What tea was in the USSR. The secret of the Soviet elephant. Why did they drink fake Indian tea in the USSR? The AIF observer tried to figure out what kind of tea leaf was supplied from India to the USSR and what is now being imported to Russia, and at the same time to find out how the locals feel about tea

- Where's your tea?

- To the left, a whole department. You'll see right away.

It's easy to say. Looking into a large supermarket in Delhi, I rummaged through several shelves before I came across loose-leaf black tea familiar from childhood. No wonder - after all, the culture of tea drinking in India is different from what we are used to. Soluble (!) Is popular - yes, like coffee - tea, which is poured with boiling water, as well as the "granular version" - leaves twisted into solid balls. "Normal" tea in our understanding in India is not easy to find. In the mornings, they drink masala tea from glass glasses - tea leaves with milk (the harmful influence of the British colonialists) and masala spices containing pepper and spices. You swallow such “happiness”, and your tongue burns - so sharply. But that's okay. In the state of Himachal Pradesh, where many Tibetans live, they prefer tea with yak butter and ... dried chicken powder. Both a drink and breakfast at the same time. Some tribes (in particular, the Gurkhas) do not brew anything at all, but simply chew tea leaves with ... garlic. In general, the naive idea of ​​India as a tea country is crumbling from the very first days of your stay.

Only female fingers

“Extensive tea plantations in India appeared only in 1856 - English planters brought seedlings from China,” explains one of the tea businessmen. Abdul-Wahid Jamarati. - Before that, only wild varieties grew here. Now tea is grown in three mountainous regions. In the northeast of India - in Darjeeling and the state of Assam, as well as in the south - Nilgiri tea is produced there. The taste requires cool weather and frequent rains: the leaves love to absorb moisture. The most fragrant tea is picked only by hand and only by women (their salary is about 5 thousand rubles a month in Russian money. - Auth.): men's fingers are rougher and cannot pinch off the youngest shoots - flushes. During machine harvesting, everything is cut off in a row, so these varieties are cheap: experts cynically call them a broom. Personally, I am an ardent fan of tea, which is harvested in Darjeeling between February and May, it has a very bright and rich taste. By the way, never buy tea in the markets, where it is poured into open bags and kept outdoors all day. At such a leaf, the aroma disappears: it turns into chopped hay. I was in Russia and saw - you store the leaves incorrectly. Tea should be put in the refrigerator, at a temperature of + 8 °, so it concentrates its qualities. Do not keep it in a paper box, the best option is an ordinary glass jar.

The most fragrant tea is collected only by hand and only by women. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

The plantations of Darjeeling are fascinating - huge mountains covered with greenery of tea bushes. My guide, 28-year-old Lakshmi from Tamil Nadu, assures me that she is satisfied with the position: “It’s not coal at a damn depth in a mine to mine.” She considers herself a tea professional, as she is able to collect 80 kg (!) of a leaf per day. The machine, by the way, collects 1.5 tons, but it is very small: we subsequently drink this dust, brewing tea bags. Rubbing the delicate leaves of a tea bush with her fingers, Lakshmi reports: they grow back in two weeks, and in a year one plant can accumulate 70 kg of tea (2.5 times more in Assam). True, now some site owners are planting artificially bred varieties - the taste is not a fountain, but they will cut 100 kilos in six months. Alas, there are enough various frauds with tea in India.

For example, empty jars and packs with the inscription “Elite” or “Choice” are freely sold in the surrounding shops, and unscrupulous traders pour penny varieties into them: after all, only highly experienced tasters abroad can determine the quality of tea.

What's in the brew?

“Unfortunately, good tea is often sold by small firms,” they tell me at the plantation. “They throw in cheap versions of Kenyan or Malaysian, put the stamp “Made in India” and the pack goes to the international market.” How much counterfeit tea is sold in Russia, they could not estimate in Darjeeling. The British (and in Britain they love Indian tea no less than we do) carefully monitor the quality and strictly check the suppliers. Do they do it for us?

“Frankly, even the tea that the USSR bought could hardly be called Indian,” says businessman Vijay Sharma, whose firm sold tea to the Soviet Union in the late 1970s. - It was a blend, a mixture. Depending on the variety, the share of tea from India in the famous in Soviet times pack with the image of an elephant was only 15-25%. The main filler (more than 50%) was Georgian leaf. And right now, things aren't going well. I tried tea from sellers in Moscow and St. Petersburg, it turned out that they have no idea what period the collection (taste depends on) of Darjeeling. And what's more - Nilgiri tea is often sold as "elite" tea, although in India it is the cheapest, a drink for the poor, it is it that is packaged in bags. In places, Indonesian or Vietnamese tea was sold under the guise of Indian tea.

