An Enigmatic Turkish Tea

Have you ever seen an enigmatic Turkish tea? I can hear you asking what that even means. Okay this might not be an actual recipe, it’s rather a ‘how to’ post but I’m sure you will love to learn how to make a two colored tea.

Look at this tea! And tell me what you see? Anything extraordinary? Wouldn’t you call it an enigmatic Turkish tea?

Dad always loves to surprise me in different ways. We went to a coffee house last weekend to have tea and simit as breakfast. When I was taking pictures of Turkish tea (you can see it in my last post), he called the waiter and gave another order, which made the waiter perplexed and he had to repeat dad’s order several times to check if he understood right. I was curious, too. His order was: Half glass of plain black tea, half glass of plain hot water, sugar and a glass of tea. When we were waiting for the order, he began to tell me a story.

“Once upon a time, there were a boy and a girl living in a village located on the South of Turkey. They loved each other so much and decided to marry. The boy and his parents visited the girl’s family to get their permission for marriage (This is a part of our culture; you have to get the girl’s parents’  permission to marry her). The girl brewed tea and served it in glasses in a chrome tray to their guests. Interestingly, one of the glasses was different. It was as if the tea was cut sharply in the middle. The upper side was all tea while the bottom side was just hot water, unmixed. They couldn’t understand how it was possible. Everyone wondered to whom she would give that unusual tea. As you can guess, she gave it to the boy, but didn’t say anything despite all curious lookings around her. After a while, when the lovers met again, the boy couldn’t wait anymore: ‘You coy, how did you make it? What is your secret?’ And the girl shared the answer just with him. After this event, this barely known tea was called ‘coy looking tea’ (cilveli cay in Turkish) in that region. There are still coffee houses in some villages serving this tea and people go there out of curiousity to see what kind of a tea this coy looking tea is.”

Then the waiter brought the order. Dad gave me a glass of tea and told me to watch him while enjoying my tea. He put half glass of plain tea, half glass of plain hot water and sugar in front of him and started to work as if he was in a scientific laboratory. First he put sugar into hot water and mixed well. Then he transfered plain tea into this with the help of a teaspoon. Surprisingly, the tea didn’t mix with water. It is absolutely a scientific fact, the water&sugar mixture at the bottom is heavier than tea, which results in this interesting image. However, I could never have thought of making it.

No we didn’t drink it. Dad gave it to the staff as a gift as they were watching him as well. So you can make an enigmatic Turkish tea too when you want to surprise your guests.