A well-known fact about Kazakhstanis is that we are big tea drinkers. Moreover, tea with milk for several centuries has become one of the central elements of the national cuisine and even pushed koumiss off the pedestal. So where did tea come from in the steppe and who taught the Kazakhs to drink it?

Hello from China

Of course, he came to us from China. Most likely, it was during the period of the Golden Horde, when there were intensive trade and cultural ties within one state, - says Evfrat IMANBEK, socioanthropologist, member of the National Committee for Intangible Cultural Heritage under the National Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan for UNESCO and ISESCO. - Naturally, even in the pre-Horde period, caravans carried this product along the Silk Road, the steppes were familiar with it, but it probably was not popular. During the period of Genghis Khan, when a single economic space was formed, tea began to spread rapidly and already during the Golden Horde, it was everywhere in the area of ​​the Great Silk Road. The horde guaranteed the safety of trade, which, of course, contributed to the promotion of new foodstuffs.

Historian Zhumazhan BAIZHUMIN supports the theory that our ancestors met tea.

This is the closest territory to us, since women were also borrowed from there, I think that tea was also borrowed. China, as they put it Lev Gumilyov, this is a large store where nomads descended for purchases. I can say that the word “tea” is Turkic, meaning “drink, moisture, liquid”. Hence such Turkic words as “gull” - means “water bird”, the Cossacks had a multi-seat boat, also called “gull”.

Why, in fact, a new product in every sense, tea, in the steppe “came to the table” and even pressed the traditional milk drinks? A number of reasons contributed to its consolidation in the steppe cuisine, but above all - climatic features. It is believed that tea perfectly quenches thirst and warms in the cold.

Imagine, it's like giving a child who only knows the taste of milk natural coffe, he will not fall asleep, he will be awake, - continues Imanbek. - In fact, tea had the same effect on the nomads. I think they drank first green tea, and it was strongly tonic for them, and when they got used to it, there was a need for a stronger, black tea. From a cultural and historical point of view, of course, black tea took root among the steppes, as it had a higher tonic effect than dairy products.

Steppe cuisine: meat and milk

The thing is that tea cultures have surrounded our region from time immemorial, and tea has already been consumed in Central Asia, - says writer and translator Kairat ZHANABAYEV. - Almost until the 19th century, for the most part, nomadic Kazakhs knew only ақ - these are all products associated with milk, and et - meat. Maybe they consumed tea, they could not help but know it, but only in those regions that were adjacent to the Silk Road. It was not an element of our gastronomic culture. Tea is practically not mentioned in any of the oral literary monuments.

In the book by Kabibolla Siytdykov, Makhambet Utemisov refers with a hint of disdain to Isatay Taimanov and other leaders and Kazakh clans and tribes who already live in civilized conditions, some even in warm houses, and drink tea that you are, they say, so spoiled that you drink tea.

This is the 19th century. It was unusual for nomads. Another thing - milk, immediately milked, immediately drank ... Everything had a utilitarian, practical, applied value. Because tea in India and China is a ceremonial thing, and nomads have no time for special ceremonies, they had to move forward, master the world. Therefore, the nomads consumed only milk and meat.

New taste

Adding milk to tea has become a hallmark of Kazakh tea. Moreover, not everyone today knows that Kazakh tea according to a recipe that came from the past is black tea with milk, when milk is first heated, then tea leaves are added, and only then boiling water.

- Only the steppes could have thought of mixing tea with milk, did it to soften it, because it was too harsh for them, - says Imanbek. - If the Chinese just brew tea with water, then the nomads always drink it with milk.

- The milk in tea came from nomads, which gives them good cattle breeders, - continues Baizhumin. - It seems to me that black tea was preceded by green tea. It is primarily from the heat, it is hot and cold here in the steppe, but it is not as strong as black. It's like drinking wine in the south, and strong drinks in the north, for greater vigor.

Any culture that comes to the nomad camp is tested. It is clear that milk neutralizes something in the tea leaves and adds beneficial trace elements. In fact, tea consumption is a great culture. In the East, tea is drunk in different ways, the Uyghurs drink it with salt, but, say, the Persians add elements that can be eaten, that is, it turns out soup.

