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First try at russian style brewing

after some of the advice given to me on my last post I read and printed the Russian Tea HOWTO from freshmeat.net. They way I figure it the longer you can steap the tea the more caffenie you'll get out of it. The limiting factor is drinking it. A cup of tea that can be drunk by mere mortals is to be desired.

Following the directions I brewed a bit of zavarka from some Earl Grey. Uhh....don't do that. I think the Beaumont (or however it's spelled) dosen't like the extended stepping time.

Although the cups that resulted when dilluted with boiling water where allright. Certainly did wake me up this morning.

I next took a bunch of basic upton Keemun (4 heaping tablespoons) and proceded to brew up some more zavarka. I let that sit for about 8 minutes while considering the terrible things that typically result from adding too much tea and stepping too long. Once I filtered the zavarka into my thermos I did an exploritory sniff. WHOA! The scientifically measured kickback distance of my nose was about 6 inches as observed by my cat's startled look. Pretty strong stuff there, no joke when the HOWTO writer warned of drinking straight zavarka and the narcotic like effects typically observed. Still for the sake of all Russian's over the world I contiuned in faith.

Boiling some more water I poured a conservative amount of zavarka into my cup and added hot water. After cooling I took a sip. Thank you mother russia! I'm now regretting Alaska moving into American hands for the sake of the tea. For the first time I suspect i've gotten the full flavor of the Keemun. And to think if I need stronger tea all I have to do is add more zavarka.

Questions for all those adherants to good russian style tea brewing

-How much tea do you put into your zavarka and how long do you brew? As mentioned above I used about 4 heaping teaspoons and brewed for 8 minutes or so.

-Has anyone else noticed how the KISS principle seems to be most apparent in Russia? Think about the rockets that are lifting most of our heavier comm sats lately. Most i've heard of are russian built using the same design from the cold war while we american's seem to want to get more and more complex.

Have a good day, Justin Fairbanks, AK

Reply to
Justin
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But, since up to 80% of the caffeine is released from the leaf in the first

30 secs of infusion, you're not really gaining all that much more.
Reply to
Bluesea

That's "bergamot" - an oil extracted from the peel of the bergamot orange.

And, no, Earl Grey doesn't do well with extended steeping times. It rapidly gets too bitter for consumption.

Reply to
Derek

I am glad you liked Russtyle tea. However there is nothing "simple" in that process. The process you ere referring to is a simplified version of "The Process".

"The Process" requires preliminary heating the zavarka pot two-three times with rolling boiled water, putting tea in it and letting it "open up" while the zavarka pot is wrapped into a teacaddy (or just thick flax or cotton towel), putting boiling water in it for 1/3 of its volume and repeating the caddy thing for 2-3 min and finally filling it up with full boiling water and putting it on a slow heat until it ALMOST boils, but under no circumstances to allow it to boil (not even one lousy bubble!) . Than it is put into the towel again and let "rest" for couple of minutes. Well-brewed Russki when it is fully cooled is not transparent - its colloidal but regains wonderful color and crisp transparency when heated even a little. And that is how its was done when I lived there both in prisons and the facilities where they build Dnieper rocket boosters. Come to think of it - there were other similarities. :)

Sasha.

Reply to
Alex Chaihorsky

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