Rize

Turkey

Rize Province on Turkey's eastern Black Sea coast is the center of Turkish tea production, a region where steep, green hillsides plunge dramatically into the sea. Tea was introduced to Rize in the 1930s as part of Ataturk's modernization program, and the crop rapidly replaced hazelnut farming on the rain-soaked slopes. Turkish tea is processed as a robust, heavily oxidized CTC black tea traditionally brewed extra strong in a two-tiered caydanlik and served in tulip-shaped glasses with sugar but never milk. Turkey consumes more tea per capita than any other country, and virtually all of Rize's considerable output is consumed domestically, making it one of the most inward-facing tea economies in the world.