Black tea is called Chai in Russia, throughout the Balkans, and throughout Turkey. In Turkish it is written Çay, in Russian Чай. This is not the Indian spiced milk and tea mixture. This is the clear tea brewed strong to which hot water is added to cut the bitterness and to serve it piping hot. The samovar still plays an important part in providing boiling water and keeping the tea warm at the proper temperature. Even today, tea is served using electric samovars or kettles with the same principal of boiling water maintaining the strong tea at the proper temperature.
I grew up with a samovar that was originally brought from Russia to Windom, Minnesota by Mennonites around 1920. A traditional samovar must be well ventilated, and usually started outside. Our samovar in this picture was never used to heat water, but it was tested and would have worked.
We traveled from Trabzon to Batumi, Georgia by way of Rize. This region provides tea for all of Turkey. The banner image of this post shows the tea plantations around the bay on the Black Sea. Considering tea is consumed by the bail, it is amazing that this small region can produce so much.
What really excited me is on our tour of the Sümela Greek monastery near Trabzon,
we stopped at a shop that was serving tea from a working wood fired Samovar. I really felt right at home here.
Samovars come in many different forms. Here’s a Google search:
Here is a nice photo reposted from Tumblr.
Here are some modern samovars, all based on the same principal of the boiling water keeping the tea at the proper temperature.
Misplaced Map Case 