Hello folks, After joining this forum and thinking more about cooking things outside with fire, my thoughts have alighted on the Russian/East European way of making tea with a samovar. And, I also feel I owe it to my East European ancestors find one to try; that is an old-fashioned type that is fired with wood (or pinecones) rather than the modern electric types. If you are not familiar with the samovar, here is a nice video talking about this tradition: As I understand it, a samovar is pretty much a water boiler/urn, though when fired with wood or pinecones, the water takes on a smokey-flavour. When the samovar has brought the water to the boil, one then taps off some if the boiling water into a small teapot with a LOT of leaf tea to make a very strong brew. When the brew is ready, each person pours a small amount of the strong brew (tea-concentrate) into the bottom of a tea-glass and tops it up with the hot water to the desired strength. It's then drunk with sugar, honey or fruit jam. The whole process from the firing to the serving sounds like a rather nice sociable ceremony. I wonder if anyone here has samovar experiences to share? I'd be most interested to hear more. All the best, Volesworth
There are lots on my local auction site. Www.osta.ee They have 55 listed from 0.1 euro to 2000! Not sure how they work but lots of types for sale
Near 40 years ago I had tea from a large jeweled solid silver samovar that had been gifted to my host by the late Shah of Iran. Sadly, no pictures.
MarkC Thanks for the link. I just love those Samovars, and the stamps. But an electric Samovar ! How could they ?
Looks like the camping Kelly kettle descended from the Samovar. Same principle of the fire chamber with a chimney running up through the centre of the water container.
I gave into temptations and bought a samovar from Germany. So far, I have only given it a test firing to boil it up and make sure it's completely clean before using it. It was easy to use, though I seemed to need to stand over it keeping feeding it fuel. It took just under 30 minutes for 4 litres of water come to a rolling boil. I think, when I get a better feel for keeping the fire going strongly, the time should reduce. Two snaps attached.
