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Tea 101:What is Russian caravan tea?
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Merchantile Caravan as it was during the days tea was caravanned through Russia.
Russian caravan tea is named for the caravans that brought tea from China, through Russia, into Europe. Only a small percentage of the tea exported from China arrived in Europe this way, but the little that did was of superior quality and quite expensive. Travel by the Southern Route, which a sea voyage, did quite a bit of damage to the tea’s flavor. Russian caravan tea was the tea of the royal and the wealthy.
It’s been long rumored that Russian caravan tea was a mixture of black teas such as Assam and lapsang souAchong, a tea that is smoked during processing. The lapsang souchong supposedly kept the other teas in the blend fresh. This may or may not be true depending on which sources you choose to believe.
Whether the original Russian caravan tea consisted of this blend or not, today you can buy many varieties of Russian caravan tea, most if not all of which are a blend of Assam and lapsang souchong. The flavor is rich, warm, and slightly smoky as opposed to langsang souchong alone, which can be much smokier in taste, but a lovely experience in its own right.
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