So many of you are curious about Russian tea habits. Here are some Russian tea traditions. Please keep in mind that Russia is a large country with many regional customs, so some traditions and methods will differ. As always, none of the links are affiliate links. We do not earn money if you buy a samovar at Amazon, heh.
Tea.
Russians discovered tea in 16th century, when Ivan the Terrible sent two Cossack atamans (war chiefs), Petrov and Yalychov to Siberia with a decree to “unknown peoples” who might be living there. They made it to the sea, passed through Mongolia, and reached China. Whether or not tea was a part of this expedition remains hotly debated by Russian historians, but it is clear that there was an eventual establishment of diplomatic ties between Russia and China, and in 1618 Czar Mihail Fiodorovich Romanov was presented with several crates of tea by the Chinese delegation. Russian word for tea, “Чай,” phonetically spells out chai.
At first tea was viewed as a medicinal drink, but it quickly gained popularity, and by the end of 17th century everyone was drinking it. By 19th century, tea was a big deal. Strict laws were enacted to prevent sale of contraband tea and banning production of koporskii tea, made from fireweed. Koporskii tea tasted kind of nasty, but if you messed with it enough, in a dry state it looked like real tea, so unscrupulous merchants would cut real tea with it.
In the 20th century, a lot of tea in USSR was either home grown or imported from India and Ceylon. Eventually, due to economic difficulties, those imports dried up and so did the consumption of tea. Now it has picked back up and Russian tea market is the fourth largest by volume, right behind China, India, and Turkey. Most of the tea in Russia comes from India, then Sri-Lanka, then China and Indonesia. They keep trying to grow tea in the Krasnodar region, but it accounts for less than 1% of all tea consumed.
Russians drink 10 times as much black tea as green tea, and the green tea still throws a lot of them for a loop. During her first career, my mother was an engineer working for a company designing an anti-missile system. She and her coworkers ended up viewing the tests of the prototype, and the military put them into some old barracks. It was like camping out in a cabin.
One day they all went to the view the tests, and the weather was bad and cold, so they send one guy back ahead of time to make hot tea. He found the tea, but accidentally grabbed the green tea someone had instead of the black tea. So he brews a kettle of this tea and it’s the wrong color. Being an engineer, he concludes that this tea is weak and solves this problem by adding more tea and more tea, until he gets the nice brown color he wants.
The team returns, takes some nice swallows of said tea and then they all have heart palpitations and a spirited debate regarding whether or not they need to go to the hospital.
Tea Equipment
Traditional tea preparation involves zavarka, very strong concentrated tea brewed in a tea pot, which is then diluted by boiled water to the desired strength. Children get weaker tea, adults get stronger tea.
This is where the traditional Russian samovars came into play. They are basically low-tech electric kettles designed to boil water and then keep it warm for hours. First samovars used coal, now they are electric. You can see the one below comes with a matching removable tea pot.
Samovars are pretty, but not practical, because they are a pain to clean.
In the pre USSR times, tea was drank in pretty cups, which were always served with a deep saucer dish. Tea was frequently poured into the saucer and drank from it because it cooled faster.
The tea I remember was served in cups at our house. On a train and in a school cafeteria, tea came in glasses, often with a podstakannik, a metal holder.
The glass is removable and easily washed.
Tea is usually sweetened with sugar, more rarely with honey. Honey was more expensive and less readily available. Sometimes lemon was served, but lemons were also a bit of a luxury. Some people mix in preserves. Very few people drink it unsweetened. Milk is usually a no and will get you funny looks.
Indian spiced chai was not a thing in Russia when I left. Most of the times I can’t drink it. It doesn’t taste right to my palate. Neither is adding bergamot, and I can only tolerate it in small amounts. It works in London Fog from Harney’s but not in Earl Grey for me.
Tea is a ritual. In my house, tea was typically consumed at breakfast, with some fruit and sandwiches with bologna or whatever sausage we had handy. You drank your tea and took off for school.
Tea must be consumed hot enough to nip at the roof of your mouth.
Medicinal properties
This is legend and folklore, so please don’t take it as a medical advice.
Hot tea with a couple of teaspoons of raspberry preserves in it will quickly break a fever. Right now I am not feeling that hot – I haven’t felt that hot all week – and I drank some this morning.
Tea with shipovnik, rosehips, is considered to boost immune system and improve kidney function but is counter indicated for anyone with stomach acid related issues. We would drive out once a year and gather our own rosehips from the edges of the farm fields where it grew like a weed.
