How to Make Polish Tea
Created | Updated Nov 1, 2010
So What's All This Then?
Many-a-researcher has devoted ink and paper (or more recently keyboard strokes and RAM) to the subject of properly making tea in the English fashion. Exquisite though this particular school is, there are, upon closer inspection, certain disconcerting drawbacks.
Suppose you want a very strong cup1 of tea, say, in the very early morning or when burning the midnight oil. Well, brew a very strong pot or cup, says that Englishman. But in the near future thereafter, say, after a stressful day's traveling, swindling or — as a last resort — working, you'll want something lighter and calming, and not the same invigorating stuff that was called on before. The problem is you're still stuck with the same stuff.
Then there's the problem of brewing constantly, day after day, hour after hour, ever measuring out more tea and waiting the 2.5 to 3.5 minutes for it to be ready. If the hot stuff is called upon often, then this can be rather frustrating after a while.
Thus, we now enter into a whole new world of tea-making, found in different variants across Central and Eastern Europe, but all of which falls around a substance called 'essence' (Polish: esencja).
Essence
Start in much the same fashion you would usually. Boiling water only goes on the leaves, warming the pot and all of that. But, use far more tea leaves. In fact, prepare five or six times more than you usually would. Does your pot hold five cups? Ready somewhere between 25 and 30. Six cups, you say? Well then, naturally, you must have 30 to 36 teaspoons-worth of your preferred leaf. Seven cups, is it? In that case…
And so on, and so on arithmetically.
It is however, crucially important, that you prepare two tea pots:
- A smaller one, in which the tea will actually be brewed.
- The (usually) larger one, from which you will actually serve the upcoming very strong brew.
As the water is soon to come to a boil, quickly put in the large amount of leaves into the first and brewing pot (this must be warmed beforehand, of course). Then, brew this very strong stuff for the usual 2.5 to 3.5 minutes. This having been done, very quickly pour the contents over a gargantuan amount of strainers2 into the second (perhaps larger) serving pot.
If there is space left in the second pot, fill it up all the way with more of the boiling water.
And there you have it: the essence, as it is called. This incredibly strong brew may not smell too appetizing3, but you will soon find that its powers are immense.
Serving It Up
So, now you're probably wondering what the hell you're going to do with this dark stuff that's five to six times stronger than you'd like. Simple! Dilute it.
Yes, that's right. Whenever you want tea, simply pour out the essence to fill a fifth or sixth (correspondingly) of your cup or glass, and then fill the rest with hot water, sugar, milk, lemon etc. Congratulations! You now need only brew your beloved drink with (again, correspondingly) five or six times a lower frequency than you did before4. Not only that, but you can decide how strong you want to take your tea at any time, by simply using more or less essence.
Variations
There are, of course, slight differences from region to region in how this is all done. The most famous one perhaps is that which is indigenous to Russia, where a samovar is employed. There are those who would use tea bags. Some put various substances such as fresh berry juices either into the tea or directly into the essence. Your researcher has even known some who put a bit of peels from a lemon or orange into the essence to give it a fresh, citrusy flavour every time.
Drink up, and enjoy!
