Winter Olympics Special: Sochi Tea

I found out today that Russians like their tea. It makes perfect sense to me that anyone living in a cold environment would grow fond of hot tea, but I didn’t realize that Russia is actually the largest importer of tea in the world, outranking even Britain, a country with a long-standing and widely known tea culture.

In fact, Sochi itself is a major domestic supplier of tea, with production starting after a Russian peasant discovered a winter-resistant tea hybrid in 1901.

This luscious tea field is located in Dagomys, a microdistrict of Sochi. Image courtesy of Dmitry Vorona via Wikimedia Commons.

Right now, athletes in Sochi’s Olympic Park can drink traditional Russian tea served from a samovar, a pot used to boil water and keep tea hot.

Russian samovar: image courtesy of Benito Bonito via Wikimedia Commons.

If I haven’t quenched your curiosity, you can find more details in my sources:

Read more about tea in Sochi at WorldTeaNews.com.
Learn about Dagomys on Wikipedia.
Find out what’s being served in Sochi from EastIdahoNews.