If you look closely, the purest traditions of tea culture are in India and China, and everything else is variation.

The British, like the Kazakhs, drink tea with milk. Real tea in English is meant with milk, prepared in a certain order. The Kazakh nomads had the same variant of brewing.

Where does the English come from? They brought this recipe during the period of colonization - I think, most likely, from Pakistan, the descendants of the Great Moghuls live there, - says Imanbek. - It is interesting that to the east of the Dzungarian Alatau, to the east of the Tien Shan, people brew tea in milk, it turns out, as the Uighurs say, “etken tea”. This is actually a soup, they cook it. Moreover, they boil it in a saucepan and throw a fair piece of butter and salt, it's actually tea- milk soup, it is very high-calorie and nutritious. They drink it in large bowls, drank it - and there is enough energy until dinner. But for the Turks, who live in the territory from Altai to the Volga, it is characteristic tea with milk and different ways brewing. I remember back in the 90s when the Iron Curtain went up, there was information that a nutrition lab in Belgium was doing experiments to find out how to brew tea.

And it turned out that it was right - this is one to one, as our apashki were brewed(smiles). It is necessary to pour tea leaves into the heated milk and then - boiling water.

why salty milk tea did not take root in the Kazakh steppe?

I think it is more suitable for sedentary peoples, but perhaps salty tea might not taste like it. Animal breeders have their own diet. Just imagine, the heat, in the morning the shepherd leaves, quickly drank tea or ayran, the hostess has no time to cook milk soup, and it is tasteless when it has cooled down. It's not like today - you turn on the gas, you need to get water, make a fire ... I think that etken tea did not fit into the structure of the nomad's day of work.

Tea: connecting people

installation artist Askhat AKHMEDIAROV“Soul Landscape” made of traditional tea bowls is exhibited in the national pavilion of Kazakhstan at EXPO-2017. For him, tea symbolizes the soul of the people.

If you look closely, the bowls are a necklace, an ornament. Something to be proud of, but here there is an indirect reference not to the bowls themselves, but to the hospitality, openness, tolerance of nomads. This is not only among the Kazakhs, I noticed that nomads in different parts of the planet are very similar in their hospitality. And this is the decoration of their soul.

The tradition of tea drinking is literally on the mental level, the Kazakhs are very scrupulous, reverent about tea. These gestures, then a small amount of tea, its concentrate with milk - everything says something.

Until the age of 15-17, it seemed to me that tea was drunk only in Kazakhstan. And when I saw that he is popular all over the world and this is generally a common phenomenon, my illusions were dispelled (laughs). I can say with confidence: this penetration happened thanks to the Silk Road. There was precisely the need for tea because of the climate. When it's hot, tea speeds up blood circulation, sweat comes out, and then tea encourages a measured conversation, communication, and contact between people.

Kazakhs drink tea “without understanding the time and place, before and after everything,” wrote M.Ya. Kittary in the middle of the nineteenth century. And in truth, if you look at when the Kazakhs drink tea, then there are no strictly established rules for this: they drink it both before and after the main meal, by itself, on various occasions. There is only one rule here - not a single treat is complete without tea .... Greetings, My Friends! I continue the theme of "Tea ceremony in Kazakh" :)) the beginning, which can be read here

In ordinary everyday life, tea parties are arranged very often, for example, during ordinary visits of neighbors or close acquaintances, in order to sincerely talk with friends, just sit with your family. Tea drinking can act as a separate meal, for example, breakfast. As I wrote in the first part, breakfast is usually drunk for 3-4 or even more cups of tea. Tea drinking as an obligatory part of the meal is invariably included in the traditional treats that accompany numerous rituals of the Kazakhs. It certainly opens any traditional feast. Tea drinking, after washing the hands, is followed by the serving of meat. At the end of the meal, they used to serve koumiss, sometimes this is how it happens to this day, for example, during oraza, and sometimes instead of koumiss they again arrange a tea party.

Depending on the situation, tea drinking can be long or fast. For example, arriving matchmakers are immediately treated to tea and sit with them for a long time, talking. However, it is not customary to talk about the purpose of the arrival at this time, the main conversations are postponed for a while after the end of the meal. Only then can one ask: “Do you have any requests or instructions for me?”

