü, Kimlik, Misafirperverlik ve Sosyal Etkileşim Sembolu — Ministry of Culture and Tourism (T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı), Living Heritage directorate: the UNESCO listing’s record page, checked 22.10.2026
- Çaykur’un Tarihçesi — ÇAYKUR, the state tea company: its history page, checked 22.10.2026
- 2015 Çay Sektörü Raporu — ÇAYKUR: tea sector report 2015 (the chapters “Çay kültürleri” and “Türkiye’de çayın tarihçesi”), checked 22.10.2026
- Çay Ürün Raporu 2025 — Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (T.C. Tarım ve Orman Bakanlığı), TEPGE, the ministry’s agricultural economics institute: tea report, publication 414, September 2025. Its tables name TÜİK as their source, checked 22.10.2026
- Rize Çayı — Rize Culture and Tourism Directorate: the geographical indication record for Rize tea (registered 26.03.2021), checked 22.10.2026
- Çay Kültürü — Doğuş Çay, a private tea maker: how the çaydanlık is used, checked 22.10.2026