In case of conjunctivitis, Russian mothers brew very strong tea, let it cool, and wash the eyes out by dipping a cotton pad into the tea and gently pressing it to the eye. I can confirm that conjunctivis does seem to go away at record rate with this treatment.
To be honest, most health issues in Russia are treated with tea. Headache – tea. Fever – tea. Broken arm – tea. Tea is the way.
Happy brewing.
Thank you! I was curious about the jam, hope it worked for you. Smokey Russian Caravan is one of my favourites but I’m guessing it’s more British than really Russian.
Lilly, Yes Russian Caravan is a delicious strong tea. But being a Disney fanatic, the first time I smelled the bag of tea leaves all I could think of was the “Rome Burning” scene from Spaceship earth. I do not know what they use for the amusement ride but the two are now irretrievably linked in my head.
Very interesting and fun. I am now wondering if I should attempt to add lemon curd to my Scottish Breakfast Tea.
I would suggest marmalade instead. 🙂
But all I want is a bit of butter for my… well, no, I suppose it doesn’t work for tea.
Oh dear, my brain finished your sentence with, “butter for my Rum!” Then my brain takes a detour with, “Do we have any rum??? That sounds yummy as it’s freaking freezing in Central Illinois today!”
And now I have Jack Sparrow looking at me and saying, “Hide the Rum!”
LOL
It would if you were Tibetan.
Or a lot of the Turkic peoples. (I like buttered tea. I also like buttered salted tea – sometimes. Especially if I’ve been out working in cold dry weather )
How do you make buttered tea?
Make hot tea. Add butter. Maybe some sugar or salt (easy on the salt). I like a nice, mm, kind of malty black tea for it?
Buttered tea, with sugar and rum is great for when I’m feeling bad. Sometimes I mix the tea with orange juice and add the butter and rum… 🙂
I remember the first time I had Tibetan butter tea I though it was the grossest thing ever but it was in Outer Tibet and with rancid yak butter so…. Now I love it. With fresh butter (although not yak butter – kinda hard to get outside of the Himalaya.) Traditionally the Tibetans added ground Barley called tsampa to the butter tea and made little balls with it, which they then ate. Great energy dense food if your spending your days working outside in the high mountains where very little grows.
Curds contain egg, so…probably very interesting results there.
It’s not usually the type of preserve found in Eastern Europe ????
I would be concerned if the curd broke in the tea. The though of a scrambled egg taste in the tea would not be very nice.
On the mornings when it was bitterly cold when I was growing up, my mom would make for my Dad (and sometimes us kids as well) a special breakfast: literal translation is egg-soup, but it’s sweet. Per serving she’d beat an egg & sugar together in a large bowl with chopsticks then pour either just boiled water from the kettle over top or freshly made tea that she would make sure was also super hot. It was always very tasty, not too overly sweet, but also a little bit weird if you have texture issues cuz the eggs would be kind of cooked but also weirdly a little tiny bit slimy if you didn’t let it just sit for a couple minutes for the eggs to set the strands ^_^;
Very interesting history of tea in Russia. Thanks Ilona.
So basically, like for the British, tea will solve all your problems????!
I’m from Central Louisiana, which is of course iced, sweet tea country. BUT we drank tea our entire childhood. Cold in summer, hot in winter. If you had a cough my mom would make hot tea, load it up with honey and lemon, and give that to you like cough syrup. My dad would add a shot of whisky to it, lol. Also, we would drop peppermints in our hot tea after working outside in cold wet weather to keep from getting sick. Tea brewed with catalba and willow bark would help a toothache. Now that I am a mother my family requests “voodoo” tea when they are sick, which is homemade spearmint tea with honey, but it settles tummies and calms coughs. I don’t care for chai either, but drink hot, strong black tea every morning.
I hate tea as I think it tastes like dirty dishwater (I know the taste because older brother and it is a long story full of practical jokes). With raspberry jam added, that sounds like a gamechanger.
Have you not seen Ted Lasso? There’s a scene in which Jason Sudeikis’s character Ted Lasso takes tea from a British character (the soccer team owner Rebecca) and says “I always figured that tea would just taste like hot brown water. And you know what? I was right, tastes horrible.” It’s a running bit in which each time he drinks tea he makes a face lol.
I like tea but I’m not crazy about it either. My family drinks a lot of tea and to me most of it tastes the same.