Quick tea parties were arranged in those cases when many people were supposed to come to the house, but not at the same time, to congratulate or express condolences. Then we have continuous tea production. It happens that they do not have time to bring a full teapot of tea, as it is necessary to bring a new one. At this time, the most important thing is not to delay, because we do not drink cold tea, it is necessary that it always remain hot.

To store tea, the Kazakhs had small chests - shay sandyk- wooden, often on legs with a loop and lock. I remember my grandmother had the same one, it still has it, only my children will already be digging thereJ) Everything you need for tea drinking was stored in it: in addition to tea itself, sweets, sugar, cookies, sweets. Especially we always looked for sweets in it :) And now I will tell you how the Kazakhs drank and drink tea :))

With milk, salt and talkan (ground wheat grain)

Today we drink black tea with milk, but this was not always the case. The ways of brewing tea among the Kazakhs were influenced by the tea drinking traditions of those peoples from whom we borrowed tea. Northern Kazakhs, including Bukeev, to whom tea came from the Tatars and Russians, apparently at first drank black tea without milk. The Kazakhs, neighboring with the Kalmyks, drank the so-called "Kalmyk tea" - with milk, butter and salt (my grandmothers often put butter in tea, so they believed it helped them stay healthy) The Kazakhs of Altai and until recently added to tea, in addition to milk, cream, sour cream, talkan, lard, salt or sugar. The Kazakhs of the southwestern regions of Kazakhstan, as well as the Turkmens of northwestern Turkmenistan, in a special way, filling it with hot fatty camel milk. The milk used today by the Kazakhs is usually cow's and, like all nomads, unleavened boiled, often with the addition of melted cream. The tea leaves are not only poured with boiling water, but also boiled, “languished”, therefore they prefer to brew tea in metal teapots. In Western Kazakhstan, during tea drinking, the teapot is on fire all the time. It is believed that tea cooked on coals is very tasty; to serve such tea to guests means to show them your respect.

Water for tea was traditionally boiled in samovars, which appeared among the Kazakhs along with tea. Tea from a samovar is considered "more honorable" than from a simple or electric kettle. In the summer we often drink tea from a samovar in the open air. I think this method was also borrowed from Russia.

Today, the most common way to brew tea is as follows. A strong, fresh, always hot tea is made in a teapot, for which this teapot is kept on a small electric stove. Near the hostess there is also some vessel with boiled milk and a boiling samovar. First, milk is poured into a bowl (kese) (usually it is poured with a wooden spoon, and then it is one full spoon), then tea from a teapot through a strainer, and then boiling water from a samovar is added. The ratio of tea leaves and boiling water is set "by feeling", so each time the tea has a slightly different taste.

Traditionally, tea was consumed with grain dishes - containers (millet oatmeal) and talkan. Agricultural products entered the Kazakh menu relatively late, and therefore archaic forms of their use are still preserved. The first grain that became known to the Kazakhs and then took the main place in their cuisine as a national cereal was millet. Tara is millet, which is cooked at home from specially roasted millet. Finely crushed containers are called talkan (it is also made from barley and wheat). Containers are added to a bowl of hot tea. Talkan can be eaten with sour cream, which is also put in bowls on dastarkhan, or added to tea. Often talkan with sour cream is given to small children - both nutritious and no need to chew. Now these products are still actively used by Kazakhs in the Altai region. But in the Volga region, large Russian cities, as I know, such additives to tea have become a delicacy, a treat brought from South Kazakhstan.

In many areas inhabited by Kazakhs, dairy products are certainly served with tea: balkaimak - cream stewed on fire (Kazakh condensed milk), dried cheese, kurt, sykpa and irimshik (kind of cottage cheese) from unleavened milk. Kospa is made from irimshik - crushed cheese is mixed with millet, barley or wheat flour, poured with butter, sugar is added, a Kazakh national sweet.