Cup of red pepper

I order tea from a street cafe in Delhi. It is usually cooked in an iron kettle (or even a saucepan) over an open fire. The leaves are sometimes boiled immediately in milk (at the request of the client) or in water, after adding cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and chili pepper. In general, from the outside it looks like cooking soup. A glass costs 15 rupees (13.5 rubles). The taste is something strange, and almost ten tablespoons of sugar are poured in: in India they love extremely sweet tea. I ask you to brew black Assam leaves without milk and spices. The waiter appears with a glass of steaming tea and ... puts a jug of milk next to him. "Why?! I asked…” “Sir,” his voice sounds with obvious pity. “But you won’t taste good!”

Summing up, I will say: deliveries of Indian tea to our country are still chaotic, sellers have little understanding of varieties or frankly fantasize, pushing low-quality tea leaves from other countries to the Russian consumer. I am generally silent about the price - in India, tea costs 130 rubles. per kilo, we can sell it for a thousand. It's a pity. Indian varieties, especially Darjeeling, are great, and our business has long had to work directly with India, and not buy tea at exorbitant prices through Europe and dubious small firms in India. So for us it will be cheaper and, most importantly, tastier.

The quality of Georgian tea was disgusting. "Georgian tea of ​​the second grade" looked like sawdust, it periodically came across pieces of branches (they were called "firewood"), it smelled of tobacco and had a disgusting taste. Krasnodar was considered even worse than Georgian. It was mainly bought for brewing "chifir" - a drink obtained by long-term digestion of highly concentrated brew. For its preparation, neither the smell nor the taste of tea was important - only the amount of theine (tea caffeine) was important ...

More or less normal tea, which could be drunk normally, was considered "Tea No. 36" or, as it was usually called, "thirty-sixth". When it was "thrown out" on the shelves, a queue formed for an hour and a half. And they gave strictly "two packs in one hand." This usually happens at the end of the month. when the store needed to urgently "get the plan." The pack was one hundred grams, one pack was enough for a maximum of a week. And that at a very economical cost.

Indian tea sold in the USSR was imported in bulk and packaged at tea-packing factories in standard packaging - a cardboard box "with an elephant" of 50 and 100 grams (for tea premium). For Indian tea of ​​the first grade, green-red packaging was used. Far from always, tea sold as Indian was really such. So, in the 1980s, a mixture was sold as "Indian tea of ​​the first grade", which included: 55% Georgian, 25% Madagascar, 15% Indian and 5% Ceylon tea.

Own production of tea after 1980 has fallen significantly, the quality has deteriorated. Since the mid-1980s, a progressive trade deficit has affected essential commodities, including sugar and tea. At the same time, the internal economic processes of the USSR coincided with the death of Indian and Ceylon tea plantations (another period of growth came to an end) and an increase in world prices for tea. As a result, tea, like a number of other food products, almost disappeared from free sale and began to be sold on coupons. Only low-grade tea in some cases could be bought freely. Subsequently, Turkish tea began to be purchased in large quantities, which was very poorly brewed. It was sold in large packaging without coupons. In the same years, in the middle lane and in the north of the country, green tea, which was practically not imported to these regions before. It was also sold freely.

In the first years after the collapse of the USSR, both Russian and Georgian tea production was completely abandoned. Georgia had no reason to keep this production, since its only market was Russia, due to the decline in the quality of Georgian tea, it had already reoriented itself to buying tea in other states. Preserved tea production Azerbaijan, which currently satisfies part of the country's domestic demand for tea. Part of the Georgian tea plantations is still abandoned. In Russia, several own companies have now been created - tea importers, as well as minor representative offices of foreign ones.
Tea production in the USSR was a clear indicator of the degradation of the entire economy of the country. From one kilogram of tea, five kilograms were falsified, of which two were allowed into trade, and three went to the left. As a result, it turned out on paper, overfulfillment of the plan by 200%, state bonuses to ministries, millions of rubles in the shadow economy and sawdust mixture for Soviet buyers

Some people start their mornings with coffee, others start with tea. And, remembering the past, it would be interesting to know how tea got to the USSR and what it was like.
That's what we're talking about now.)