I give people heart palpitations when I am around a lot of people drinking coffee. They will ask me what I want to drink, and I say “unsweet tea”. You would think I was doing something bizarre by saying tea. I just cold brew my tea, but I will drink hot tea. I also get stares from people when I ask for unsweet tea. Then I tell people I am not originally from Texas, and they relax at that. 🙂
When I went to Atlanta for a friend’s wedding reception, I met her parents who are from India. Out of politeness I drank the chai tea her mom made and had simmering in a pot on the stove. It had milk, sugar, cardamom, and other spices. I took one swallow of the tea, and almost spit it out. I made myself drink the entire cup. Once I left the house, I couldn’t wait to get some water into my mouth. It still makes me laugh to this stay. 😀
Tea is good for burns. I tried it once when I burned one of my fingers and had some cold tea out. It cut the heat within a few minutes.
Thank you for the information about how tea came to Russia. I find it interesting to learn about other cultures.
I am a native Arkansan and and an”unsweet” tea drinker, too. My whole family has shudders if they accidentally grab my glass, lol. I drink my hot tea sweet though, and room temperature tea is just nasty ????
My tea is unsweetened, so my mother solves the issue of having tea for everyone when we’re down(Florida) for Christmas by making a squeeze bottle of simple syrup and leaving it next to the tea in the fridge. It’s always fun to see her face when she forgets to add it.
I hate sweet tea too. If someone has used the teaspoon to stir a cup with sugar in before mine, I can often tell and hate it.
However, being Indian I HAVE to have Indian tea everyday. But the proper brewed chai is too heavy for daily drinking. Instead I just add a dash of chai masala to my black tea (no sugar) – it’s warming and delicious and a game changer. Failing that, add a bit of fresh ginger, a couple of cardamom pods and a small piece of cinnamon in the tea pot.
We also grew up drinking chai out of saucers ????
My father likes to tell about his Russian granddad who drank his tea from the saucer. He held a piece of sugar between his teeth and drew the tea through the lump to sweeten it in his mouth. Dad’s grandparents came to the US in the mid 1890s, but Dad’s memories of them were from the 1930s.
That triggers memories from a book I once read where the lead character is trying tea for the first time (I want to say a Tamora Pierce… Circle of Magic maybe?) and the other characters talk about straining it through a sugar lump or holding a mouthful of preserves and drinking it that way – I always thought that seemed more unlikely than mixing it into the cup.
Glad someone, somewhere did actually do it…I might have to try it now.
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Thanks for the History lesson Ilona – really interesting!
That’s how Iranians drink their tea too, with a lump of sugar in their mouth. They actually use a sort of crystalized sugar, which they break in pieces, and put in their mouth, while they sip their tea. If they don’t have the crystal sugar, they use common lumps. Or candy. They also use samovars, and have a very similar tea culture than Russians, except their tea is spiced with cardamom. VERY tasty
My husband is Persian, so we drink lots of cardamom tea. And we have buy the crystallized sugar (looks like rock candy) to sweeten tea.
Tea is also the Indian way. My mom has cha (Punjabi for tea) four times a day. I come to visit and the first thing I get asked is do you want cha? I love the ritual of it, the comfort of being home.
Most of our home remedies involve turmeric (haldi in Pubjabi). Have a cut, heat mustard oil with turmeric and apply. Stomach ache? Heat up milk with turmeric. Now you can find turmeric lattes all over the western world without people understanding where it comes from.
I’ve always loved being raised in multi-cultural environment you learn so much.
This was awesome!
I had read about “samovars” before but didn’t know what they looked like, so thank you!
I also resemble the Russian Merchant Wife. Husband must have been very successful, lol.
I did a double take at first, saw the happy cat and thought it was some cool fan art. I bet someone could have fun with photoshop and add a real life face, or a familiar cat 🙂
I have used camomile tea for sore eyes both in my self (tested on me first… doctors are free in Norway, vets are not. And well it would have been smarter to test on only one eye ???? luckily it works like a charm) and my dogs.
My father was a hobby botanist and was really into medicinal plants. Still miss going on walks with him, he would stop and get excited over every little weed and had a story for all of them.
Harness teas are fans of mine! London fog and hot cinnamon spice!
Fun information. A treat growing up for us was “Russian Tea” which was basically iced tea mix, Tang (a sweet orange-flavored drink mix), lemonade & pumpkin pie spices mixed together with hot water. Its still a comfort go-to on a cold wintery day. I have no idea why is was called “Russian”…it’s a completely American drink
Ah, Tang. There are certain drinks that I always associate with going to my grandparents as a kid. Tang and Fresca were the drinks we had at Nana’s but that I don’t really remember having at home.
