IVAN-TEA, RUSSIAN TEA, COPOR'S TEA, MY HOME TEA
Dear friends! As I promised yesterday - today I have a new post in which I write about Ivan tea, which I collect myself in the summer and make my own homemade tea. I also post photos so that it is visually clear how all this is done. This is my little production. I was in Sri Lanka and also visited a tea factory - they do everything exactly as I write below in my introductory text.
What kind of herb is this Ivan-tea (or fireweed), as many say - a medicinal herb that gives heroic strength to everyone who drinks a healing drink. Ivan tea grows more in open fields, forest edges, wastelands and fires, grass height from 0.5 to 1.5 m and even up to 2 meters sometimes grows.
The stems of Ivan-tea are straight and rounded, strewn with narrow leaves from top and bottom. Above is an inflorescence from red to lilac. You can see Ivan-tea from afar, in summer it resembles a lilac-red ocean, which covers so much space that it seems that these are real waves rushing not across the field in the wind, but in the open sea.
Well, and who else remembers such a lesson as Botany (was at school in the USSR), then Ivan-tea still has many names, besides those that I have already listed - Plakun, Skrypnik, Downy, Willow-grass, Bogoroditsin-grass, Hoop-grass, Fire-grass. And, interestingly, all these names are perfect for Ivan-tea, our Russian tea.
I harvest a lot of Ivan-tea every summer season so that there is enough tea until the next season, that is, next year. I have my own wisdom, and measurements in this matter. As an example, one portion of Ivan-tea leaf collected, and this is a special shoulder bag, is equal to 700-750 grams in the finished form of homemade tea, this is a full, tightly driven 3-liter jar. We all drink this tea in our family, we also distribute it to all relatives, friends and acquaintances.
If we talk about collecting a leaf of fireweed or Ivan tea, then the best time is when it is already blooming. But there is one peculiarity when they assemble an elite one, so to speak. Tea variety. This is before flowering - the May harvest. The collection period for this tea is very short - only two to three weeks (late May and early June), therefore this tea is considered the most expensive. Well, since there is so little of it, then tea growers collect it only for themselves and their closest relatives or friends.
The fireweed leaf differs strongly at this time, it is soft and light, like a rag. Then the Ivan-tea leaf becomes harder. It is best to collect fireweed tea leaves on a sunny day and in the morning, after the dew has melted. You need to take as much as you can process it. Otherwise, the sheet will simply disappear - it will either dry out or turn sour (it will burn while it lies somewhere). Further, having brought the leaf home, it must be laid out for drying in order to expel juices and herbs from it.
In the photo - this is my small, so to speak, tea factory at home. What is a meat grinder for? I will answer. The Ivan-tea leaf is needed before being put into fermentation - it needs to be “broken”, that is, to break the structure of the leaf so that it begins to actively ferment. Fermentation is an important part of tea, where it can produce green, medium or black tea. It all depends on how much you want to keep the prepared raw materials on time. Most often it is from 24 hours to 48 hours. But someone wants to extend the fermentation period even more, so that the tea is extremely black and has a dense color.
And further. Fermentation is the same as the process that takes place in sauerkraut. I am writing this to make it easier to understand. All factories in the world, which are now more located in Southeast Asia, work according to this production process. He personally visited two tea factories and saw the whole process of making tea.
In continuation of my story about how I prepare myself, I collect and prepare Ivan tea for my family and friends. There are several varieties of Ivan tea, which are very different from the places where you collect them. Ivan tea, which grows in an open space (sunny field), is considered the best. Because its leaf in many has absorbed the sun's rays and this leaf is the best for tea. Ivan tea, which grows near the river, is more delicate and fragrant, unlike the first. And Ivan tea, which grows in small quantities in the forest in the glades, also differs from others in its unusual taste.
If we are talking about healthy food and drinks, then, of course, Ivan-tea will come first here! Our ancestors in Russia used this healing drink in great numbers and even managed to supply it to Europe and England until they became competitors of the British East India Company, which supplies tea from its colonies - India, Ceylon and China. But this is already a separate conversation, which will be in my subsequent posts.
In the photo - prepared Ivan tea for fermentation. June 2020. Today in our stores you can find not even dozens, but hundreds of varieties of different teas. But the question arises, does at least one of them meet the criteria for us to accept for ourselves that this drink suits us very well both in taste and for health? My own analysis of the raw materials that are being brought from abroad did not satisfy me personally.
I will not describe a lot of all the horrors on this topic, but I will say one thing that after I saw everything with my own eyes, I immediately began to engage in small production of homemade tea from fireweed or Ivan tea. I wanted to make a tea myself that would be nice to drink myself and treat my friends. Since this all started. And then a little history, with which I promised last time to acquaint everyone who is interested.
So, Koporye. The place where they began to collect Ivan tea in Russia. True or not, but this wonderful plant was mentioned already in the 10th century. Since that time, they began to produce Koporsky or Russian tea here. The time is not marked exactly when, but Russian merchants began to trade Ivan tea abroad in European countries, and they also brought it to England. So - in the great British encyclopedia there is a mention of Russian tea.
In a letter from the daughter-in-law of Louis XVI, the king of France, there is a phrase that she does not like tea brought from Asia (or rather from China), she considers it bitter and resembles hay with manure. She writes that she likes tea made from wonderful and aromatic herbs from Russia. Well, then a covert war between the East India Company and Russian merchants began in order to remove competitors. And they did it well, so much so that only after 2 centuries the production of Ivan tea was revived again.
And one more very interesting fact about Koporye. Before the Second World War, a research center was opened there, where the healing and miraculous properties of Ivan-tea or narrow-leaved fireweed were studied at the highest scientific level. L.P. himself Beria controlled this production and it was under him that Ivan tea was supplied to the soldiers of the Red Army and, what is especially interesting, tea was supplied to all hospitals to improve the health of patients. When the Second World War came, the soldiers of the Wehrmacht immediately received an order to destroy all laboratories, production facilities and even plow all the fields near Koporye with tanks. Hitler himself believed that Ivan-tea gave heroic strength to Russian soldiers.
I will also have posts about the collection of Ivan-tea, the production and making of homemade tea. There are a lot of materials on this topic, I will share them in the community so that many who read and watch my posts know about it.
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