In the period 1917-1923, Soviet Russia experienced a "tea" period: the use alcoholic beverages was officially banned, while the army and industrial workers were supplied with tea for free. The organization "Centrochai" was created, which was engaged in the distribution of tea from the confiscated warehouses of tea trading companies. The stocks were so large that until 1923 there was no need to purchase tea from abroad.

The Soviet leadership paid great attention to the development of domestic tea production. It is known that V. I. Lenin and I. V. Stalin loved and constantly drank tea. In the 1920s, a special program was adopted for the development of tea business in the country. The Anaseul Research Institute of Tea, Tea Industry and Subtropical Crops was formed, the purpose of which was to develop breeding work to develop new varieties of tea. Several dozen tea factories were built in different regions of Western Georgia. Regular planting of tea plantations began (the old ones had completely died by 1920). Tea production developed in Azerbaijan and the Krasnodar Territory. Everything possible was done to reduce the country's dependence on tea supplies from abroad.

By the end of the 1970s, the area under tea in the USSR reached 97 thousand hectares, there were 80 modern tea industry enterprises in the country. In Georgia alone, 95 thousand tons of ready-made tea were produced per year. By 1986 general production tea in the USSR reached 150 thousand tons, tile black and green - 8 thousand tons, green brick - 9 thousand tons. In the 1950s - 1970s, the USSR turned into a tea-exporting country - Georgian, Azerbaijani and Krasnodar teas came to Poland, the GDR, Hungary, Romania, Finland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, South Yemen, Mongolia. It was mainly brick and brick tea. The need of the USSR for tea was satisfied own production, in different years, by 2/3 to 3/4.

By the 1970s, at the level of the leadership of the USSR, a decision was already ripe to specialize areas suitable for tea production in such production. It was supposed to withdraw land used for other crops and transfer them to tea production. However, these plans were not implemented. Moreover, under the pretext of getting rid of manual labor, by the beginning of the 1980s, manual tea leaf picking was almost completely stopped in Georgia, switching entirely to machine, which gives an extremely low quality product.
Until 1970, tea imports from China continued. Subsequently, Chinese imports were curtailed, tea purchases began in India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Kenya, and Tanzania. Since the quality of Georgian tea, compared to imported tea, was low (mainly due to attempts to mechanize the collection of tea leaves), it was actively practiced to mix imported teas with Georgian teas, which resulted in a product of acceptable quality and price.
By the beginning of the 1980s, it became almost impossible to buy pure Indian or Ceylon tea in ordinary stores - it was imported extremely rarely and in small batches, it was instantly sold out. Sometimes Indian tea was brought to canteens and canteens of enterprises and institutions.
At that time, shops usually sold low-grade Georgian tea with "firewood" and the aroma of hay. The following brands were also sold, but were rare:
- Tea No. 36 (Georgian and 36% Indian) (green packaging)
- Tea No. 20 (Georgian and 20% Indian) (green packaging)
- Krasnodar tea of ​​the highest grade
- Georgian tea of ​​the highest grade
- Georgian tea first grade
- Georgian tea second grade

Indian tea sold in the USSR was imported in bulk and packaged at tea-packing factories in standard packaging - a cardboard box "with an elephant" of 50 and 100 grams (for premium tea). For Indian tea of ​​the first grade, green-red packaging was used. Not always tea sold as Indian in stores really was. So, in the 1980s, a mixture was sold as "Indian tea of ​​the first grade", which included: 55% Georgian, 25% Madagascar, 15% Indian and 5% Ceylon tea.
Own production of tea after 1980 has fallen significantly, the quality has deteriorated. Since the mid-1980s, a progressive trade deficit has affected essential commodities, including sugar and tea. At the same time, the internal economic processes of the USSR coincided with the death of Indian and Ceylon tea plantations (another period of growth came to an end) and an increase in world prices for tea. As a result, tea, like a number of other food products, almost disappeared from free sale and began to be sold on coupons. Only low-grade tea in some cases could be bought freely. Subsequently, Turkish tea began to be purchased in large quantities, which was very poorly brewed. It was sold in large packaging without coupons. In the same years, green tea appeared on sale in the middle lane and in the north of the country, which had practically not been imported to these regions before. It was also sold freely.