I actually made a batch of Russian tea mix over the holidays and have been enjoying cups of it during our cold snap here in South Carolina.
My grandfather used to pour his coffee into a saucer and drink it from the saucer. Thank you for reminding me of spending time with Papa!
I remember Russian Tea, I loved it growing up. Very comforting on cold winter days.
I have to add that in Siberia, where I grew up, for breaking fever one had to drink hot tea with a tablespoon or raspberry preserves and tablespoon of cognac. No age limit (I was treated with this concoction even when I was in elementary school).
I confirm the conjunctivitis treatment, still works like a charm.
Strong and cooled tea was used to wash one’s mouth after loosing a milk tooth. Helped to stop the bleeding.
You made me realise that I am still very much in Russia where it concerns tea. Headache – tea. Tummy ache – tea. Relaxing evening with a good book – tea. Too nervous to concentrate – tea. Tea is the way. 🙂
My grandfather used to want to drink his tea through a lump of sugar. Sadly, commercially made sugar cubes here are apparently not as hard as the lump sugar he had used in Russia so it would dissolve almost immediately. Do you know about this?
Maybe try the rock sugar you can buy at Asian markets. They’re irregular shaped yellowish chunks, quite hard so they dissolve slower.
When I moved to Vienna, I was stunned to find almost all tea was herbal tea*. If I want black tea from the grocery store, I have to either buy imported Twinings in fancy boxes or…
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*not the time to argue tisane vs tea, I suppose
**At restaurants, you also have to order Russisch Tee to get black tea.
Thank you for the tisane versus tea note. I used to try telling others of the distinction and eventually gave up. People also got confused when I said the tea needed to steep.
Tisane vs tea…very controversial. I want tea. If you like herbal, please drink it. Just offer me real tea, or give me boiled water because I usually carry my own tea bags. ; )
How strong is Russian tea? British builder’s brew (as the classic British cuppa is known) is so dark that you have to smell it to work out if it is tea or coffee. British tea only tastes right if made with boiling water, if it has cooled before it hits the tea then hmmm…. Tea in the US (I’ve only visited for conferences so I know my experiences are biased) seems to only be made with rather cooler water and is also really weak. This holds true even for Starbucks, not sure why because the teabags used in Starbucks in the UK appear to be the same as the US but the taste difference is huge!
My mother reported that her grandmother used to drink tea through marmalade and had something that sounds samovar-like on her stove constantly. Description doesn’t exactly match, but I think she said that it was just constantly refilled so maybe I shouldn’t ask if it was ever washed! She came to London from the Western area of Russia (or somewhere near there, geography and names somewhat vague in the family history).
It’s a personal preference. I usually put about a heaping teaspoon and enough water to fill two mugs, then brew for about 5 minutes, so its a rich brown color but more like chestnut and less like chocolate. If I forget to removed diffuser, the tea turn bitter. But I also mostly drink it unsweetened, unless I am sick. My rule is, you should taste the tea but not grimace when you sip it. 🙂
As someone who has had both Russian and and British tea, I can attest Russian tea is stronger. Milk is rarely/never added to tea in Eastern Europe and the infusions are left for longer. “Milk in first” people also need to be aware of that boiling water rule ????. I’ve been at constant war with them for nigh on 15 years hehe.
The Brits also remove their teaspoon out of the cup before drinking. I would rather poke an eye out ????
Lucy Worsley had a series on the evolution of rooms. Milk first was for those whose teacups were not high quality porcelain. Now of course it’s family tradition.
As a Canadian with UK family heritage on both sides (Irish, Scottish and English) I grew up drinking black tea, but as a child my tea was always sweetened and milk added last to cool the tea down – to this day I cannot drink black tea without milk and sweetener.
Green tea I can drink unsweetened and without milk – I have to wait because I cannot do “hot” stuff. I am a lukewarm kind of person when it comes to food and beverages.
My favourite green tea is Japanese Genmaicha (green tea with toasted puffed rice to cut the bitterness). I love making tea that is a mix of both Genmaicha and black tea (with milk and sweetener). I started mixing them when my father had said that he didn’t like green tea, but heard that it was good for digestion so I figured why not combine? I love it.
Thank you Ilona for sharing, this was super interesting!
