Harking to the old days of face-to-face interaction, indulging in daily rituals of tea drinking in Turkey is personal and, in most cases of strangers, the beginning of beautiful friendships. Tea even has a Turkish love proverb. “Sevmek Çay Gibidir Sevilmek Seker Bizim Gibi Garibanlar Çayi Sekersiz” Meaning “To love is like tea, to be loved is like sugar. The poor like us drink their tea without sugar.” The Best of Turkish Tea

Regional Food Dishes: Any first-time visitor to Turkey who assumes kebabs are an everyday feast is misinformed. Thousands of traditional dishes across Turkey associate with specific regions and are well respected for production, excellent ingredients, and diversity from standard recipes. If food is your passion in life, a culinary tour of Turkey’s cuisine alongside tasting tea or coffee is highly recommended.Turkish apple tea tastes very different from your regular apple tea. Firstly, it’s very intense and bold, very sweet with an acidic touch. Imagine drinking boiled, freshly squeezed sweet apple juice with a touch of citric acid. That’s exactly how instant Turkish apple tea tastes like. Apple tea made from loose dried apple pieces is more delicate, but will also have a tangy note. Potential Health Benefits Add lemon juice or citric acid to bring all the flavours together and taste again. You should get a strong apple flavour with the sweetness of the honey and a sharp lemon flavour too. How to serve traditional Turkish hot apple tea Turkish tea rather than coffee is the national drink of Turkey. More than likely, Turkish friends will serve tea when you visit them at home. They may also send invites to meet them in tea gardens that are family destinations and an integral part of Turkish culture. Teahouses in villages or town centres of Turkey are male-dominated environments, and females rarely visit. To use citric or malic acid, just add a few crystals into the hot drink and let and them dissolve. Taste and add more if needed as a little goes a long way and you only want to sharpen the flavour of the apple, but not make it too strong. Extra Tip There is also quite a bit of sugar to add sweetness and then lemon (or citric acid) to add zing and a bit of sourness. Ingredients & Possible Substitutions Apple

Serve the apple pancakes with a homemade apple sauce (or some of my apple sauce substitutions) and you have a winning combination for a delicious autumn breakfast. How to keep and store your apple tea There are many different types of Fruit Tea products. Some are Granulated Turkish Apple Tea, Turkish Lemon Tea, Turkish Pomegranate Tea, such as Hazer Baba Apple Tea, Hazer Baba Pomegranate Tea, Turko Baba Apple Tea products, some are sachets of Apple Tea products such as Dogus Apple Tea, Dogadan Apple Tea, and Lipton Apple Tea. If you happen to make more apple tea than you need, you can also use it as a liquid instead of water in bread or fruit scones or add it to your morning smoothie (especially if it’s non-dairy based as the lemon or citric acid in this apple tea might curdle the milk or yoghurt). I then use one or two frozen apple tea cubes to make a fresh hot (or cold) drink by pouring hot water over it and make it into an instant hot apple drink! If you to it the other way round, you will not be able to correctly judge how much sugar to add and you’ll probably add way too much.You can also leave the apple tea to cool down completely, chill in in the fridge (or pour over a few ice cubes in a glass) and serve cold. Other uses for apple tea As weird as these ingredients sound, these are completely natural ingredients. Made from lemons (citric acid) or apples (malic acid) they come in small containers looking like larger sugar crystals. They are great for adding sharp and zingy flavour (citric acid) and sourness (malic acid). Ideally you want to drink your tea fresh once it’s made. But if you’ve made to much and you can’t finish the tea straightaway, you can leave it to cool down and then keep it in the fridge (covered) for 2-3 days. First, Turks use a steel, two-tire teapot called a caydanlik. Take the bottom pot and boil water on the stove. Put two tablespoons of tea leaves into the top pot, and fill with boiling water from the lower one. Sit it on top of the bottom pan for 10 minutes. Rather than use cups, Turks drink hot tea out of small tulip-shaped glasses sitting on round saucers. When serving, fill the glass a quarter or third of the way up with tea mixture from the caydanlik top half. Top up with clear water from the bottom pot. Alter this mixture according to whether you like strong (demli) or weak (açik.) Try adding sweetness, then stir, and drink. Turks never add milk but like sweetness. Somehow adding the lemon first makes the drink impossible to flavour with sugar unless you add a lot of it.

Traditionally this apple tea is drank hot and served in a small tulip shaped glasses. You can of course use any kind of suitable glass mug or regular mug for tea. You can drink the tea cold or heat it up on the stove in a small saucepan or in the microwave to drink hot. Turkish apple tea served in shops is usually made from tea granules, tea crystals or tea powders. Tea crystals have a texture and color resembling light muscovado sugar, but both the color and texture can vary. Sometimes, this instant apple tea can look like a white powder but it will still dissolve into a yellow-brown drink. Tea Origins Add the honey first (or your choice of sweetener such as golden syrup or golden syrup alternatives), taste it and then add the lemon to adjust the flavour.

Ever asked yourself what would it be like to drink a melted sweet apple candy with a sour touch? Try Turkish apple tea and you may get a pretty good idea. This unique drink is served in restaurants, shops and hotels throughout Turkey, but you can easily make it at home too. What is Turkish apple tea? I sometimes add a dash of whisky in, especially on a cold autumn evening. It’s the perfect hot drink for late summer or autumn garden parties and of course a great drink for the autumn and winter season. This traditional Turkish apple tea is made from fresh apples, which only ment to infuse the drink/water and then ment to be discarded. But, by ‘discarding’ I certainly don’t mean throwing in the bin!