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Iran Turkey Georgia |
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From the black sea
to the caspian sea
Tea arrived in this region via different routes and was at first a commodity imported from far away, long before it began to be grown at home. It was the Mongols and the merchants of the Silk Route that introduced tea to the Russians, the Turks, the Persians as well as the peoples of Kirghistan, Turkmenistan, Ouzbekistan… Towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, the numerous attempts to grow tea plants in the area became successful in the mountains between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea.
Iran, Turkey and the CIS, who specialize in the preparation of black tea in a samovar, produce tea mainly for their own consumption. The former USSR was, at one time, the fifth largest producer in the world. We must be careful not to confuse teas from this country, sometimes categorized as "Russian style" teas because of their use in the samovar, with the "Russian taste" label given to some blends of Chinese black teas, scented or not, which were made popular by the Russian court at the end of the 19th century.
Turkey
As in many countries in this region, the drinking of tea pre-dates its cultivation, and it was in the 16th century that the beverage was introduced to the Ottoman court. As far as cultivation was concerned, it started in the 1920s, using seeds from the Soviet Union. The plantations cover the south shores of the Black Sea between Rize and Trabzon and are often small in size where a more collective style of farming is practised. Turkey is the sixth largest tea producer in the world and its output is self-sufficient with small-scale export. Turkish style tea, prepared in a samovar, is most commonly served with nothing added, but can also have the addition of pine nuts or cardamom seeds. It is a delicious accompaniment to Turkish delight, gazelle's horn and other eastern pastries.
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One of the few countries, along with Japan, to have mechanized tea plucking, Georgia is one of the smaller tea producing nations. The tea plants, grown along the banks of the Black Sea, were chosen for their hardiness and are particularly resistant to cold: the Georgian plantations are some of the most northerly on the planet and winters there are harsher than on any other plantations. While this country's teas cannot be compared to the great classic teas, there are nonetheless some good black teas for drinking throughout the day.
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Iran
Tea drinking in Iran dates back to the end of the 15th century. It owes its development to the difficulty of importing coffee, which was greatly enjoyed at the time but very hard to obtain from the producing countries. Taking the same route as the Silk Route, tea gradually began to replace coffee in the preferences and customs of the Mongols.
It was not until the end of the 19th century that the first attempt was made to cultivate the tea plant and not until the beginning of the 20th that the first crop of Iranian tea was sold on the local market. Plantations then developed rapidly in the province of Gilan, located between the south shore of the Caspian Sea and the Elbourz Mountains. From 1920 onwards, production underwent a real boom. Today Iran is the eighth largest producer in the world and consumes almost its entire output of tea.
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