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Rize Tea, From the Slopes to the Glass

As you enter Rize on the coastal road, the first thing that catches your eye is not the sea itself but the slopes rising right behind it.

Radar TürkiyeRadar Türkiye4 Kasım 2026
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Rize Tea, From the Slopes to the Glass

As you enter Rize on the coastal road, the first thing that catches your eye is not the sea itself but the slopes rising right behind it. These slopes are covered with dark green tea bushes, densely planted, pruned and curving row after row. This landscape, which is now seen as the identity of the city, is in fact quite recent. This article follows the official records to tell how tea came to Rize, which path it takes from the slope to the glass and how it changed the life of a whole province, and it also shows where you can see the tea landscape today.

The climate that feeds the slopes

The geographical indication registration of Rize Tea states that the qualities of the product come first of all from the climate. According to the registration text, the mountains running parallel to the sea in Rize rise from the shore up to 3937 metres. Broadleaf forests extend from the coast up to about 750 metres, mixed forests above them and conifers higher still. Above two thousand metres alpine meadows begin, and further up there are glacial lakes. The Eastern Black Sea Cultural Inventory also lists the constantly rainy climate, the misty weather and the streams of the region among the main factors that shaped its folk culture. Abundant rain makes the soil fertile, but the steep and rugged terrain leaves no room for wide fields. As the inventory explains, for centuries local people therefore grew crops for their own needs, such as maize, beans, squash, collard greens and hemp, in small gardens. Tea entered the scene as the plant that suited exactly these steep and humid slopes.

How tea came to Rize

The Eastern Black Sea Cultural Inventory reminds us that the idea of growing tea in Türkiye started before Rize. Trials were made in the first years of the reign of Abdülhamid II, tea saplings brought in 1890 were planted in Bursa, but no result was obtained. The first treatises on tea were also published in the same period. The inventory also notes that a Trabzon provincial yearbook of 1879 records the production of "Chinese tea" in Hopa and Arhavi, but that later yearbooks do not repeat this information and the record may refer to a wild plant resembling tea.

The beginning of the work in Rize falls in the last years of the First World War. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam gives this beginning with the year 1918 and the name of Ali Rıza Bey. The Eastern Black Sea Cultural Inventory names the same person as Ali Rıza Erten and writes that in 1917 he prepared reports showing that tea could be grown in the Artvin and Rize area. According to the inventory, a law on tea cultivation in Rize and Artvin was passed in 1924 and people were encouraged to plant tea. Convincing farmers, who were cautious at first, was not easy. The inventory records that Zihni Derin, Director General of Agricultural Affairs, led this effort for many years. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam also writes that production developed in 1933 through the efforts of Zihni Derin and later Asım Zihnioğlu. The two sources meet on one date: in 1947 the first tea factory in Rize started working. The Eastern Black Sea Cultural Inventory states that this factory was opened in Fener.

From the slope to the factory

The journey of tea begins on the slope, but it does not end there. As the inventory underlines, the leaf picked in the garden is not used as it is, it is sent to the factory to be processed. It is therefore no surprise that the first industrial plants set up in Rize were tea processing factories. The geographical indication registration describes the process briefly and clearly. The tea plant, Camellia sinensis, is an agricultural plant growing in humid climates whose leaves and buds are used to make a drink. Black tea is obtained by passing these leaves, buds and soft stems through the stages of withering, rolling, oxidation and drying.

The registration text puts special emphasis on time. Because the leaf starts to deteriorate from the moment it is picked, the fresh leaves must reach the processing plant quickly. That is why the garden and the factory must be in the same geography. According to the text, even the climate of the place where the plant stands affects the chemical processes that tea goes through during processing. The registration clearly lists four factors that determine the taste of Rize Tea: the variety of the plant, the climate and soil conditions of the province, the farming techniques applied from growing to harvest, and the black tea processing technique. According to the registration text, this is why the colour, astringency, brightness, scent and aroma of the tea become identified with the region; the taste preference of consumers is also one of the factors that shape processing conditions. The geographical indication application for Rize Tea was filed on 15 August 2017, and the product was registered as a designation of origin on 26 March 2021.

