Turkish... Tea?

Our innocence here in Istanbul is apparently still alive and well. Although we had visited Turkey several years ago (granted, only for a few weeks), we didn't remember how ubiquitous tea is. Turkish coffee is world-famous, of course, and justifiably so. But take a look around town—and probably throughout the entire country—and you'll get the idea that maybe Tea is King here.

Çay ("chai") shops abound, and as you can see from the photo here, grocery stores typically set aside far more shelf space to Lipton and other çay than to various kinds of kahve (coffee). Blimey, you'd think you were in England or India!

And horror of horros: the Evil Empire of Nescafe definitely has a foothold here in Turkey. Not that you can't still readily find that wonderfully strong Turkish kahve in stores and coffee shops. But take a quick look at that photo again (and as always, click on it to see the full-size version); up at the top right is the only bit of Turkish coffee available in this shop. Then again, maybe one just doesn't need a vast array of choices of Turkish blend, when one will do just fine.

As for us, as long as it's still warm outside, we're making do with cold-coffee frappes (home-made frappucinos) with the horrid instant stuff and plenty of ice. But that can be our dirty little secret—you won't tell anyone else, will you?