Thank you! I’ve always been fascinated by Russian culture, so this was quite a treat!
Somewhere I have a memory that rosehips are high in Vitamin C so…
I’ve always been a hot tea drinker and only drink sweet iced tea when I’m in MS for a week most years in March. I’m the oddball that doesn’t care if the tea is almost boiling hot or if I had to run an errand before I finished the cup, when I get back in finishing that cup before I make new. I love the metal glass holder (so not attempting that spelling) I think the first time I saw one was in Fiddler on the Roof and always thought they would be neat to have. But since my current tea cup holds 24 ozs I doubt I could find a big enough one. 🙂
More fun historical facts on tea: I read in an article several years ago that we all know two words in every language in the world. Those two words are tea and chai. Both mean tea. What you call it depends on where you live. If tea originally came overland from Asia, you call it chai. If tea originally came by sea (thank the Portuguese), you call it tea. While spellling and pronounciation will vary depending on what country you are in, saying these two words anywhere in the world will always get you the proper drink. Of course, people from the Southern US should rmemeber that tea is always hot, everywhere but in the South.
My family is from Louisiana – my mom had never seen tea drunk hot (tea was always iced and sweet) until we moved to North Carolina when I was a child.
I tried to order sweet ice tea in New Orleans many years ago and the waiter looked at me like I flew in on the crazy plane. They did not serve sweet iced tea. I was bewildered.
I ordered hot tea while traveling through N. Carolina and the server said that they didn’t have any. They had iced tea though. I believe iced tea is made from tea bags, too, right? I asked him to nuke some of the iced tea and it was tolerable.
Didn’t have any hot tea, rofl!
My husband is English, so tea is “the sweet elixir of life” around here. But my first husband, also English, drank coffee at breakfast (brewed super strong and diluted in equal amounts with nearly boiling milk) growing up so only when he visits us (he’s a good friend and introduced me to my current husband) do we need to have coffee in the house.
Thank you so much for this! I adore tea and am a weird American in that I do not drink coffee. I love hearing about tea history and how it is enjoyed around the world.
On another note, thank you do much for allowing the calendar to be published! It looks amazing on my author sway wall! I plan to keep it up year after year because it is really about the pictures:)
You are not alone in not drinking coffee. I don’t either. My nose wrinkles when I smell coffee brewing.
We are the tea branch of the BDH. ????
Another member of the tea-only branch of the BDH. years ago, I tried drinking coffee (black with lots of sugar) but it destroyed my stomach. I handle the acids in tea so much better, I also use milk or cream. Tea is the best.
I can deal with cold brew, a bit – less bitter, also easier on the stomach – but it’s been a few years since I last had coffee, I think? Matcha is my staple, but I keep several types of loose leaf tea on hand.
I don’t care for coffee or mint. My life would be simpler if I did, but I just cannot get my taste buds to cooperate.
However, I do like the scent of either one, just not combined…
I have hot tea with sugar and milk for breakfast, but unsweetened iced tea after that. As a native Texan, I have learned to specify “unsweet” when I get tea at an eatery. (To be honest, I also like sweet tea, but do not need the empty calories.)
I am currently indulging in insomnia.
My cats are at least happy about it – they are taking turns sitting on my right hand and arm.
I remember rotating through orthopedics and my attending said, “I don’t remember if it’s feed a cold and starve a fever, or feed a fever and starve a cold, but you always feed a fracture.”
Orthopods always a trip – really smart folks who played at being the dumb jocks of medicine. I have a rare wrist physical exam finding – after I rotated through ortho and a couple orthopods knew of it, I was accosted if they saw me on rounds to show their latest training group – they can be a bit like overgrown kids.
When I did an internship in an operating room, I saw an orthopedic surgery being done. I commented that the tools they used I could find in my dad’s toolbox. I got a huge smile from the surgeon from behind the mask.
Thank you!
Tea is the Way.
This morning it is a pot of Harney black with a little brown sugar
Yummmmm
Tea in India is also chai, as it is in Kyrgyz. It is absolutely hilarious to hear chai-tea out in USA. And asking for black tea in India – everyone assumes you are diabetic, but will still bring it out with sugar or jaggery. I personally prefer our ’tissanes’ for various ailments than the black tea though, growing up with spices bland teas give me mental palpitations. I just make weak forms of different tissanes on the basis of my mood, the weather or the state of my stomach.
