Tea Customs and Culture in RussiaBy the beginning of the 19th century, tea had become an essential part of noble life — adopting French and English habits, Russian noblemen willingly treated themselves to tea, adding some Russian coloring to the European tea drinking. By 1820, the set of rules and customs, called Russian tea tradition, generally had formed — though the beverage was still too expensive to become a drink for the mass. In the 1820s wholesale trade concentrated at Makaryev fair (later it moved to Nizhny Novgorod), where a special clan of tradesmen (called ‘chayniki’ — literally ‘teapots’ employed to mean ‘tea-traders’), appeared. Over 40 years (until the 1860s), tea was a backbone article of trade at the fair — prices for any other goods were fixed only when the price for tea had been declared. Chaepitie is the term used in Russia for “tea drinking”. It’s not taken with meals as it is in many parts of the world. It’s consumed after meals and during mid-afternoon breaks. The tea is usually brewed in a samovar, a device which is the central symbol of the Russian Tea Ceremony. It’s a combination urn and teapot. The lower part is the urn. Water is boiled in the urn and there is a tap to pour the water. The teapot part sits on top and is kept warm by the heat from the urn. The ritual of serving tea from the samovar after dinner is very old. The samovar is put on the table around which the family is gathered. Loose tea is placed in the urn of the samovar. The resulting tea, called zavarka, is very strong. It is served in a “stakan s podstakanni kam” (a glass with a metal holder) and diluted with hot water.
|
