Caravan tea
Caravan tea is the tea that came to Europe from China by caravans and not like the bulk of the tea by the cheaper sea route .
history
The first tea imports to Europe were made by merchant ship by the Dutch East India Company around the year 1610, whereby the salty, humid sea air impaired the quality. The alternative land transport mostly took the route via the Silk Road .
The name "caravan tea" has become established for this tea. First it was drunk in Russia, then transported to other parts of Europe. The first imports in 1618 are attributed to the Russian Wassili Starkow (also Wassilij Storkow ), who worked as a Russian envoy in China and transported 200 boxes of tea from China by land to Russia to the tsar, who was well received there. Later, the transports increasingly took place via Mongolia , Siberia and Russia to the Black Sea or the Baltic coast , where they were received by Frisian merchants.
A specialty of tea was previously seen to be stored next to the campfire, which means that the smoke aroma was transferred to the tea leaves. This smoked tea found its lovers and the smoke aroma is a characteristic of caravan teas still offered today, which are smoked over special woods. Even the transport at great heights when overcoming the mountain ranges, the body heat of the horse (when transporting under the saddle bag) or the friction have apparently influenced the tea quality positively.
As "Russian tea" or "Russian caravan tea" , as the caravan tea was also called because of its way across Russia, a fine blend of different Chinese teas such as Oolong , Keemun and Lapsang Souchong with and without smoke aroma was later designated . The term was used widely in German-speaking countries, sometimes as a synonym alongside English tea for black tea in general.
literature
- Mike Heneberry, Kerren Barbas (illustrations): Little Black Book of Tea: The Handbook all about tea (Original title: Little Black Book of Tea (2006), translated by Katrin Krips-Schmidt) Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 2013, ISBN 978- 3-527-50742-9 , p. 53.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b The man who invented the famous caravan tea. In: Tee-Magazin.de . July 26, 2013 (spelling of the name Storkow).
- ↑ A. Spokesman von Bernegg: Tropical and subtropical world economic plants: their history, cultural and economic significance. Volume 3, Edition 3, F. Enke 1929, p. 5 (name Starkow, which can also be found in other sources) and p. 271/273 (caravan tea)
- ↑ a b Rohrsen, P .: The tea: cultivation, varieties, history. CHBeck 2013
- ↑ Karawanentee at teespeicher.de ( Memento of the original from January 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Caravan tea in the tea dictionary
