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Traditional Russian tea is a strong brew sweetened with sugar, honey or even jam. The Asian influence has always been evident even in the European parts of huge Russian empire and Russian tea is traditionally served in glasses with silver holders, a design that you will also find in Turkish coffee cups.

When someone uses the words “tea” and “Russia” in the same sentence, most of us immediately think about the characteristic Russian samovar. The design of the Russian samovar hails from the Tibetan Hot Pot, and combines boiling water with a form of tea pot. A samovar be kept on all day long, and you can get 40 cups or more at a time from a large samovar.

In 1618, Czar Alexis received several tea chests from the Chinese embassy in Moscow. In 1689, the Trade Treaty of Newchinsk had been established between Peter the Great and the Chinese emperor, which meant that caravans could travel across the border between China and Russia and engage in international trade.

Tea began to reach the Russians, but it was a very expensive commodity since the average caravan trip was 11,000 miles long and lasted for 16 months or more. A typical caravan would include more than 200 camels carrying furs from Russia and tea from China.

When Catherine the Great died in 1796, the price of tea had decreased somewhat and tea was now not only enjoyed by the royal court and the wealthiest Russian families. The habit of drinking tea gradually spread down to the lower classes and reached the countryside far away from Moscow.

In 1893 Georgia, which was then a part of the Russian empire, began to grow its own tea. The produced amounts where however small and the quality mediocre, and this Russian tea venture had hardly any effect on the tea trade with China.

The caravan trade between China and Russia continued until the Trans-Siberian Railroad was completed in 1900. When the Russian Revolution put an end to Russian aristocracy, tea drinking had already spread to all parts of Russian society and tea kept on being an important commodity throughout the Communist era.

Tea is still a very popular drink in today’s Russia and is consumed by people of all ages. Similar to many other languages, the Russian word for tea is “chai”. Interestingly enough, the Russian word for tip literary translates “for tea”.

The English are renowned for their love of tea, but Great Britain was actually the last of the main European seafaring nations to participate in the East Indian and Chinese trade. Portugal and Holland dominated the tea trade for a long time, and the first samples of tea did not reach Great Britain until the early 1650’s. Elizabeth I had founded the John Company in the year 1600 and had planned to promote trade between Great Britain and Asia, but internal problems, such as the Cromwellian Civil War, had weakened the country and made it fall behind.

King Charles II had been brought up in Hague and tea drinking was therefore a natural part of his life. While still in exile, he married Portuguese Chatherine de Braganza in 1662. Chatherine de Braganza brought Tangier and Bombay as a part of her dowry, which meant that the John Company suddenly had two excellent bases in Asia. As the British monarchy regained its strength, the John Company flourished and tea began to replace ale as favourite drink among the English.

Long before tea arrived to Europe, the British were fond of warm sweetened drinks, including highly popular possets which had been consumed since the middle ages. Possets are hot milk-based alcoholic beverages, and it therefore comes as no surprise that the British soon developed a taste for tea served with milk and sugar.

The first British coffee house was founded in London in 1652, and this establishment was soon to be followed by many others. As the interest in tea grew on the British Isles, these coffee houses started serving tea, but it wasn’t until 1706 that the first house specializing in tea was opened. During the 18th century, the British began to import large quantities of tea accessories from China, including tea cups, tea pots, sugar bowls and special milk jugs made from porcelain.