Russian Caravan

Russian Caravan is a blend of Oolong, Keemun and Lapsang Souchong teas, all produced from Camellia sinensis—(Linnaeus) Kuntze, 1887— the Chinese tea plant. Although a Chinese tea, its name originates from the 18th century camel caravans that facilitated the transcontinental tea trade from tea-producing areas (namely India, Ceylon and China) to Europe via Russia. "It took at least half a year to make the six-thousand-mile journey from the Chinese border to Russia, and the voyage was harsh." Russian Caravan has a distinctive smoky aroma caused by the Lapsang Souchong in the blend, originally intended as a natural preservative.

The southern route by Odessa is far cheaper, but the tea is supposed to suffer in flavour in its transit through the tropical seas, while it improves in its passage through the cold dry climate of Mongolia and Siberia, by losing that unpleasant taste of firing [whereby tea was dried using direct heat]. As Russian epicures believe that a peculiar delicacy of flavor is imparted to it by the slight moisture it absorbs when nightly unloaded and placed on the snow-covered steppes, the enhanced price it commands compensates for the greater expense and difficulty of its carriage by this route.

Further reading

• Chen, Vincent. Sino-Russian Relations in the Seventeenth Century. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1966.
• Parkes, Harry Smith. "Report on the Russian Caravan Trade with China". Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London 24 (1854): 306–312.

External links

• Denis Shumakov, "Black tea blends: Russian Caravan", TeaTips.info.