Its not how far south , its whom with. Citifolk have no idea. You have to
know some "trappers"

Sasha.


"MarshalN" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Sounds infinitely more complicated than the gongfu brewing we do.
>
> How far south does this practice extend? What I'm saying is, how far
> into Siberia do I have to go to see this done?
>
> MarshalN
> http://www.xanga.com/MarshalN
>
> Alex Chaihorsky wrote:
>> I was reminded by my Russian friends that I never mentioned on this forum
>> a
>> very unusual tea brewing method that is used by field geologists,
>> hunters,
>> reindeer herders and other old-timers in Siberian taiga. Its called
>> "Zherebchik" tea (zhe-'reb-chik with emphasis on -reb-) or "Colt tea".
>> In
>> Russian "zherebchik" is a diminutive from "zherebets", which means -
>> stallion and in its diminutive form sounds very homely, playful and
>> tender.
>>
>> This is how you do it: every self-respecting "taiezhnik" ("taiga man" -
>> similar to what would be a "mountain man" in American West) keeps with
>> him
>> or knows how to find the good ones on the banks of Siberian rivers, a
>> bunch
>> of thumbnail sized washed stones". These are heated on the campfire coals
>> usually inside an old burned tin can. You need two of such cans usually.
>> Tea
>> (almost always black, brick or loose) is put into a large (1- 2 liters)
>> ceramic teapot (usually this would be an old beat-up medium thick walled
>> ceramic or mass-produced white clay variety similar to what is used here
>> in
>> cheap Chinese restaurants). Then it is filled to 1/3 or 1/2 with COLD
>> spring
>> or clean stream water. Some people wait a bit to allow tea leaves get
>> thoroughly wet, some do not wait at all.
>> After that the first batch of almost red-hot stones goes in and the art
>> of
>> making a good zherebchik is to watch closely how water behaves and do not
>> allow boiling by stopping adding stones at the right moment. The sound of
>> that operation reminds one of the sounds colts and horses make, and this
>> is
>> how (I am guessing here) the tea got its name.
>> I short time later more COLD water is added and the second batch of hot
>> stones goes in. Some people allow quite some boiling, some just a touch,
>> some not at all. The tea is covered and after a minute of two is served.
>> This is a rough style tea ceremony - the teapot is usually look like it
>> outlived Hiroshima attack, the tea is served into beat-up, rough, ugly
>> metal
>> mugs, the uglier the better, etc. Usually people keep silence while an
>> older
>> guy makes the Zherebchik, but this is not a rule - just comes as a
>> natural
>> reaction to the whole process after a long, hard day's work or long
>> exhausting walk along treacherous banks of Siberian rivers.
>> I always asked locals if and where a wild variety of thyme can be found
>> and
>> add fresh thyme to zherebchik (just add several long twigs after its
>> completely done for 1 minute with their talks sticking out into the
>> teapot
>> and take them out), which makes usually cheap rough black tea much finer.
>> Actually fresh thyme makes even fine black teas very interesting,
>> especially
>> after heavy meal - and this is from me, who hates all "aromatized" teas.
>>
>> Choosing stones for zherebchik is not as simple as it may sound - the
>> stones
>> has to be able to withstand many cycles of heat and fast cooling without
>> breaking, which requires some geological knowledge (plus you do not want
>> stones that may have even specs of auripigment or cinnabar in it, let
>> alone
>> uranium, which are much more common that one may think! White "sugar"
>> quartz
>> (not clear, transparent variety) fine-grained diorites, olivinites and
>> other
>> sturdy rocks are good. Granite, sienite, gabbros or any rock that is non
>> monomineral will be cracking, bursting, falling apart due to the
>> difference
>> in heat expansion coefficients of neighboring mineral grains.
>> If you decide to make the zherebchik tea at home - do not heat the stones
>> on
>> gas - the tea will smell foul. You can heat them on an electric stove or,
>> if
>> gas is your only option, put them first in a previously burned to the
>> brown-blue color tin can. I actually use such a can when I heat the
>> stones
>> on an electrical stove too because they are easier to handle that way.
>> Zherebchik has lots of variables - to wait or not to wait for tea leaves
>> to
>> get wet, to allow first batch to boil the tea or not, to boil or not and
>> for how long, etc. So zherebchik tea allows for you to show off your art.
>> I am trying to convince some of my Russian friends to develop it into a
>> true
>> restaurant tea presentation keeping the rough nature of the zherebchik,
>> its
>> Siberian spirit and campfire nature.
>>
>> Anyway - I hope you guys try this one day.
>>
>> Sasha.
>