"Sy-aky shay" - Tea "with respect"

There are some special rules for the "tea ceremony". According to tradition, and like all the peoples of Central Asia, the bowl is not supposed to be poured to the brim: the less tea is poured into the cup, the more respect is given to the guest. But again, it all depends on the region in which you are. On the serev you will be poured a little more tea in a bowl than in the southern regions and the amount of tea "with respect" is different. But they never pour it to the brim. This is because if you pour a lot of tea, it will be perceived as if you want the guest to leave as soon as possible. The less tea is poured, the more often it is poured, and the guest always hot tea; and the more often tea is poured, the more care for the guest is shown. Well, that’s all for now. In my next post, I’ll tell you exactly how tea drinking happens :))

In the life of the Kazakhs, tea and tea parties occupy an important place. Families gather for tea, and tea drinking may well last all day. For one only breakfast can drink more than three cups of tea. Almost all the traditional customs of the Kazakhs are without fail accompanied by tea drinking.

A real Kazakh is not a Kazakh if ​​he doesn’t drink 3-4 or even more cups of tea in the morning ... Kazakhs drink tea “without understanding the time and place, before and after everything,” wrote M.Ya. Kittary in the middle of the nineteenth century. At the beginning of any festive feast tea is always served. After tea drinking, it is customary to serve meat, and after it - koumiss. Although modern Kazakhs often serve tea again instead of koumiss... However, tea drinking is not always delayed, since everything depends on the situation. For example, during courtship, long and thorough tea parties are accepted. Moreover, during tea drinking in this case it is considered extremely tactless to ask about the purpose of the visit. Only after all the formalities are settled, the matchmakers begin to “remember” why they came. Tea parties were quick when those who came to the house were in a hurry to express their condolences in connection with some sad event. In this case, tea drinking turns into a real pipeline. The main difficulty is that you need to constantly keep the kettle hot, since we don’t drink it warm or cold. Tea is stored not just anywhere, but in shay sandyk. This is a small wooden chest, equipped with a small and secure lock.

In this chest, not only the tea itself was stored, but also all the accessories for tea drinking, sweets. Today, Kazakhs drink tea exclusively with milk, but this was not always the case. In many ways, the tea traditions of the Kazakhs were influenced by the peoples with whom they lived in the neighborhood. So, the northern Kazakhs drank tea without milk for a long time, having borrowed this method from the Russians. In the southern regions, tea was for a long time seasoned with hot and fatty camel milk. If cow's milk is used, then melted cream is certainly added to it. With all the ways of Kazakh tea drinking, it is customary not only to brew tea leaves, but also to insist, holding the teapot on a hot tile. It is believed that such tea has a special taste and is served to respected guests. In addition to sweets, crushed roasted millet is actively served with tea, it is customary to serve in abundance dairy products, which are also often mixed with cereal dishes. It should be noted that grain products are often very simple: crushed millet, wheat and other cereals. This is due to the fact that the Kazakhs got acquainted with the cultivation of grain relatively late. Today, among the Kazakhs, this skill is mastered by women, usually it is they who pour tea, and special requirements are imposed on them. It is necessary to brew tea well, pour it correctly, serve it to the guests in the order required by tradition, and then still not confuse where the bowl is when the guests start serving empty cups. It is necessary to ensure that there is always boiling water, and the tea leaves do not end, and the dishes should not rattle. A woman pouring tea should sit correctly, not turn her back to the guests. It can be said that in the entire tea ceremony, the figure of a woman pouring tea acquired a special aesthetic significance for the Kazakhs. As Kazakhstani ethnographers testify, a woman pouring tea should be efficient and attentive. Naturally, one woman at large receptions cannot cope with the whole ceremony. After the end of the celebration, these women are gathered for a separate tea party and presented with cuts, scarves or money, specially highlighting the one who poured tea. In daily family tea parties, tea is poured by the mother or eldest daughter. Girls are not specially taught to pour tea, usually they see how their mother does it. In the house where the married son lives, the daughter-in-law (kelin) pours tea. Earlier, and sometimes even now in the countryside, a few days after the wedding, old women and elderly women come to the house where the young live for a treat in order to appreciate the new kelin. And not the last role in this assessment will be played by her ability to pour tea. Tea drinking for Kazakhs is an opportunity to “sit well”, talk sincerely, you can relax with tea, tea involves, first of all, informal communication.

I love tea. I drink it a lot and very often. Never tried to count how many cups fragrant drink I drink a day. This is because I have lived most of my life in Kazakhstan. And there, as you know, they always drink tea, "before everything and after everything."

