Cossacks and Krasnodar Tea
No idea why the Cossacks had a haircut like that but they for sure enjoyed tea.
— War and Tea (@TeaAndWar) June 15, 2026
The pairing
Krasnodar black tea. Russia’s own tea, grown on the Black Sea coast in Krasnodar Krai, home of the Kuban Cossacks. Brisk and light, and as close to a Cossack homegrown tea as exists.
The story
Truth be told, most Cossacks drank chikhir wine, kvass and mead far more than tea. There is a twist, though. The Zaporozhian Cossacks, the ones with this famous forelock, were resettled to the Kuban in 1792, and the Kuban is where Russia grows its own tea today, though only from the twentieth century on. And one Cossack does belong in tea history: in 1616, Vasilii Tiumenets became the first Russian to describe tea, served with milk and butter at a Mongol khan’s court. Consider this the pairing his comrades would have had if history had moved faster.
