Don't Spill the Tea

Technically, Nate did spill the tea about the ins and outs of our weekend away in Samarkand and Tashkent, Uzbekistan. What he didn’t share was the national obsession with tea.

Every country has a national beverage. You might be imagining arak, raki, aguadiente or maybe Miller Light. But according to Pew Research (I know, it’s so pretentious to embed this link), thanks to colonization the world can be divided between tea countries and coffee countries. With the exception of the Philippines and South Korea, “coffee predominates in the Americas and in continental Europe, while tea is preferred in most of Asia and the former Soviet Union.”

Our last few trips to the Caucuses provided us some education on the tea vs coffee divide. Knowing that Georgians and Armenians trade in both coffee and tea, while the Azeris primarily rely on tea, I was curious to see what our journey eastward would prove. To our delight, Uzbekistan was the land of tea.  Fruit dominated the scene but the bits and bops of cinnamon, all spice, and anise floated through many pots.

Today, I present to you highlights from our teacation.

Nate wraps up our trip with a cup of strong Turkish tea.