I love Azerbaijan very much, I even happened to live in the capital of Azerbaijan - the city of Baku for several years! Of course, then he looked quite different than now. But the traditions of tea drinking remained the same.
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Tea for Azerbaijanis is a ritual drink, without which there is not one meeting, no event, tea in this country is drunk several times a day.
At first I could not remember how correctly to pronounce the name of cups for tea, said all the time "armudi", although it was necessary to say "Armuda" or "bogmaly". For a long time I did not understand why Azerbaijanis drink tea just a snack, I got used to putting sugar in tea, but here nobody did it.
I did not know that you can cook jam even from eggplants, carrots, tomatoes, figs, mulberry, or green walnuts.
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In Baku, it was accepted during lunch or dinner to serve tea 2 times - until main dishes and after. Azerbaijanis prefer to drink black tea. The tea brewing ceremony is a long and unhurried procedure.
The first thing before brewing tea is to rinse the kettle with boiling water, fill it with tea leaves and necessarily thyme in proportion one to one. This infusion has an unusual pleasant taste and even has a curative effect. In addition to thyme, you can put and mint, and cloves, and cardamom.
After all the ingredients in the kettle, it is half poured with water and slightly heated, not allowing the boiling of water. Then the kettle is poured over with boiling water and allowed to stand.
In Baku, tea is served only in special crystal cups of a special form, called armuda, which means pear-shaped.
They really resemble a pear in shape: the top and bottom of these glasses are wide, and the middle is narrower. They are comfortable to hold in their hands, and the tea in them cools down more slowly than in a regular cup. Therefore, they drink tea here in armuda, and their beautiful form is also conditioned by functionality.
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In tea it is not customary to put sugar, it is served in separate saucers. Azerbaijanis prefer to drink this drink only in a snack.
In Azerbaijan it is taken before drinking the first sip of tea, by all means dipping sugar into tea and then biting it off. I asked why, and I was told a story that happened back in the Middle Ages, when in intrigues and conspiracies in the khan's and shah's palaces, as in all the palaces of that time.
Tea is served here with all sorts of sweets and treats, but most of all I remember the murebbe - jam. This jam from aubergine with a nut filling and jam from the mulberry, it was very tasty.
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In addition to sweets, tea is also served witty, this is a mixture of various nuts and dried fruits.
Drink tea and enjoy its magnificent aromas in unusual, and traditional armuads.
