Turkish tea, çay, is brewed in two stages. A small pot packed with leaf makes a strong concentrate, the dem, over a kettle of boiling water. Each glass then gets some dem and is topped up with hot water from the same kettle, so everyone at the table picks their own strength. The stacked pot that does both at once is a çaydanlık.
- Leaf
- 3 g/100 ml
- Water
- 100°C
- Brew the dem
- 15 min
- In the glass
- ⅓ to ½ dem
The leaf is for the water in the top pot, not for the glasses: 15 g for a 500 ml top pot. Water at 100°C is 212°F.
What you need
- A çaydanlık. Two pots stacked one on the other: a large kettle below for the water and a small pot on top for the leaf. No çaydanlık? A small teapot and a kettle will do: see Turkish-style tea without a çaydanlık.
- Turkish black tea. A finely cut black tea from Rize, on the Black Sea coast, is the usual choice.
- Tulip glasses. Small glasses, narrow at the middle and flared at the rim (ince belli), so you can see the colour. They usually come with saucers and little spoons.
- Sugar cubes, on the side, for anyone who wants them. Turkish tea is drunk without milk.
Step by step
- Boil the water. Fill the lower kettle and bring it to the boil.
- Leaf in the top pot. About 3 g for every 100 ml the top pot holds: 15 g for 500 ml.
- Pour on boiling water. Fill the top pot from the kettle, top the kettle back up with fresh water, and stack the top pot on it again.
- Brew on a low heat: about 15 minutes. Turn the heat down so the kettle just simmers; its steam keeps the top pot hot while the dem brews (demleme). It's ready when the leaves have sunk to the bottom, after 10 to 15 minutes.
- Pour the dem. Fill each glass a third to half full, through a small strainer if the pot doesn't have one.
- Top up with hot water. Fill the glass from the kettle. Less water makes it koyu, strong and dark; more makes it açık, light.
- Look for the red. A good glass is a deep, clear red, the colour called tavşan kanı, rabbit's blood.
When the glass isn't right
- Pale and thin. The dem hasn't had long enough, or there's too little leaf. Give it the full 15 minutes, or add more leaf: add about a gram per 100 ml. In the glass, use more dem and less water. More time pulls more flavour out of the same leaf.
- Dark, bitter or cloudy. The dem has stewed: the kettle was boiling hard under it, or it sat on the heat too long. Keep the kettle at a gentle simmer, and brew a fresh pot rather than keeping one hot for hours.
Leaf for your çaydanlık
Top pots come in different sizes. Measure yours once: fill it to where you'd brew and weigh the water, a gram for every millilitre.
| Top pot | Leaf |
|---|---|
| 300 ml | 9 g |
| 500 ml | 15 g |
| 750 ml | 22.5 g |
| 1000 ml | 30 g |
Other teas in a çaydanlık
It's a black-tea way of brewing. Shou pu-erh, dark and herbal take the same long, hot brew. For green, white, yellow, oolong and sheng pu-erh tea, Steepbook starts from their usual Western temperature and time instead: A çaydanlık is made for black tea. For this one, brew the top pot off the heat at the tea's usual temperature, so the leaf doesn't stew, then dilute it in the glass as usual.
The step-by-step recipe is in Turkish çay (çaydanlık), and the background in Turkish tea. Common starting points, not rules. A vendor's own brewing notes for a tea come first, and your taste decides from there.
Steepbook is a free app that remembers the steep that worked for each tea, teaware and brew style. Have a look if that sounds useful.