Çaykur is Turkey’s leading tea producer and one of the most recognizable names in the country’s tea industry, closely associated with the Black Sea region around Rize, the heart of Turkish tea cultivation. The company was formally established in 1983 as Çay İşletmeleri Genel Müdürlüğü (Çaykur), although the roots of organized state tea production in Turkey go back much earlier, with the first tea harvest in 1938 and the first tea processing factory opening in 1947.