Chai Al-Iraqi
An Iraqi tea maker at a street cafe.
Iraq’s love affair with tea
By Adhid Miri, PhD
As one of the world’s most popular beverages, tea has fascinated us, stimulated us, motivated us, and calmed us for well over two thousand years. Tea, or “chai,” as we call it in Iraq, is an authentic part of the local heritage. The Iraq’s long love affair with tea is amazing and historic, although it is difficult to cultivate in Iraq because it needs special environmental conditions.
The history of tea includes the compelling story of the rise of tea in Asia and its eventual spread to the West and beyond. From the Chinese tea houses of the ancient Tang Dynasty (618-907) to the Japanese tea ceremonies developed by Zen Buddhist monks, and the current social issues faced by tea growers in India and Sri Lanka—this fascinating story explores the history of this universal drink.
The tea story is infused with a blend of myth and fact and is colored by ancient concepts of spirituality and philosophy. According to legend, tea has been known in China since about 2700 BCE. For millennia it was a medicinal beverage obtained by boiling fresh leaves in water, but around the 3rd century it became a daily drink, and tea cultivation and processing began.
Tea holds a place near and dear to nearly every culture on the face of this Earth. It is an affordable, simple, and pleasant way to refresh, to enhance natural immune mechanisms, and to preserve health and beauty. Each cup of tea is a perfectly balanced combination of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and biologically active substances that increase vitality and improve health.
Today, tea is the world’s most popular beverage after water.
Whatever your cup of tea—green, black, white, oolong, chai, Japanese, Chinese, Sri Lankan, American or British—every tea aficionado will enjoy learning more about their favorite beverage.
All the tea in China
According to William Shakespeare, “the most pleasant things in life happen by chance,” and it was chance that made the discovery of tea such an interesting story. From imperial China to colonial America, many myths and legends surround the history and chemistry of tea.
Whatever the legend, tracing tea’s original roots proves difficult. It is probable that the tea plant originated in regions around southwest China, Tibet, and northern India. Chinese traders may have traveled throughout these regions often and encountered people chewing tea leaves for medicinal purposes.
For tea to become so important, someone had to start drinking the leaves of the tea plant infused in water. Although it is impossible to know who had this crazy idea for the first time, a few legends offer explanation.
According to Chinese legend, tea was born in 2727 BC, when the Emperor Shen Nong was purifying water in the shelter of a tea tree and several leaves blew into the pot. The resulting brew, of superb fragrance, color, and taste, made the emperor rejoice. Tea soon became a daily drink in Chinese culture and the emperor is said to have praised the merits of tea and contributed to its popularity.
In India, another legend tells the story of Prince Dharma, who left his homeland for China to preach Buddhism. He vowed not to sleep during his 9-year mission. Toward the end of his third year, when he was overtaken by fatigue, he grabbed a few leaves of a tea shrub and chewed them up. They gave him the strength necessary to stay awake for the remaining 6 years of his mission.
Whatever legend one chooses to believe, all research on the subject tends to place the origins of tea, as both a plant and as a beverage, in China.
For love of chai
The love story between Iraqis and tea was born, by many accounts, during the British occupation of Iraq in the years of World War I between 1914-1918.
Iraqis are addicted to black tea. It is often sweetened, either with sugar (lots of sugar) or honey or jam and is always served hot, even in hot weather or as a thirst–quencher. On their happy and sad occasions, in their visits or as hosts, in their formal and informal meetings, and in negotiations, there is hardly a gathering of Iraqis without their favorite hot drink: tea, otherwise known as chai.
Iraqis knew coffee before tea. Their cafes were scattered across the cities, and initially, they did not take to tea. The story goes that the English ordered the owners of all cafes to serve tea only, forbidding the service of coffee. Although tea was known, it wasn’t popular until that time.
Chai is a word for tea in numerous languages; it is used in Russia, Ukraine, Iran, and Turkey. The word is derived from Chinese chá. Masala chai is a blend of black tea and herbs and spices originating in India.
Today, tea (chai) is the number one drink in Iraq. The country topped the list of Ceylon tea importers in the year 2021. The International Tea Committee includes Iraq in the list of the most tea-drinking nations in the world, as one Iraqi citizen consumes 0.5 kg per year, a figure that is more than twice the global average per capita consumption of 0.2 kilograms, according to the committee’s statistics.
Iraqis prefer to drink dark tea; they call it “sangeen” in the Iraqi colloquial dialect. They drink hot tea in the summer as well as in the winter, and the high temperatures that reach fifty degrees Celsius in August do not prevent drinking tea hot, and do not reduce the demand for it.
The most famous tea in Iraq is one made with “slow extraction” of tea on charcoal, or as the Iraqis call it “royal tea” or “Chai Milooki,” by placing tea leaves and cardamom pods in an aluminum jug next to a heated pan.
