Tea is prepared for use in Thibet by first grinding the leaves and mixing them with bullock’s blood. This compound is then pressed into the form of bricks, dried by a fire-heat and wrapped in sheepskin until required for use, in which form it also serves as a currency throughout Central Asia. A kind of “bouillon” or soup is made from them by boiling in water and adding salt flour, oil, tallow or camel’s milk.
Among the Arabs tea is prepared by first placing a large kettle over a wood fire to heat and then filling it with water, the leaves being meantime mixed with salt and thrown into the water as it heats. When it approaches the boiling point they are rapidly stewed and lifted with a large ladle until the liquid becomes dark brown, when it is poured into another vessel, the kettle being cleaned meanwhile and a paste composed of meal and butter put in to fry in it. The tea infusion with cream added is then poured on the whole, ladled as before, after which the mass is removed and set aside to cool. In this condition it is ladled into wooden mugs and served up, the decoction thus prepared forming both meat and drink, satisfying hunger and thirst at the same time.
Tea in Morocco is regarded as a “course meal” the tea-pot or kettle is first filled with Green tea, sugar and water in such proportion as to make a thick syrup, which is used without the addition of milk or cream, but frequently add spearmint, wormwood, verbena, citron, and on great occasions ambergris. It is usually drank while seated cross-legged on soft carpets, spread on the floor around a costly tray with small feet raising it a few inches from the floor, furnished with glasses in place of cups, nothing else being taken at the meal. An infusion made of tea and tansy is also a favorite beverage with the people of Morocco which is highly aromatic and tonic in its effect, and claimed by them to be a remedy for debility.
In Switzerland it is customary to mix cinnamon with the leaves before making the infusion, and brew both together at the same time in the usual manner. While in France and other continental countries brandy, wine, or other liquor is generally added to the beverage before drinking.
The Russians, who are a nation of tea-drinkers, and who are close enough to the Chinese to have received some knowledge of their methods of preparing tea for use, are very particular in using fresh-boiled water. They prepare it in the same manner as with us, sliced lemon being invariably added to the infusion before using, which wonderfully improves the flavor, making a delicious beverage. Sugar or milk are seldom added, but in cold weather a kind of liquor called “Vodki” is substituted for the lemon, the latter making it a potent drink, sending a glow all over the body. The vessels used by Russians in making tea consists of a small china tea-pot and a “Samovar” invariably, but the tea is not brewed or “drawn” in this vessel as is generally supposed, it being simply the utensil in which the water is boiled, taking the place and serving the same purpose as our tea-kettle. It is usually of brass, though often of other metal, urn-like in shape, but, unlike an ordinary urn, having an inner compartment or cylinder running through the middle, in which is placed burning charcoal for heating the water to an extreme temperature on the principle of a tubular boiler. The charcoal is not lighted until the Samovar is placed on the table, the water being drawn on to the tea as required, the tea being first put in a porcelain or earthenware tea-pot and filled from the Samovar; the first water is poured off the tea as soon as it is put on, being used merely to carry off the dust. A second water is then used for drawing the tea, sufficient to make a strong infusion, being poured on at once, after which the tea-pot is covered, an ample “cosy” being fitted over it to keep the tea warm and prevent the aroma from escaping, and is then allowed to draw from four to five minutes. Sufficient of this beverage is poured into each cup or glass and a slice of lemon added, as tea is drank chiefly from glasses set in metal frames in Russia, and the glass refilled with boiling water from the Samovar.