Contrary to what one might expect, Turkey is not a land of coffee but tea drinkers. Why do people keep offering apple tea in Turkey?
Biggest tea consumer per capita in the World:
- Turkey 2.5 kg (88 oz)
- United Kingdom 2.1 kg (74 oz)
- Ireland 1.5 kg (53 oz)
- Morocco 1.4 kg (49 oz)
- lran 1.2 kg (42 oz)
- Egypt 1.1 kg (39 oz)
- N.Zealand & Poland 1 kg (35 oz)
- Japan 0.9 kg (32 oz)
- Netherlands 0.8 kg (28 oz)
- Australia 0.8 kg (28 oz)
Why do people keep offering apple tea in Turkey?
Turkish Coffee‘ is famous worldwide and coffee was introduced to Europe via Turks. However, coffee is not grown in Turkey. ‘Turkish coffee’ is the name given to a way of making coffee. The total annual consumption of tea is 130,000 tons. Turkish tea is grown along the Black Sea Coast especially in Rize. The annual consumption of coffee is 8,000 tons and 6,000 of which is Turkish coffee and the rest 2,000 tons instant and filtered. On the average, a Turk consumes 35 cups of coffee annually, whereas a Dutch person consumes nearly 700 cups.Colombia and Brasil are the biggest coffee-producers.
Apple tea is very popular in the southern and western coast of Turkey. It is a way of attracting more tourists (potential customers). You will be offered apple tea by waiters, shopkeepers or even in the market by sellers. I’ve seen tourists buying more than ten boxes of apple tea. I think it is hard to find apple [tea except in some spice shops in Europe. It is inexpensive (3.-TL per box) and easy to prepare; just put one tea¬spoon of apple tea into a cup of hot water, stir it and drink! It can be used in cakes, pastries, jellies and puddings as well.
Why do people keep offering apple tea in Turkey?,