So, I was feeling pretty productive today, like I was finally getting the hang of the whole "Russian Culture" thing. I had called up the Spanish Embassy, and gotten information on how to get lessons in Spanish (so that when I go to Spain, I don't epic-fail at life); found an amazing website, which I am going to reference for recipes starting soon... Overall, a pretty good day.
Until I walked into the kitchen, and found out that for the last week, I've been using the teapot incorrectly.
How does one manage that, exactly? Funny you would ask. I myself hadn't thought it possible; but, then, I had forgotten that Russians have their own specific way of doing pretty much everything*.
*Note: This is not necessarily just a "Russia" thing; I don't know how one is NORMALLY supposed to drink tea, and it might be replicated all over the world for all I know. However, it's always interesting when I find out the way that Russians specifically do things, and try to share. (For example, this time, I know that Russians specifically do it this way when my host mother looked at me and said, "And this is how Russians drink their tea".)
I had been missing one vital step: what was in the teapot is NOT meant to be drunk wholesale. Russians call the tea in the teapot zavarka-- literally meaning "boiled leaves". What you are supposed to do with the teapot is pour a little bit of the zavarka into a cup, then pour boiling water over the top, thus ensuring that your tea will be boiling hot whenever you drink it. (This not only makes the tea in the teapot last longer, but also makes it significantly less bitter-- this is my interjection, not something that was officially said by a Russian person.)
In fact, this is where the Russian samovar comes into play.
What is a samovar?
As far as I understand, samovar is a self-heating tea pot that both makes (and warms) the zavarka and the boiling water. Effectively, what you do is put the teapot on the konforka (which is literally translated in the picture about as "base for teapot"), and that keeps the teapot warm so that you can have hot water. In the body (tulovo), there is hot water that is boiled; and then, you put the hot water onto the hot zavarka using the faucet (kran). My current host mom owns two samovars, to tell you of their significance in Russian culture.
On a personal note, my favorite thing about this blog is that, whenever I make a mistake and embarrass myself, it's now for a great cause-- I'm not the only person learning from it. And while this means that all those embarrassing stories are now immortalized on the internet, at least other people can laugh as hard at my foibles as I do.
Until I walked into the kitchen, and found out that for the last week, I've been using the teapot incorrectly.
How does one manage that, exactly? Funny you would ask. I myself hadn't thought it possible; but, then, I had forgotten that Russians have their own specific way of doing pretty much everything*.
*Note: This is not necessarily just a "Russia" thing; I don't know how one is NORMALLY supposed to drink tea, and it might be replicated all over the world for all I know. However, it's always interesting when I find out the way that Russians specifically do things, and try to share. (For example, this time, I know that Russians specifically do it this way when my host mother looked at me and said, "And this is how Russians drink their tea".)
And now: Russian Tea Time
Now, being particularly uncultured in the ways of tea, I thought that you just put loose-leaf tea leaves in the teapot, let them steep, and then pour the tea from the teapot into your glass, add sugar and milk as desired, and drink it. Not so in Russia!I had been missing one vital step: what was in the teapot is NOT meant to be drunk wholesale. Russians call the tea in the teapot zavarka-- literally meaning "boiled leaves". What you are supposed to do with the teapot is pour a little bit of the zavarka into a cup, then pour boiling water over the top, thus ensuring that your tea will be boiling hot whenever you drink it. (This not only makes the tea in the teapot last longer, but also makes it significantly less bitter-- this is my interjection, not something that was officially said by a Russian person.)
In fact, this is where the Russian samovar comes into play.
What is a samovar?
As far as I understand, samovar is a self-heating tea pot that both makes (and warms) the zavarka and the boiling water. Effectively, what you do is put the teapot on the konforka (which is literally translated in the picture about as "base for teapot"), and that keeps the teapot warm so that you can have hot water. In the body (tulovo), there is hot water that is boiled; and then, you put the hot water onto the hot zavarka using the faucet (kran). My current host mom owns two samovars, to tell you of their significance in Russian culture.
On a personal note, my favorite thing about this blog is that, whenever I make a mistake and embarrass myself, it's now for a great cause-- I'm not the only person learning from it. And while this means that all those embarrassing stories are now immortalized on the internet, at least other people can laugh as hard at my foibles as I do.
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