In the first years after the collapse of the USSR, both Russian and Georgian tea production was completely abandoned. Georgia had no reason to keep this production, since its only market was Russia, due to the decline in the quality of Georgian tea, it had already reoriented itself to buying tea in other states. The tea production of Azerbaijan has been preserved, which currently satisfies part of the country's domestic demand for tea. Part of the Georgian tea plantations is still abandoned. In Russia, several own companies have now been created - tea importers, as well as minor representative offices of foreign ones.

Who remembers USSR tea?)

Of all the Union Republics for tea cultivation Georgia and Armenia were ideally suited. The end of the 20s of the last century was marked by the launch of Georgian tea. Tea factories were built, broken tea plantations. And in the 1930s, the same trend engulfed the Azerbaijan SSR. In 1937 the country learned Azerbaijani tea.

The territory of the Krasnodar Territory became the third where they continued to grow and produce tea. Indeed, the climate was warm and humid, that is, optimal for the tea plant. In 1936, the first tea plantations appeared in two districts (Adlerovsky, Lazarevsky). Because of World War II, all developments in this direction had to be curtailed. It became possible to return to work again only by 1949. Later, plantations were added in three more districts of the region (Maikop, Goryache-Klyuchevskoy, Tula).

Planting area expanded. Stavrapol, Ukrainian and Kazakh SSRs have become experimental sites for growing tea. In general, it can be said that tea cultivation efforts in these regions did not fail. Winter did not destroy the plantings, tea quality was relative. However, the country's leadership considered the experiment unprofitable, and tea production in these regions was suspended, and did not have time to start.

Georgia, Azerbaijan and the Krasnodar Territory became the main tea regions. By 1980 in Georgia, tea began to be collected using machinery. No machine can compare to picking tea by hand. The collection began to be carried out during the rain. Georgian tea quality fell sharply. People began to literally sweep off the shelves Ceylon and Indian tea.

By the 80th year good tea became a scarce commodity. Tea remained freely available Bad quality. This included tea brought to the USSR from Turkey.

In the Soviet Union they drank mainly Black tea. The most elite were teas, which were called "Bouquet" (bouquet of Georgia, for example). The next step was occupied by Extra tea. It contained tea buds. It was slightly inferior to Bouquet in quality and aroma. Further, the grades were arranged as follows: the highest, first and second grade. The second grade was characterized by low quality.

Azerbaijani tea was rather small.

Krasnodar tea was distinguished by a marvelous aroma and sweetish taste. But it was problematic to keep these properties. Packing and delivery destroyed the quality of tea.

Green tea in the USSR was only its own. There was no question of deliveries from abroad. ABOUT as green tea judged by numbers. Classes No. 125 and 111 were considered elite.

Brick tea was very popular. These are pressed tea leaves in the shape of a brick.

There were tea varieties from a mixture of Indian and Georgian tea. They wore numbers 20 and 36.

Tea drinking in the USSR

In Soviet Union drinking tea the same as in pre-revolutionary Russia. That is, with sweets, jam, cookies and gingerbread. Added cream and milk.

This is interesting:

Residents of foreign countries have a firm belief that in the USSR they drank tea only with lemon.

Tea was the end of the meal. many loved to drink tea with pieces of refined sugar. And to this day, when they say: “Buy something for tea,” they mean sweets.

The October Revolution, one way or another, made everyone more or less equal. That's why utensils for tea drinking was almost the same in all families. Porcelain sets were used only by representatives of those in power.

in public canteens tea poured into glass glasses.

This is interesting

On the trains, the conductors brought tea in glasses with coasters and with pieces of sugar, miniaturely packed in 4 pieces per package.

Tea was boiled in electric samovars and teapots. Tea with a whistle was considered a special rarity.

Despite the fact that those distant times have long sunk into oblivion, we still remember them with warmth. Many families still keep electric samovars, which the owners sometimes take out, put in the middle of the table and have tea, like their distant ancestors.

Some people start their mornings with coffee, others start with tea. And, remembering the past, it would be interesting to know how tea got to the USSR and what it was like.

That's what we're talking about now.)

In the period 1917-1923, Soviet Russia experienced a "tea" period: the consumption of alcoholic beverages was officially prohibited, while the army and industrial workers were supplied with tea for free. The organization "Centrochai" was created, which was engaged in the distribution of tea from the confiscated warehouses of tea trading companies. The stocks were so large that until 1923 there was no need to purchase tea from abroad.

