How To Make Nana Tea

A funny thing happens on trips after several days of complete cultural immersion. You become so attuned to novel experiences and attitudes that you begin to take almost anything in stride, even beyond the point of logic and reason. Some call it "the suspension of disbelief." But I prefer Leigh's catch-phrase for it: "the donkey ate the horse," or "the camel ate the elephant." On the trip to the southeast, if someone had told us such a thing, we would have nodded and accepted it without comment, as if it were perfectly natural.

Let me give an example. Over the course of two days in this "Land of Large Moustaches" (as Mike called it), we had visited an ancient monastery where the Christian sect apparently still spoke Aramaic (a language I thought long-dead).

Near Hasankeyf, we had seen two enormous hunks of rock stranded in the middle of the Tigris River -- the remains of a bridge built for unknown reasons around 1160.

At a kiosk stop in Şanliurfa,* we were offered a brown bubbly drink -- meyan -- made out of pure licorice but actually tasting like a combination of oats and dirt. It is supposedly incredibly good for your stomach, but I could only muster a few sips. (Our driver Suleiman downed a large plastic cup in five seconds flat. I think the key is not to taste it.)

We passed a man driving a donkey cart full of hay. We crashed a traditional Turkish wedding at our hotel and our guide Omer made us dance. So, wearing capris and flip-flops, we danced the Turkish version of the hora with complete strangers.

Finally, that evening we went to a farm to meet with ethnic Yezidis.** We sat at a long table outside, most of it in shadow. The conversation about Yezidis was through the translation of our program director, Erika. Although we tried to keep up, in the end those of us on the far end of the table gave up and just relaxed. Flies buzzed around the small lamp, our tea spoons clinked against tea glasses, the smell of manure mingled with the scent of hay and wild flowers...

One of the owners of the farm decided to show us how to make nana tea -- black tea with lots of sugar and mint leaves. Although less common in Turkey, nana tea is the ubiquitous drink in much of the Middle East.*** The guy spoke no English but he tried to mime the instructions, while we squinted at the dictionary.

He showed us how to crush the mint with our fist so that its scent is released. Then he put some mint leaves in his mouth and pointed at the cup, saying something we couldn't understand (at that point, we had had less than a full week of Turkish).

Not sure of what to do, we followed suit, chewing the hard leaves and then spitting them back into our tea cups. At that moment, if he had told us to break the cups and then dance on the table, we probably would have done so. Another instance of "the camel ate the elephant."

(Later we figured out that he was just chewing the mint leaves for fun. What he was really trying to explain was that hot water had to be poured over the crushed leaves for a proper brew. Yeah...)



Time for this post to end, but the next (and last) post from this trip is the long-promised "My Fake Turkish Wedding."



*Originally it was called Urfa but was renamed "The Illustrious Urfa" ("şanlı" means illustrious or renowned) after the Turkish War of Independence because its militias successfully held back the British and the French after World War I. Also code for "lots of your people died so we're giving you a special name." There are several other cities so honored in Turkey.

For more about the Turkish commemoration of its independence, see the upcoming post about the Atatürk Museum.


**The Yezidis are a pre-Islamic religious minority with substantial populations in Northern Iraq, along with communities in Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, Iran, Russia and Syria. The origins of their religion are largely unknown, its traditions and beliefs secretive and with diverse explanations. Sometimes they have been labeled "Satanic."
One of the guys from our trip met the community while posted in Northern Iraq and wanted to learn more about them. If you are curious, here is the Wikipedia article.


***Many of the people in Southeastern Turkey also speak fluent Arabic and consider themselves Turkish Arabs (or Arab Turks). Probably the cultural influences from the Arab world are more prevalent here...