Boiling pleasure

What would you like to drink, tea or coffee? For a long time in Moscow that was completely out of the question. Tea, of course; a couple of kettles, if you please.

The first lot of tea was brought to Russia in 1638, the gift of a Mogul ruler. Russia was among the first Western countries to get involved in a trading; actually, merchants of the Netherlands were the first in 1611, Englishmen joined in in 1658, while Russians came in third. Besides, Russian tea was then considered the best, as tea leaves cannot tolerate humid – even moist air. Dutch and British seagoing vessels could not compare with Russian wagons and carts. The opportunity to import tea without sailing the sea was a great advantage to Russia; however a 100% entrance duty was posed on tea. As a result, even in the early 1800s, Russian housewives of noble families were not that brave to keep tea leaves in the cupboards; instead, they put tea in special lead-covered (!) tea boxes and hid them in their rooms.

During the first half of the 19^th century Moscow merchants became used to drink­ing tea. Moscow taverns served drink in ‘pairs’. Each pair included a glass, the tea itself, and two pieces of lump sugar (according to accounts by Vladimir Gilyarovsky). Once you have ordered a pair of tea, you could add water for free. When the drink was too weak, customers asked for more brew and continued with their tea-drinking. As the items described above were free except for the initial pair of tea, it was obvious that Muscovites enjoyed their all-day-long five’ o’clock. A pair cost some 10 kopecks, which was equivalent to 3 pounds of bread.

A typical middle-class tav­ern in Moscow featured a great samovar, a tea machine containing up to 1000 litres of water. By the beginning of the 20^th century, tea was mostly drunk from glasses wrapped in cup holders. The latter devices serving as an important decoration ele­ment were essential, as glass­es were made from thin glass and full glasses were too hot to hold. This tradition remained till the late 1980s, when plastic cups and jars appeared on the drinking scene. By now, drinking tea using a samovar and cup holders (lump sugar and sugar pliers are an option) is a special sport of tradition­alists.

Another trend of tea-drink­ing derives from the aristo­cratic home tea tradition. Tea was heated in samovars, like in taverns, and later dis­pensed directly into porce­lain cups. Each cup was served with a dedicated saucer, which was used to drink hot tea without waiting. In Moscow, children were served their tea in saucers till the 1980s when mugs substi­tuted cups in everyday use. By now, this way of drinking tea is usual for holidays and parties – today, samovars are gone and saucers are not longer used for drinking, but for placing pieces of tarts and pies. By the way, the latter sweets are commonly named ‘things for tea’.

The main thing about tea in Moscow, still, hasn’t changed. Be you a fan of Earl Grey, a supporter of Twinings or Lipton, or even an admirer of – oh my, what a rubbish! – Maisky Tea, or whatever: every true Muscovite can spend the whole evening drinking tea and chatting. The point is just to have a good time with warm company.

Here is a recipe of a true Moscow-style tea. Other variants are also possible, but this is a kind of main­stream one.

No teabags please! Leave them for those who can’t tell tea from garbage.

Prepare (a) a kettle for boil­ing water, (b) a teapot for brew­ing tea, and (c) tea to your taste. Wrapping thing for teapot is appreciated.

Get water boiled in the kettle. Pour a little into the teapot. Done? Uh, great – and now shake it slightly and pour off. The teapot is prepared.

Place tea to the teapot according to the ratio as fol­lows: one teaspoonful of tea per each equals one cup. Remember there’s more cups finally than the teapot contains, as the brew will be spoiled by hot water. One more teaspoon will go for the whole teapot.

Fill the teapot with boiling water. Note: boiling water suit­able for true tea is distinguished by white streams appearing inside the kettle just before it really begins boiling.

Cover the teapot with a wrapping device (if available; usually they look like textile matryoshkas). Wait for 4 minutes.

Dispense the brew to cups. Don’t forget about saucers and also note: deep sau­cers only are suitable for drinking from. Pour some quarter of a cup, then stop.

Pour hot water to the cups where brew is. Enjoy.

Anton Razmakhnin

The Moscow News 14/12/2008