I love this. As an Indian, I grew up drinking Lots of hot sweet black tea (chai with just a dash of milk). For my mother and I, anything other than steaming hot chai is unacceptable (we are both known for reheating our beverages at least 3 times during its consumption).
As a South Indian, my love for hot sweet coffee is just as strong. Both chai and coffee is had with breakfast, in the evenings with savoury snacks (samosas or pakoras) or biscuits, over lots of gupshup (gossip). I used to even have chai (in a veritable soup bowl cup) right before bed, to wind down of course.
The only compromise I’ve made over the years is to switch from lots of sugar to lots of stevia.
Loved this! I’m from the South originally, and they used tea in a medicinal way there too. I am highly allergic to mosquito bites, and the doctor would have my grandmother soak a wash cloth in tea and keep it on my bites to reduce swelling. Of course, we used tea with honey for sore throats too.
I had an elderly neighbor who would put her used tea bags on the soil of my rose bushes. She claimed that it was good for them – They were the most successful roses I ever grew.
I found a Tea Master double chamber teapot at goodwill. The patent says one side is for tea and the other for hot water. I’ve brewed 2 different teas in it. Saves cleaning 2 pots.
I am unusual in my tea drinking. I grew up drinking black tea, Lipton’s and Constant Comment, but served in East Asia for several years and drank green tea a lot there. Now I drink black teas, but brew them weak so they look and taste more look green teas. ????
Our pediatrician recommended pressing a warm, recently used tea bag against an eye to relive conjunctivitis. It really helps our youngest who gets it regularly.
A couple of years ago, my doctor prescribed a cold wet tea bag for shingles through my eye. He said it was great for all sorts of eye infections. If nothing else it relieved the pain.
I have been waiting and waiting for Gertrude Hunt to install a samovar!! Great big hairy NO to making tea with not-hot-enough water from a coffee maker!!
….and: my husband is Iranian, a culture with an ancient tradition of tea (also called Chai there, but meaning pure black, not with the spices or milk) and no matter how excellent and loose-leaf the tea may be, he will not drink it unless in a glass cup. Says it ruins the taste in any other type of vessel.
This was so interesting! I’m actually having tea now, but I ran out of honey, so I used a little sugar. Now I’m wondering if I should throw in some grape Polaner jelly in there (I don’t like raspberries, so I might as well try grape)….
We bought an old home some years ago and found several very old boxes in the attic that the previous home owner left behind. Most of the items were just very old ratty linens, but one wooden box contained a weird looking drink set we assumed was for coffee…It turned out to be a sterling and 18K gold Russian tea set, including a huge pot. We contacted the real estate company and the old owners said the boxes were there when they moved in in 1967. Apparently the owners of the tea set had passed away in the early 1970’s, so they decided the set was ours to keep. We had it appraised and it came in around 30K so we decided to send it on loan to museum that had a “traveling” Russian exhibit. My husband is a Silversmith and was in awe of the craftsmanship for the time it was made. He reminded me that this is the country that gave the world Faberge, one of the worlds greatest Goldsmith!
That is so cool! The tea set that slept for decades in an attic, and then went on a museum tour! Magic! And all the people who got to see the beautiful craftsmanship and artistry on that tour because you loaned it to the museum instead of just putting it back in the attic!!
I have just been to the Faberge exhibition at the V&A, wonderful and they had the teeniest little tea/coffee set in solid gold that I have ever seen. Just a couple of sizes up from a doll’s tea set size!
I was there in December! Really loved it and realised I prefer the other objects to the eggs!
That illustrate is absolutely fabulous. I want to be there.
I enjoy what’s sold as chai here in the US, but I don’t consider it the same as normal tea. If I drink black tea, it’s P.G. Tips, brewed for at least two minutes, and sweetened with honey. That’s also what I use to make an Arnold Palmer, by adding lemon juice and water. Green tea is what I drink for GI issues. The rest of the time, it’s one tisane or another. There’s some ginger preserves in the cabinet that might get stirred into tea one of these days now. They work well in various Asian-style sauces too.
Illustration. Auto corrupt must have snuck that one in on me.
Thank you for the small history lesson.
I have a love hate relationship with tea. I grew up in the Caribbean and my mother insisted on tea for breakfast and with our night time meal of sandwiches, meats, fish and other lite foods. (Our heavy meal was at lunch). Its hot there and I felt like I was melting inside, but I couldnt say no.
Tea is also treated as if its a medicine there as well. Headache drink tea, nauseous drink tea, drunk drink tea.