A habit is a habit, and when I moved to Russia, I noticed that tea leaves here are somewhat different from the one I'm used to.

I do not argue that black tea from specialized stores is beyond praise. But you must admit, such a “delicacy” is not for every day. But the mass market, which is on the shelves in stores, does not differ in variety and, most importantly, in the richness of taste and aroma.

Having tried several types, it became clear that nothing can replace Kazakh tea. And now, relatives who come to visit me bring huge kilo packs of Assam tea with them.

This is one of the most popular types of tea that is drunk in Kazakhstan. It is very strong, fragrant and thick. They bring me a granular classic, which I'm used to. In general, there are several varieties of it: “Leaf Classic”, “Evening”, “Morning”, “Assam GOLD” and various fruit mixtures. Well, of course, the same thing, but in filter bags.

Tea is packaged in foil.

And this is what the granules look like. Not too big and not too small. There is practically no dust.


A small lyrical digression.

Residents of Kazakhstan (not only Kazakhs, but also Russians and other peoples living on this land) drink tea without understanding the time and place. It is drunk on its own, before meals and after, for any reason and without. At breakfast, at least 2-3 bowls or cups of tea are usually drunk. When visiting, be sure that you will definitely be given a fragrant tart hot drink and fed with delicious treats.

By the way, if this is your first time visiting Kazakhs, pay attention to the small amount of tea that is poured into your bowl. This is not greed, as you might think, but a manifestation of respect for the guest.

Tea is traditionally not added to the bowl about 2 fingers from the edge (in different regions in different ways - a little more or a little less). And, as the drink is drunk, more will be poured. This way you will always have hot tea in your cup.

How to show that you no longer want tea? You can, for example, turn an empty bowl on a saucer or put it on its side. Or you can just put a teaspoon in the bowl. But even after that, hospitable hosts will persuade you to drink another bowl.

In addition, there are many other nuances that an outside observer may not notice, but which play a huge role in tea drinking. And if all this is described, the review will come out just huge.

How is the correct Kazakh tea brewed?

A very strong brew is made in a small metal teapot. Take about 2-3 tablespoons of dry tea leaves per 250 ml of boiling water. Then the kettle is heated for several minutes on the stove. And now you can pour tea. In Kazakhstan, they love it with milk or cream. I prefer concentrated milk. With it, tea acquires a special taste..

About 2 tablespoons of milk (or one wooden spoon, as I used to see) are poured into a bowl or cup, then brewing through a strainer and boiling water at the end. The amount of brewing each time will be different and, accordingly, the taste of tea will also be slightly different.

And this is what my daily drink looks like.

Tea ceremony in Kazakh

“If a bowl of hot drink burned only the body, then you drank water.
For tea warms the soul.”

This is how Abay spoke about the tea ceremony on the Kazakh land.

N. Bune "From the cycle of guests"

Today I want to tell you about an unusual delicious drink, which I was lucky to try in my life - this is REAL Kazakh tea !!! I live in the east of one of the largest regions in Russia - the Orenburg region, thirty kilometers from Kazakhstan. It is not surprising that most of the settlements in our region have Kazakh names, and more than 30% of Kazakhs live in our municipality. I love them national cuisine, I have been to the hospitable Kazakh dastarkhan more than once, and I myself like to cook beshbarmak and baursaks ... But TEA is something special, unusual and extremely tasty !!!


N. Bune "Melody"

In general, drinking tea, and in fairly large quantities, is one of the cutest Kazakh traditions. Five to seven bowls of tea at breakfast, lunch and dinner is quite normal.

One German ethnographer wrote about this: “Tea consumption reaches enormous proportions. If a Russian can be said to drink as much tea as one can imagine, then a Kazakh drinks twice as much...”


N. Bune "From the cycle of guests"

From the history

Tea took its place in the Kazakh food culture not overnight. Until the middle of the 19th century, only wealthy Kazakhs drank tea. The second half of the 19th century is the time when tea began to be drunk in all strata of Kazakh society, and it gradually became a favorite drink: “Brick tea is in general use; the rich have samovars, the poor have copper and cast-iron teapots, or they simply boil them in cauldrons. The rich also drink long leaf tea.” Ethnographer A.N. Kharuzin, who traveled in the late 1880s across the Bukeevskaya steppe, was offered tea in every yurt he met on the way - it was impossible to let the guest go without tea.