The Soviet leadership paid great attention to the development of domestic tea production. It is known that V. I. Lenin and I. V. Stalin loved and constantly drank tea. In the 1920s, a special program was adopted for the development of tea business in the country. The Anaseul Research Institute of Tea, Tea Industry and Subtropical Crops was formed, the purpose of which was to develop breeding work to develop new varieties of tea. Several dozen tea factories were built in different regions of Western Georgia. Regular planting of tea plantations began (the old ones had completely died by 1920). Tea production developed in Azerbaijan and the Krasnodar Territory. Everything possible was done to reduce the country's dependence on tea supplies from abroad.

By the end of the 1970s, the area under tea in the USSR reached 97 thousand hectares, there were 80 modern tea industry enterprises in the country. In Georgia alone, 95 thousand tons of ready-made tea were produced per year. By 1986, the total production of tea in the USSR reached 150 thousand tons, tile black and green - 8 thousand tons, green brick - 9 thousand tons. In the 1950s - 1970s, the USSR turned into a tea-exporting country - Georgian, Azerbaijani and Krasnodar teas came to Poland, the GDR, Hungary, Romania, Finland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, South Yemen, Mongolia. It was mainly brick and slab tea that went to Asia. The need of the USSR for tea was satisfied by its own production, in different years, by a value from 2/3 to 3/4.

By the 1970s, at the level of the leadership of the USSR, a decision was already ripe to specialize areas suitable for tea production in such production. It was supposed to withdraw land used for other crops and transfer them to tea production. However, these plans were not implemented. Moreover, under the pretext of getting rid of manual labor, by the beginning of the 1980s, manual tea leaf picking was almost completely stopped in Georgia, switching entirely to machine, which gives an extremely low quality product.
Until 1970, tea imports from China continued. Subsequently, Chinese imports were curtailed, tea purchases began in India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Kenya, and Tanzania. Since the quality of Georgian tea, compared to imported tea, was low (mainly due to attempts to mechanize the collection of tea leaves), it was actively practiced to mix imported teas with Georgian teas, which resulted in a product of acceptable quality and price.
By the beginning of the 1980s, it became almost impossible to buy pure Indian or Ceylon tea in ordinary stores - it was imported extremely rarely and in small batches, it was instantly sold out. Sometimes Indian tea was brought to canteens and canteens of enterprises and institutions.
At that time, shops usually sold low-grade Georgian tea with "firewood" and the aroma of hay. The following brands were also sold, but were rare:
- Tea No. 36 (Georgian and 36% Indian) (green packaging)
- Tea No. 20 (Georgian and 20% Indian) (green packaging)
- Krasnodar tea of ​​the highest grade
- Georgian tea of ​​the highest grade
- Georgian tea first grade
- Georgian tea second grade

Indian tea sold in the USSR was imported in bulk and packaged at tea-packing factories in standard packaging - a cardboard box "with an elephant" of 50 and 100 grams (for premium tea). For Indian tea of ​​the first grade, green-red packaging was used. Not always tea sold as Indian in stores really was. So, in the 1980s, a mixture was sold as "Indian tea of ​​the first grade", which included: 55% Georgian, 25% Madagascar, 15% Indian and 5% Ceylon tea.
Own production of tea after 1980 has fallen significantly, the quality has deteriorated. Since the mid-1980s, a progressive trade deficit has affected essential commodities, including sugar and tea. At the same time, the internal economic processes of the USSR coincided with the death of Indian and Ceylon tea plantations (another period of growth came to an end) and an increase in world prices for tea. As a result, tea, like a number of other food products, almost disappeared from free sale and began to be sold on coupons. Only low-grade tea in some cases could be bought freely. Subsequently, Turkish tea began to be purchased in large quantities, which was very poorly brewed. It was sold in large packaging without coupons. In the same years, green tea appeared on sale in the middle lane and in the north of the country, which had practically not been imported to these regions before. It was also sold freely.

In the first years after the collapse of the USSR, both Russian and Georgian tea production was completely abandoned. Georgia had no reason to keep this production, since its only market was Russia, due to the decline in the quality of Georgian tea, it had already reoriented itself to buying tea in other states. The tea production of Azerbaijan has been preserved, which currently satisfies part of the country's domestic demand for tea. Part of the Georgian tea plantations is still abandoned. In Russia, several own companies have now been created - tea importers, as well as minor representative offices of foreign ones.

Who remembers USSR tea?)