There is no set time or place to drink tea for the Iraqis; in the morning with breakfast, after lunch and dinner, straight or with cake or local pastry – it’s all good.
Black or flavored
Black tea leaves include traditional types such as Indian Assam and Darjeeling, or blends from Africa or China. The black tea leaves are harvested and undergo a production process that includes withering, rolling, oxidation, and drying. Some manufacturers use a blend of black teas from across the world. The drying process also affects the flavor of tea. Some black tea leaves are roasted while others are pan-fired or steamed resulting in different tasting notes.
Up to the mid-17th century, all Chinese tea was green tea. As foreign trade increased, the Chinese growers discovered that they could preserve the tea leaves with a special fermentation process. The resulting black tea kept its flavor and aroma longer than the more delicate green teas and was better equipped for the export journeys to other countries.
For a very long time, Europeans only drank black tea, initially imported from China, then from India and Ceylon. Contrary to oriental tradition and at the risk of altering the subtle flavors, sugar and a dash of milk were frequently added.
Flavored teas include any type of tea—white, green, oolong, black—that has been scented or flavored with fruit, flowers, spices, oils, extracts, and natural or artificial flavors. Earl Grey, flavored with bergamot and jasmine, is one of the most popular.
Earl Grey teas are flavored in one of two ways. The tea leaves are sprayed or coated with bergamot essential oil or extracts to infuse flavor. Alternatively, dried bergamot orange rinds are added to the dried leaves for infusion in water. Earl Grey teas that are coated with oils tend to have a stronger citrus flavor.
It’s considered the best of both worlds when it comes to combine flavor, aroma, the rich, malty flavors of black tea with the uplifting citrusy tang of herbal and floral teas. Earl Grey also delivers health benefits that make it as good for you as it is delicious to drink, that may alleviate digestive problems, boost the immune system, and improve oral health.
While Earl Grey tea was popularized by the English, it was not an English invention. Scented and flavored teas are uniquely Chinese. Early Chinese tea masters constantly experimented with ways to make their teas more exotic, not only to capture the attention of the reigning emperors of the time but also the business of worldwide trade merchants looking to return home with the unique flavors of the Far East. From fragrant jasmine flowers and wild rosebuds to bitter oranges and sweet lychee fruits, Chinese tea masters infused all kinds of fragrance and flavor into their teas during processing to create distinctive and highly drinkable beverages.
One history of the origins of Earl Grey explains that a Chinese mandarin tea master blended the first Earl Grey tea as a gift for Charles Grey, the 2nd Earl of Grey and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1830 to 1834. According to the Grey family, the tea master used bergamot as a flavoring to offset the lime flavor in the well water on Earl Grey’s estate, Howick Hall, near Newcastle, England.
Earl Grey’s wife, Lady Grey, loved the tea so much that she entertained with it exclusively. It proved so popular with London society, she asked tea merchants in London to recreate it. Exactly which English tea merchant marketed the first Earl Grey tea blend is somewhat of a debate in the world of tea. But one thing is for sure—while the 2nd Earl of Grey abolished slavery and reformed child labor laws in England during his political leadership, he will be most famously remembered for the beloved tea he helped introduce to the world.
Al-Outrah
That is not to say that tea cannot be grown in Iraq. Al Outrah, or Atrasha, is an aromatic shrub that belongs to the geranium family. A beautiful green plant native to the countries of the Mediterranean basin, it is often grown in Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, and Syria, especially in the garden of the house. It is a favorite plant of our mothers.
An excellent source of essential oils, which are often used in the manufacture of perfumes and cosmetics, fresh leaves fromthe shrub are used to make a tea. Fragrant Outrah gives Iraqi tea a delicious flavor; some add one or two fresh leaves to a tea pot to give it a distinctive aromatic taste.
Tools and accessories
Making tea requires tools that many housewives race to acquire and no Iraqi house is devoid of, each according to their preference and capabilities. Some use Russian Samovars to make tea, or aluminum or stainless-steel jugs (Kettles); others use ceramic jugs (Quori) that women inherit from their mothers and grandmothers.
Many accessories and tools accompany the preparation and serving of tea, some of which have disappeared with the changes of time and some others are still struggling to survive, such as the tea pot (Quori), which the electric kettle was unable to remove from the throne of Iraqi tea.
The middle class used two vessels to prepare tea. One, for boiling water—they keep its English pronunciation (kettle) and used the word “kitlee”—and the second vessel is used to prepare the tea. Made of Chinese pottery, it is called the Quori.
