Quote:

First rule: tea is made of tea. Period. Other hot beverages based on leaves of vegetation different from the Tea Bush (Thea sinensis) are not tea. However, hot water and tea leaves do not necessarily make good tea. The ways of wasting the precious leaves are amazingly plentiful and widespread. In America, for instance, making bad tea seems to be a matter of patriotism since the infamous incident in Boston.

Second rule: forget those paperbags. They are filled with the dust swept from the floor at tea factories. The bags give the tea an unmistakable flavor of cellulose. In Russia, we call it "the postman's tea", because it comes in envelopes.

Third rule: never cook the tea leaves. The first contact of the tea leaves with water should happen right after the boiling of the latter. Neither before, nor long after. If you cook the tea leaves, you will obtain a liquid almost, but not entirely, unlike tea, fit for leather tanning, rather than drinking.

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Quote:

The basic steps of zavarka preparation are as follows:

  1. Put a certain amount of tea leaves into some pot,
  2. Pour kipyatok onto them (approx. one cup for each five teaspoons) in one resolute spurt,
  3. Wait until all the leaves sink.

WARNING:

    Never drink the zavarka undiluted. It has a strong narcotic effect, causing intense heartbeat, hallucinations and restlessness. This effect has been widely used by captives in Russian prisons and forced labor camps, since tea has always been included into the rations of the prisoners. The name of tea-based narcotics in the Russian criminal slang is "chephyr". If you introduce Russian tea-drinking into some non-Russian company, don't forget to label the zavarka pot! Otherwise, ignorant people might drink its content, and die of a heart attack as a consequence. You, in turn, may face lawsuits or vendetta depending on the culture you live in.

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PatternOfChaos said:

This isn't really on topic here in the Ethnobotanical Garden.

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Camellia sinensis has long been cultivated with the express intention of altering human consciousness, no matter how subtly.

(Common tea has even been forbidden by some countries and religious systems, because of it's stimulant properties.)

The linked author thoroughly discusses the cultural connotations of Camellia preparation, i.e. what makes it Russian.

I was personally captivated by the use this unusual appliance and felt the article was of anthropological interest.


(samovar)

In particular, I thought this would apply to the ethnogarden, because several of us grow the plant, and there have been widespread rumors about it being abused for more dramatic effects, both good and bad.

PatternOfChaos said:

It's also lame that you didn't even post anything other than regurgitated stuff from another site

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PatternOfChaos said:

the site is so hard-headed to say only Camellia sinensis (not Sinensis camellia) can be used to make "real" tea.

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PatternOfChaos said:

There are plenty of other plants out there that will produce tea from those same steps described above.

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PatternOfChaos said:

A gaslighter?

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PatternOfChaos said:

This would more properly fit into the culinary arts section than in the EG as the topic doesn't involve cultivation and is more about cooking than gardening.

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PatternOfChaos said:

We don't talk about extractions here either, do we?

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Horticulture said:

Anyway, tea concentrate sounds largely unpleasant, and I wouldn't try it.

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