Teabags were among the first material objects of convenience to be introduced and, as the above quote indicates, became a marker of progress in Turkey (cf. Shove 2003). In the late 1980s and early 1990s fashionable cafés and restaurants served only teabags in cups and mugs and one would be hard pressed to find tea brewed in a çaydanlık in the high street. Moreover, industrial-size tea machines made their appearance in hotels and offices, along with foam and plastic cups. However, the new millennium saw the introduction of larger tulip-shaped glasses, the reintroduction of ‘traditional’ saucers, electric double pots and electric samovars, and the return of brewed tea to those same trendy cafés and restaurants. Now most cafes have two items on their menus: demli çay (brewed tea) served in ince belli glasses and çay (tea) served in cups or mugs. The latter, the normalized tea, is the teabag, that comes in numerous kinds of black, green, herbal and fruit teas.
With the introduction of teabags, a large variety of stovetop and electric teapots, tea glasses and saucers appeared in stores, cafés and homes (see http: //www.tasarim. itu.edu.tr/images/genova/genova\_2.jpg for examples). Appliance firms produced electronic versions of the double teapot, which they claim provides the perfect tea. In turn, for those who don’t want to give up their çaydanlık, electric or stovetop, Lipton introduced large teabags to fit it. Teapots evolved from a uniquely shaped metal or the bottom kettle metal with a porcelain top kettle to a large variety of forms, designs, patterns, and materials. There also used to be a single-sized tea glass, but the 1990s saw a larger tulip-shaped glass, which increased in size again in 2005 and appeared in a variety of designs. The large ones (holding more tea, and some with handles, like a mug) mark fashion, novelty and modernity. These new bigger but still ince belli (thin-waisted) glasses are referred to with the names of the Turkish female pop singers – Sibel Can or Ajda – perhaps implying at once modernity and Turkishness. The tea plates also follow fashion: from metal and plain glass to contemporary designs to all kinds of retro designs, reminiscent of rustic rural or Ottoman patterns. So, now designers practise their trade on decorated and multicoloured kettles and on contemporary and reinvented glasses and saucers.
In recent years, the wide availability of electric teapots and teabags has produced some interesting changes in the tea drinking practice in Turkey. We argue that what engenders such changes is not solely new materials and the discourses around their use (cf. Shove and Pantzar 2005), but also the temporalities implicated in these materials.
Special and Ordinary Times
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