I will say though my prinipal in High School, brewed orange peels, cinnamon and cloves whenever any of the girls were cramping from our monthlies. Im not even sure its considered tea but I swear it works. I give it to my daughter every morning on her week and she feels pretty good during the day.
So now I only drink tea when I feel sick ????
OMG the tea/ tea bag on the eyes!! – my British mothers cure all for all eye problems! Got a stye, put a tea bag on it, got a dry eyes, tea bag, got allergies, here’s your tea bag. You get the idea. Honestly it actually worked a few times! haha!
Must make tea first, then use the used tea bag any brand would do but PG tips was preferred
This was fun to read. Thank you! Also, I’m now curious how blackberry or boysenberry preserves would taste in tea.
Tea was a staple in our Cantonese household too. My dad favored pu’er 普洱, a fermented black tea typically we buy the ones that has been pressed into disc shape and the longer it has been well stored, the more expensive and the richer the taste. The “oldest” pu’er I’ve had is 20 year-old. It deeply smooth, and doesn’t have any more of the bitterness, it’s somehow feels more liquid. I hated it as a child, so bitter. We would make a pot of the “condensed tea”, and pour a bit of it, add hot water to dilute it to serve.
It’s the tea we drink when we want to cut the grease in the meal.
So many memories, off to make some tea now.
I also grew up in a Chinese household. I never saw a teabag until I went away to college, my parents only drank loose leaf tea. As an adult, I drink tea every day, although it is mostly British teas and herbals. Everyone in my household drinks tea, so we have a tabletop hot water pot that keeps the water hot and we make tea all day long.
Enjoyed the information about tea in Russia! thank you so much for sharing.
Interestingly, Fireweed tea (fireweed = rosebay willow herb in British English) is now quite a thing in Russia again. Called ivan-chai. The Russian equivalent to Rooibos or Spiced Chai,I always think.
Thanks for a great article! I think that lady in the painting looks like she is having a lot of fun.
We use tea bags soaked in hot water then slightly cooled for styes in the eye
That is very interesting, and it reminds me… Growing up, my friend and I drank gallons of “Instant Russian Tea” that her Mom would make every winter. She recently found the index card with the recipe and sent it along. I had to laugh – there is nothing Russian about it as far as I can tell, just all sugar. See attached. 🙂
When I was a kid, I had a teacher that drank this constantly. I loved it, but definitely not healthy
My grandmother and aunts used to make this and complain about each other’s mix????. Tang was invented for the Apollo space program along with a lot of other freeze dried foods. I wonder if the name has anything to do with the space race between the old USSR and the USA?
That’s quite a recipe! I think you should make a small batch and see what adult you thinks of it!
I’m worried my teeth would fall out, Hollie! 🙂
After oral surgery my dentist told me to use a cold wet tea bag if I had any bleeding around the sutures. As that worked, I have also used one as a compress on any spouting cuts.
Pu’er tea is fantastic. As is a good smoky Tiawan Lapsang.
In the summer my family often resorted to cold Japanese Genma Cha which is green tea combined with toasted rice .
This was wonderful! Thank you for sharing.
I laughed out loud at the green tea incident with your mother’s team.
It’s cold here in North Texas and I’m grabbing my tea, a blanket, and settling in to reread some Innkeeper!
Thank you.
I learned to make Mongolian butter tea and love it. (Hubby swears I have Mongol DNA somewhere.)
It is a definite acquired taste. When it’s super cold out, nothing else will do.
I’ve never heard of this! Off to Google it. ????
Is this like Tibetan yak butter tea? I could only drink it when I told myself it was soup, not tea.
i personally take my tea Hot with no sweetner, OR cold with sweetner
and room tempater is just wrong
thank you for your out look on tea :}
For Christmas this year I got an electric kettle. Husband and I are drinking tea line fiends! Best gift ever, so I bought one for work. I drink my tea (hot and iced) unsweetened. Unsweetened tea is common in west and north Texas, also coastal NC. When we lived in Augusta I swear tea was 3 parts sugar one part tea.
Just out of interest from the UK – is it true that electric kettles are not commonplace in the US?
I’m not being rude, it’s just because someone told me Americans don’t really use them and I’m not sure if it was a wind up (she also said you use a microwave for tea which I’m really not sure I believe).
As in English person everyone has electric kettles here, it is considered so essential as to not even be a question. Some nostalgic people might still have a whistling one but they’d likely have an electric one too.
