Please let me warn you...with my many Iranian friends during college (I was
a tutor for foreign students), I drank many a fine Golabi or Darjeeling with
sugar between the teeth...and *every* one of us had (or developed in my
case) a huge cavity just in the spot where we habitually held our sugars.
Funny how a good many of those friends happened to want to go into
dentistry!

Ah, those days of "chay-e dam ghand pahlu" (fresh hot tea with a sugar cube
on the side)...

Shibumi

> a écrit dans le message de
...
> I -think- so - the local Iranian markets have, besides a lot of tea,
> various (and many) types of sugar and jam. The sugar is available in
> rock candy, cubes, and irregular white 'chunks' which is what I think
> you are looking for.
>
> Do you see loaf sugar on this page? Look for 'cone'...
>
> http://www.sadaf.com/store/page32.html
>
> juanon > wrote:
> > Have you found a source for Russian-style loaf sugar? Holding a piece
of
> > the sugar between your teeth while slurping tea is a custom that has its
> > merits. I would like to buy loaf sugar in the US.
> > > wrote in message
> > news
> >> Well, I started a post earlier, and I wanted to summarize my findings.
> >> I was mainly curious as to the 'proper' use of a samovar and teapot.
> >>
> >> For the record, I have a German made 'Beem' Rebecca III model in
> >> Stainless.
> >>
> >> The general principal seemed to be clear
> >>
> >> - heat water in the samovar
> >> - make a tea 'concentrate' (very strong tea) in a teapot
> >> - mix concentrate + water to make tea
> >> - the teapot can be left on top of the samovar to keep it warm while
> >> brewing and thereater
> >>
> >> I found a nifty 'howto' at
> >>
> >> http://www.fazekas.hu/~nagydani/rth/...-HOWTO-v2.html
> >>
> >> What wasn't clear to me was how long you could/should leave the tea in
> >> the teapot. The Beem instructions said you could leave the tea in for
> >> up to 4 hours. The above mentioned HOWTO made no mention of time,
> >> either for minimum or maximum steeping. I wrote to the author of the
> >> howto, and he replied thusly.
> >>
> >> >Depends on what you call "drinkable". Generally, it's safe and tasty
> >> >forabout 24 hours or even a little more. After that it will become
> >> >increasingly sour/bitter in an unpleasant way. However, there is a
> >> >clear difference between fresh zavarka, and that of yesterday.
> >>
> >> >Zavarka is "fresh" until the zavarka pot cools down by itself. Which
> >> >is about 3-4 hours, if kept warm by a towel or other means of
> >> >heat-insulation. But even after that there's no reason to discard it,
> >> >unless you're expecting guests or something like that.
> >> >
> >> >Cheers,
> >> >
> >> >Daniel
> >>
> >> Now, when I checked with a local Iranian store (Santa Monica,
> >> California), they thought it was a -bad- idea to leave the tea leaves
> >> in the teapot for more than 10 or so minutes. They also have a huge
> >> variety of tea at reasonable prices, and hard sugar/rock candy, and
> >> jam, for keeping in your mouth while drinking tea - very much in the
> >> Russian style, from what I have read.
> >>
> >> Nigel from teacraft mentioned in this group that Georgian (traditional
> >> Russian), Iranian, and Turkish tea are low in tannins and can be left
> >> to steep.
> >>
> >> So, I went back to the Iranian store, and they did have Turkish tea -
> >> Caykur. They also had Russian labelled "Czar Nicholas" tea - with
> >> labels in only Russian and English - that mentioned the use of a
> >> samovar, but that you should pour the tea - off - the leaves after no
> >> more than 10 minutes. This tea was packed in Ceylon. There were a
> >> few other Ceylon brands that had identical instructions.
> >>
> >> So, to keep from running on too long...
> >>
> >> - Turkish tea can be brewed indefinitely, it actually tastes nicer
> >> after a while.
> >>
> >> - Ceylonese tea gets nasty.
> >>
> >> - Chinese black teas remain drinkable (need more data here).
> >>
> >> I gather that in Russa, Iran, etc. there has been a shift from local,
> >> or Chinese, teas, to Indian teas, which are a bit more tannic. Thus
> >> the varying instructions.
> >>
> >> Logically the prolonged steep + addition of water should act more like
> >> a second steeping - English teas become undrinkable if oversteeped
> >> because the amount of water is fixed. Howevery, the Ceylonese teas
> >> get a bit astringent for me after a little while regardless. I think
> >> that most 'English' style tea is drunk with milk for this reason.
> >>
> >> I will probably -mainly- be using a filtered decanted brew in the
> >> teapot so I can just ignore the wait time. I'll fire up the Turkish
> >> tea and leave it in the pot for foodies. The Turkish tea does have
> >> tiny leaf fragments that have to be filtered. I'd be interested in
> >> trying some Georgian tea - there is an interesting writeup he
> >>
> >> http://www.meridianworldservices.com/georgiantea.html
> >>
> >> I can have tea ready for the family when needed this way, and pour out
> >> 40+ cups without having to do anything more than once...
> >>
> >> I also think that the availability of lots of hot water with some
> >> flavor to it whenever needed is more valuable in Russia than
> >> California...
> >>
> >> I am happy with the samovar, though, it looks great and is practical
> >> for serving -lots- of tea, at varying strengths as well.
> >>
> >> Sorry if there are any grevious lapses in content - I don't speak
> >> Russian (or Farsi or Turkish) so I am sure that there is a lot of
> >> information that isn't accessible to me.
> >>
> >> - Mike H.
> >>
> >
> >