Russian Samovar

Written by myRussianFoods.com on May 20, 2015. Posted in Russian souveniers

Samovar is a large metallic container in which water is kept hot for laid-back drinking sessions. The tea is kept in a concentrated brew in a teapot on top and is diluted with water from the main container to make cup after cup. Once it’s all brewed, you place a cup under the tap, run the tap of samovar and get a cup full of high-quality tea. Samovars range from the 1 litre in size up to 400 and are made in a huge range of shapes and designs.

Samovar has a central role in Russian culture: all Russians love drinking tea and have it with milk or lemon and sugar accompanied by a variety of tea time treats. In the modern world tea sachets give you a quick drink in 5 minutes, but nothing compares by brewing your tea in a teapot, and the poshest way is to make it in samovar. This huge metalic container is now used on special occasions. You can have electric kettles and those working on fire.

People spending their time in datchas, which are houses in the countryside with a lot of land, use the real-deal samovars, and it’s not uncommon to use and old boot to fan the flames.

The origins of the samovar aren’t entirely clear, though most signs point to Russia or central Asia. The word is Russian though, and it literally means “self-boiler”.

Samovar’s spiritual home is the city of Tula, south of Moscow. There, in 1778, two brothers, Ivan and Nazar Fyodorovich, made their first Samovar whilst working in their father’s metalworking and brass factory. Within the year Nazar had registered the Samovar manufactory and the designs of the two brothers were followed by set benchmarks for the craft thereafter. The Fyodorovich brothers probably weren’t the inventors of the Samovar, but they were its first recorded manufacturers.

There is a proverb in Russia that reflects both the popularity of the samovar and Tula being the city where samovars are produced. The saying goes like this: “To go to Tula with your own samovar” which means to bring your own stuff to the place where this very stuff is in abundance and of higher quality. Think about going to a yoga class in a posh resort, and brining your own worn-off yoga matt. Or something like that. You can read about tea time treats on our website. Happy tea drinking

Russian Samovar

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