Russian Spirit of War and Tea

Russian spirit of war and tea

— War and Tea (@TeaAndWar) October 4, 2026

The pairing

Strong black tea with a spoon of sugar. The cup Russian soldiers wanted, and kept asking for.

The story

For two centuries Russian soldiers were given a ration of “bread wine”, or vodka. Tea was what they came to expect: most were peasants raised on it. Historians still disagree on whether the army formally swapped vodka for tea and sugar in 1908 or never made tea a regular ration at all. Either way, when Russia banned vodka in 1914, the samovar became the officer’s companion at the front, and the shortage of tea for ordinary soldiers fed the discontent that boiled over in 1917.

Go deeper: The Fight for Tea in the Russian Army