The Cultural Heritage of Turkish Tea: The Love of Tea Project

Did you know that UNESCO, at the beginning of 2023, defined Turkish tea culture as a "cultural heritage" that needs to be protected? While tea, and consequently tea culture, has faced countless challenges in Türkiye, it's wonderful that an international institution is reminding us of ourselves and our own value. Long live UNESCO!

Respect for Tea Culture

As a producer who loves to dream big for tea culture, we are of course very happy with this development. Culture, as we know, doesn't just happen overnight, it can't be easily destroyed either. We very much wanted Lazika to make a lasting contribution to our tea culture, which is respected all over the world.

Tea Love Project

We use your valuable works on our packaging. Sabriye Seker With this project, which will leave a lasting mark on history, together with the lady and the Şeker Sanatevi (Sugar Art House) that she founded, we set out to tell the world about Turkish tea and its precious tea culture through art. Tea Love . Led by Ms. Sabriye, 19 artists explored Turkish tea, resulting in 29 unique pieces. For six months, these talented artists worked on Turkish tea and its culture, depicting every detail through magnificent artwork.

Art and Tea

They told the story of tea from leaf to cup, the 4000-year journey of tea in the world and in our country, through Turkish art, miniatures and illumination. The richness of depiction and expression in miniature art, as seen in the works of 19 artists, will contribute to conveying Turkish tea culture to a wider audience.

Our artists

I truly believe this. I would like to share with you the names of our esteemed artist friends:

• Sabriye Seker
• Gulumser Saralioglu
• Ayşegül Nalçacı
• Cigdem Ustaoglu
• Umit Üstün
• Zeynep Belkıs Ocak
• Silva Atiniz
• Figen Kocaalioğlu
• Aysel Tuncer
• Ayşenur Şimşek
• Zuleyha Atakul
• İlksen Yıldızaydın
• Serap Çopuroğlu
• Esin Seker
• Gülsüm Yiğittürk
• Müzeyyen Gürbüz
• Berrin Topbaş
• Sevda Açıksöz
• Hülya Toksöz

Moving Tea Forward

Ms. Sabriye was born into a family that migrated from Rize to Istanbul. In fact, she was nourished by her longing for tea. Many of our artist friends in the project group learned about tea simply through research. And the works that resulted are incredible! They brought to life the forgotten values ​​of our tea culture and production, one by one, through their artwork.

First Exhibition

Our exhibition was displayed on the 3rd floor of the famous tea cup building in the Rize Tea Market. Three esteemed journalists who value tea and the agricultural economy, Meliha Okur, Abdurrahman Yıldırım, and Şerif Oğuz, attended the opening of our exhibition. Together, we brainstormed about Turkish tea.

Future Projects

This was a first. I hope it won't be the last. We will continue to strive for improvement to further develop and spread Turkish tea culture.

With love!

Emre