O ver the course of the last two hundred years, the tea ceremony has become one of the strongest and most pervasive cultural traditions in Central Russia. Since its introduction from China early in the seventeenth century, tea has become the Russians' favorite drink. The tea ceremony has become not only a cultural tradition but also has developed into a strong communicational bond for the society.


Russians have developed an interesting system of teapots, cups, caddies and other accessories for the tea ceremony. The original Russian teapot has an egg-round shape with a long, beautifully curved spout and a strong handle. Russians drink two or three different kinds of tea at one time. They mix herbal and black teas together and dilute the mixture with hot water. Therefore, usually two or three teapots all are used at once. Sitting on top of each other, the teapots serve to keep the teas warm for a long time. The bottom teapot holds hot water for diluting the tea and it is the largest one. The next one contains a black tea, brewing a very strong tea. The top and smallest one usually has a herbal or mint tea.

The whole composition of the complete teapots structure is reminiscent of a building's architecture - perhaps the Russian orthodox church with its whimsical pattern of onion-heads roof. Frequently leads, the spouts and handles of the teapots, have been decorated with images from daily life. At the turn of the eighteenth century, there were more than one hundred little porcelain and ceramics factories producing tea-sets in Central Russia. Each of them had different patterns and traditions of decorating ceramics. But in general, the tradition of decorating the tea services with little figures of people and animals, scenes from everyday life or scenes from popular folk stories and songs were most popular. The major part of the decoration was often a script with a teaching proverb or a line from a song. Beautiful landscapes were also often depicted on these teapots.


Some of the teapots and also tea caddies were also made in a shape of human bodies. The tea caddy or jar for storing whole leaf teas became very popular in Russia, with the top of the caddy also serving as a measuring cup for dispensing the tea. Each tea caddy represents a different type of black or herbal tea. There are teas for health, prosperity, general well-being, romance and other affairs of human nature.







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