No meal is complete without tea.

Kazakhs drink tea “without understanding the time and place, before and after everything,” wrote M.Ya. Kittary in the middle of the nineteenth century. And indeed, if you look at when the Kazakhs drink tea, then there are no strictly established rules for this: they drink it both before and after the main meal, by itself, on various occasions. Perhaps there is only one rule - not a single treat is complete without tea.

Here are the main ritual tea parties. So, women's meals during the rituals of the children's cycle, such as shildekana (gathering of youth on the evening of the birth of a child), besikke salu (position in the cradle), kyrkynan shygaru (forty days), tusau kesu (cutting the bonds) always begin with tea, after which the guests serve meat. They certainly treat the friends of the bride and groom with tea after her kidnapping, while the news of this goes to her parents. Tea is served at the wake after beshbarmak or boiled meat, prepared during the rite of praying to the rain (tasattyk, zhanbyr ber), after the funeral.

Chest for tiled and long leaf

The spread of tea brought certain utensils into the life of the Kazakhs. Traditionally, the Kazakhs kept wooden utensils in special felt bags - ayak kap, elongated and rounded to the bottom. They also began to store and transport porcelain cases, wide Turkestan-type cups-bowls. Nowadays, almost every house has wooden spoons - they pour milk in a kesa.


To store tea, the Kazakhs had small chests - shay sandyk - wooden, often on legs with a loop and a lock. Everything you need for a tea party was stored there: in addition to the tea itself, sweets, sugar, cookies, sweets.


With milk, salt and talkan

Today, Kazakhs drink black tea with milk, but this was not always the case. The ways of brewing tea among the Kazakhs were influenced by the tea drinking traditions of those peoples from whom the Kazakhs borrowed tea.

Northern Kazakhs, including Bukeev, to whom tea came from the Tatars and Russians, apparently at first drank black tea without milk. Kazakhs, neighboring Kalmyks, drank the so-called "Kalmyk tea" - with milk, butter and salt. Kazakhs of Altai and until recently added to tea, in addition to milk, cream, sour cream, talkan, lard, salt or sugar. The Kazakhs of the southwestern regions of Kazakhstan, as well as the Turkmens of northwestern Turkmenistan, in a special way, filling it with hot fatty camel milk.




Kazakhs of Altai

The milk used today by the Kazakhs is usually cow's and, like all nomads, unleavened boiled, often with the addition of melted cream. The tea leaves are not only poured with boiling water, but also boiled, “languished”, therefore they prefer to brew tea in metal teapots.

The most common way to brew tea is as follows. In a teapot, a strong, fresh, always hot tea is made, for which this teapot is kept on a small electric stove. Near the hostess there is also some vessel with boiled milk and a boiling samovar. First, milk is poured into a bowl (kese) (usually it is poured with a wooden spoon, and then it is one full spoon), then tea from a teapot through a strainer, and then boiling water from a samovar is added. The ratio of tea leaves and boiling water is set "by feeling", so each time the tea has a slightly different taste.


Dairy products are certainly served with tea: balkaimak - cream stewed on fire, dried kurt cheese, sykpa and irimshik from unleavened milk, as well as sweets: sugar, sweets, jam, cookies, gingerbread. Of the traditional dishes, baursaks are always laid out on the dastarkhan, which today are made not only from fresh, but also yeast dough.

Kazakhs joke: “In the morning we drink tea with baursak, in the afternoon we drink tea with kuyrdak, in the evening we drink tea with beshbarmak.”


Tea with respect

According to tradition, among all the peoples of Central Asia, the bowl is not supposed to be poured to the brim. The less tea is poured, the more often it is poured, and the guest always has hot tea; and the more often tea is poured, the more care for the guest is shown.