The Quori is special, as it is associated with tea and its manufacture. For the most part, Iraqis rely on two Quoris for tea making, one of them larger than the other. The little one, with tea and water, is placed over the mouth of the big one, which is placed directly on the fire, so that the tea is slow heated by the water vapor. In the winter, there is no home without an oil heater with two pots on top of it.
All possessions related to the tea industry have developed over time and vary in architecture. Top of the list in Iraq is the Istikan, preferred by the old school; young people prefer to drink tea in cups. Tea collectibles are passed down from generation to generation — in particular, antique mugs, jugs, spoons, and sugar-preserving vessels (Shakar-dan) that are gold-plated or made of glass and silver.
Tea is served in Iraq in a small glass cup known as Istikan; British soldiers in India during the colonial period would take these home with them as gifts. To distinguish between the Indian tea and the traditional English cup of tea, the cup of Indian tea was called “east-tea-can,” a name made from three words that explain the origin of the mug: east + tea + can (pot). The Iraqis combined the three words into one word for ease, to become “Istikan;” the word spread in cafes, neighborhoods, and homes very quickly. There are other stories about the evolution of the term, but this is the most believable.
When Pope Francis visited Iraq in March 2021, the pontiff made a point of drinking Iraqi tea from an Istikan.
Tea drinking rituals
One of the loudest sounds that can be heard as one wanders in the markets and streets of old neighborhoods in any Iraqi city is the sound of a teaspoon “Kha-shoo-ga” ringing in the famous Iraqi Istikan. This distinctive and well-known sound is due to the lightness of the glass resounding when the small teaspoon made of copper or aluminum is struck by it.
The importance of tea for the Iraqis appears in the spread of tea sellers everywhere within the cities; some of them are wanderers and others make small kiosks on the sidewalks, between shops, and in the markets to prepare and sell tea. A common sight in Iraqi cities is to see people standing on the sidewalks drinking tea from street vendors.
People are keen to serve tea after main meals or in the afternoon hours with biscuits, cookies, or cakes. Many Iraqis feel if they do not drink tea in the morning at breakfast, they are subject to headaches and dizziness throughout the day.
In the old days, café customers used to call out to the worker, “Jeeb Chai for the Ustath” (“bring tea for the gentleman”). Another would say, “I want it from Ras al-Quori” (“direct from the tip of the pot—very hot”).
There are several ways to drink tea in Iraq. Some drink it with sugar, but in some areas of the Kurdistan Region it is enjoyed in a way called “dashlameh,” or bitter tea. The person who drinks it places a cube of sugar under their tongue, a method that is common in Iran and practiced in Iraq until recently.
Tea has social rules much like coffee; it can literally measure the degree of respect for any visitor. If a guest in the home or workplace is not offered a cup of tea, it is considered a lack of warmth and welcome, perhaps ignorance or even disrespect. In return, if the guest refuses to drink the served tea, or returns it, this indicates anger or an unfulfilled request. The homeowner must serve a fully filled Istikan of tea; otherwise, it means a detraction from honoring the guest. It is natural for the guest to take two cups of tea in one visit.
Tea occupies an important position in social gatherings, not only as a hospitality drink, but as a social mediator around which discussions of important social matters revolve, such as concluding peace in a disputed case, paying debts, mediation, reconciliation or submitting marriage proposals.
There are traditions when serving tea which can cause big problems for the host if the one who serves the tea is not familiar with them. For instance, the serving must start from the oldest or highest-ranking person, then turn the presentation from the right until the teacups are placed and served to everyone.
The spoon is especially important when serving tea. It must be placed on the plate, and it is forbidden to put it inside the serving mug; otherwise, it will be considered a serious offense to the guest and can lead to a major dispute, especially if there is a clan problem that requires final resolution.
Iraqi women have their own rituals for drinking tea, especially an inherited daily ritual called the afternoon tea. “Chai al-Abbas” is considered one of the most famous women’s rituals in Iraq. It is an invitation to drink tea offered by women when God fulfills their wishes, which are often related to children.
Sometimes, forgetting or ignoring some of these traditions entails measures of consolation and an apology from the homeowner or the host to their guests.
From the first sip to the last drop, you’ll love the distinctive flavor of Iraqi tea. It is a romantic script about a worldly beverage written by tea leaves, played by a cast of sugar cubes, Quori, Kittlee, Istikans, and Khashoogas, supported by tea lovers and directed by an Iraqi tea master called Chai-Chi.
Sources include Wikipedia, articles by Salah Hassan Baban, Mayada Daoud, Munier Al-Habbobi, Karrar Ali, Raid Jaafar Mutter, Amr Ahmmed, Mohammed Khalil Gattan, Aisha Al-Ghamdi, Aseel Ferman, Karam Saadi, Wafaa Elyan and Dr. Subhi Shehadeh Al-Eid. Special editing by Jacqueline Raxter.