The plant that changed a province

Tea cultivation spread rapidly in Rize after the 1960s. The Eastern Black Sea Cultural Inventory writes that the total farmland of the province is 54,589 hectares and that tea is grown on more than 91 percent of it. Today the main occupation of people living in the villages is tea farming. In the words of the inventory, tea has been the locomotive of the growth of the city of Rize. Providing longer employment and better income was a major change for a region whose people had often been forced to work far from home. The inventory also gives an interesting detail. Although the economy of Rize depends largely on tea, tea makes almost no contribution to exports, and nearly all production goes to domestic consumption.

When tea filled the lower belt of the slopes, livestock farming moved upward. According to the inventory, commercial livestock farming is today concentrated in the high areas where tea does not grow, and the animals are taken up to the highland pastures in the summer months. The inventory also records that after the 1980s the capital accumulated through tea farming encouraged entrepreneurs to invest, and that migration from the villages to large cities increased in the same period.

This transformation came at a price. According to the inventory, first vegetable and fruit gardens and then idle land were turned over to tea, and the variety of crops narrowed. With the retreat of maize, and with it of milling, some elements of culture also disappeared. The tradition of neighbours working together weakened, and the folk songs, verses and horon dances that accompanied work became rarer. Clothing changed too. According to a study cited by the inventory, the use of linen fell from 51 percent to 9 percent with the arrival of tea. The GoTürkiye crafts page tells the same story from another angle. The hemp yarn from which the Rize cloth called Feretiko was woven was grown, before the 1960s, in the fields where tea grows today, and in those years almost every house had a loom. Again according to the inventory, the wooden granaries next to the houses, the serenders, began to lose their function once tea replaced maize.

Baskets, socks and daily life

Traces of tea entering daily life can also be seen in the crafts. The Eastern Black Sea Cultural Inventory writes that the back baskets made in Rize were used to carry tea, maize and beans. Hazel and chestnut rods are preferred for the weave of the basket, and wood of the komar shrub for its legs. A thick weave is made for heavy loads and a fine weave for light loads. GoTürkiye also notes that on the rugged terrain transport was done for centuries on the back, with two-legged baskets fitted with two straps. When you look at the motifs of the wool socks peculiar to Hemşin and Çamlıhemşin, you see once more how tea settled into the region. Among the motif names listed by GoTürkiye, alongside cherry blossom and daisy, there is also the tea road.

Rize tea in the glass

The inventory also adds a short note on brewing. The caffeine in tea passes into the water during brewing and gives tea its stimulating effect. The quality of the water and the material of the teapot affect the flavour. According to the inventory, tea brewed in a porcelain pot gives a better result than tea brewed in metal pots. The natural lifespan of the tea plant is about a hundred years, and its yield falls as it ages. Since the gardens in Rize were planted from the 1960s on, the plants can no longer be considered young. The inventory therefore writes that organic farming is being encouraged and that replacing plants that have completed their lifespan with new saplings is recommended.

Where to see the tea landscape

You do not have to go far to see the tea gardens. Along the coastal road from Rize towards Çayeli, Pazar and Ardeşen, the slopes are covered with tea bushes from end to end. GoTürkiye points to Haremtepe, also known as Çeçeva, about six kilometres from Çayeli, as the best known viewpoint of this landscape. There the tea gardens stretch along the hills in neat terraces and bring together the culture of production and the green of the Black Sea in a single view. If you want to understand the world that tea entered, also stop by the ethnographic section of the Rize Museum. The museum is housed in the Yellow House, an example of local civil architecture, and displays pieces of daily life before tea, such as the kitchen, the hearth and a maize mill.

Practical tips

The tea gardens are mostly the villagers' own fields. When walking on the slopes do not leave the path, and ask for permission before stepping between the rows. The best light for photography comes in the hours when the mist withdraws from the slopes. Rize is a rainy province, so take a raincoat and shoes that do not slip. For the visiting days and hours of the Rize Museum, check the current information at muze.gov.tr. You can read the geographical indication details of Rize Tea on the geographically indicated products page of the Rize Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism.

Sources

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