The drinking goes like this. The audience sits at a dastarkhan - a spread tablecloth. Guests are seated, as before, "in honor": the most respected in the torus (honorary "upper" place), further from the entrance. The one who pours the tea, usually a woman, sits closer to the exit. In front of her is a samovar and everything you need for tea. There is also a tray with bowls. She pours tea with milk and passes the bowl to everyone, starting with the most honored guests. After drinking tea, the guest passes the bowl back, and a new portion is poured for him.

Tea, as before, they drink a lot; the hosts are always looking to ensure that the guest's bowl is not empty. There are several ways to show that you are already drunk: knock over the cup on the saucer, put the bowl on its side; put the spoon in the bowl or on top of the rim of the cup. But even when the guest makes it clear that he no longer wants tea, the hosts usually persuade him to drink another bowl.


Pouring tea is an art, and one must do it masterfully in order to discover all the qualities and shades of tea. The figure of the one who pours tea is very important for the Kazakhs. In the past, at large celebrations and especially crowded festivities or commemorations, young men did this.

Today, among the Kazakhs, this skill is mastered by women, usually it is they who pour tea, and special requirements are imposed on them. It is necessary to brew tea well, pour it correctly, serve it to the guests in the order required by tradition, and then still not confuse where the bowl is when the guests start serving empty cups. It is necessary to ensure that there is always boiling water, and the tea leaves do not end, and the dishes should not rattle. A woman pouring tea should sit correctly, not turn her back to the guests. It can be said that in the entire tea ceremony, the figure of a woman pouring tea acquired a special aesthetic significance for the Kazakhs. As Kazakh ethnographers testify, a woman pouring tea should be efficient and attentive. Since she is in the center of attention, she should look neat, her movements should be smooth. The guests are watching her. The atmosphere of the feast and the level of reception of guests largely depend on her ability to pour and serve tea.


Zaubekova.B. "Kazakh Madonna"

The entire female half of the family - daughters, daughters-in-law - takes part in serving solemn meals; relatives and neighbors are invited to help them. After the end of the celebration, these women are gathered for a separate tea party and presented with cuts, scarves or money, specially highlighting the one who poured tea.

In daily family tea parties, the tea is poured by the mother or eldest daughter. Girls are not specially taught to pour tea, usually they see how their mother does it. In the house where the married son lives, the daughter-in-law (kelin) pours tea. If, when choosing a bride for a son, they observed her gait (the gait should have been calm), her ability to handle utensils (whether the dishes rattle when placing a tray with kesa), then when she became a young wife, she was evaluated by how she pours tea. Previously, and sometimes even now in the countryside, a few days after the wedding, old women and elderly women come to the house where the young people live to treat themselves to evaluate the new kelin. And not the last role in this assessment will be played by her ability to pour tea. Nowadays, in some places, the daughter-in-law is rewarded for the first tea - everyone who she pours tea for, puts a small amount of money, and since they drink more than one kese of tea, a pretty decent amount is added up at the end of the tea party. So do, for example, the Kazakhs in Western Kazakhstan and the Russian Kazakhs of the Orenburg region.

http://www.kazakh.ru/news/articles/?a=1225
http://kuking.net/10_562.htm
http://metenkov.narod.ru/gallery/Bagaev/Bagaev_06.htm


1891 Delegation of Kazakhs in Orenburg.

A unique complex has been created in Orenburg, which is called "National Village". As far as I know, there are no analogues in Russia. The national village is Russian, Ukrainian, Mordovian, Kazakh, Tatar, Bashkir, German, Chuvash, Armenian and Belarusian courtyards - farmsteads. It is these nationalities that make up the main composition of our region. Each courtyard was built at the expense of national communities and national organizations at their own expense. Each courtyard has a national house, which houses a museum. There is also a house-restaurant of national cuisine on the farmstead.

The Kazakh center is a two-story building, near which there are three large white yurts. The first floor of the building is occupied by a restaurant of Kazakh cuisine. On the second - a hall for receptions, exactly imitating a yurt, a hall for negotiations. Also in the building there are premises in which the printing house is located, classes for teaching the Kazakh language, music and dance, the editorial office of the newspaper. The Kazakhs have invested heavily in the construction of their complex. And it turned out to be a masterpiece of architecture of the Orenburg Kazakhs. The project is commercial in nature. Part of the funds earned by the center goes to the development of Kazakh culture and language.