From the US: as tea isn’t as commonplace here, not everyone has an electric tea kettle. I do (I drink tea). Other friends might have tea kettles they heat on the range (even with a whistle, I boiled those dry more than once). I’ve known a couple of people who didn’t even have that and boiled water in a pot if necessary. Heating water in a microwave for tea — while actually done by some poor, misguided people — is an abomination.
Thanks for the reply. I thought she was teasing me. I’ll have to apologise to her now!
My gosh though, when I think of all the things we use the kettle for, not just hot drinks but to boil water to put in the pan for cooking pasta, eggs, potatoes, pretty much everything, it’s just so much faster and easier. Noodles! Delicious quick noodles would be slooow! And sinus clearing! What if you have a killer head and need to make a bowl of menthol? You’d have to boil a pan from scratch whilst you have a headache!
I never realised I love my kettle but I love my kettle.
I love mine, too. My good one is in storage. Actually, I have two in storage: one in Oregon and one here in Texas — long story. So I have an inexpensive one right now because I currently rent a room in a house. A guy at a place I stayed for a while had an electric that was clear glass so you could watch the water boil. It was cool! And yes, hot water for instant noodles or broth, hot water for sinuses, the list is virtually endless. Much faster than boiling on the stove.
I have an electric kettle, which I love. It’s more common for tea drinkers. (My lab also has one, but both B and I are tea drinkers. I don’t think we have a coffee maker?)
But also, US electrical systems aren’t as strong, so our kettles are slower. (I still use mine for all the hot water things…)
I had never seen an electric kettle until my husband was on assignment in London and took the whole family along. (This was in 1983 and we enjoyed our “6” months – all 16 of them.)
When we came home, I had to find an electric kettle of my own to buy and it was not easy at the time. My sister liked mine so much, she bought one, too.
These days kettles are easier to find, but many people do not own one.
I’ve always had an electric kettle as did my parents. But then again my father is Dutch and I’ve lived in the UK. It’s necessary for both tea and pour over coffee. The kettle I have has settings to stop heating at different temperatures since you want hotter boiling water for coffee and black tea and a lower temp for green or white tea (and other varieties.) If the temp is too hot the more delicate tea varieties burn and the resulting brew is bitter.
I will admit I do boil my water in the microwave if I need some hot tea. For me it’s faster than boiling water on the stove. My brother use to use a small hot pot to boil his water for Earl Grey tea. He would steep it so much it looked like coffee. Smelled like Froot Loops cereal.
It’s just amazing really how such small unconsidered things can be so different from country to country.
If you went to someone’s house here in the UK and they didn’t have an electric kettle it would be thought quite odd, even for an extremely elderly relative nowadays.
I’ve always had an electric kettle in my room when staying at hotels in France, Spain, Greece and Malta as well, but don’t know if this is just a hotel thing and completely unrelated to actual electric kettle usage within those countries.
Regarding microwave tea, I’ve warmed a cold cup up but it makes it taste icky so only if I really, truly can’t be bothered which is rare. The kettle boils in 90 seconds after all!
I am odd then, I don’t have an electric kettle, I gave up on them in the early nineties as they only lasted about a year then went poof! I got fed up of replacing them so often. The stove top kettle I bought then is still going strong and will hold three litres or just a cupful.
I just realized that we use our reservoir Keurig as a samovar. We use it for hot water on demand for green tea and the occasional hot chocolate packet. My husband goes thru a LOT of green tea.
I have three friends with an electric kettle (and one is Welsh), but that’s it. The rest who drink tea as opposed to coffee use a stove top kettle. I have one as well, but I only use it if I’m actually making a whole pot of tea. Otherwise I’m a philistine, I nuke a mug of water and then steep my bag or my infuser. Mostly I use tea if I’m feeling unwell or too lazy to make coffee. Or traveling, since tea bags travel beautifully and instant coffee is terrible.
Electric hot water pot, sitting on the countertop. Holds up to 4L of water (there are other sizes), at a temperature of your choosing, all day long. It looks a little like the Air Pots you see in restaurants and buffets for their tea/coffee station, except instead of just being a thermos, it boils the water and keeps it very hot. This is a very Asian thing. Tea all times of day, plus cup o noodles, a shortcut for making pasta and other foods requiring boiling water. My (white) husband is even more attached to it than I am and rushes out to buy a new one when it fails (they tend to last 4-6 years in my experience).