saucering tea

[Victor Steinbok]

Saucering tea is a common Russian practice. I am not sure I would call
it traditional, but it goes back a long way. Coffee? That's another
story all together. Coffee is nearly symbolic of Western decadence--and
might have been long before the Revolution turned everything of value
into "decadence". So it was drunk in the "Western" tradition. Peasants
did not drink coffee--and I am not sure they do now. Saucering, if it
qualifies as a tradition, is often associated with mercantile classes or
lower. It's used for real tea, as opposed to hot water with large chunks
of rock sugar, even if the latter comes out of a samovar. I suppose, a
part of it is functional--having one hand occupied with sugar makes
sipping from a saucer more difficult, unless you've got giant hands.
Another point is that it need not be a full "flat" saucer. Some "cups"
look a lot like smaller versions of American soup bowls--no handles,
fairly shallow, but at least 1 in. deep. This might have been brought
from Central Asia--I really don't have the history of tea in Russia down
pat.

As I mentioned earlier, looking at the mid-19th century sources, it
appears that the Southern iced tea (or is it "ice tea"?) tradition may
well have been derived from a published story about Russia and iced tea
sold in the capitals on the street during the hot months. Things have
changed over the years--I have never heard about Russian iced tea and it
certainly was no longer a tradition post-Revolution. In fact, use of ice
in drinks (other than icing whole bottles of vodka and shot glasses)
does not seem particularly Russian today. But it may very well have been
in the 1850s. Russians have their own traditional tea ceremonies,
totally different from either Eastern (Chinese) of Western (English)
counterparts. Offering tea to a guest, in a shallow bowl (with no
handles), holding it with both hands, is iconic and may well be found in
drawings on some particularly kitchie tea packaging even today. (Think,
St. Pauli Girl on steroids...)

     VS-)

On 3/10/2011 12:11 AM, Garson O'Toole wrote:
> In 2008 Ben Zimmer initiated a thread on the ADS list by posting about
> pouring coffee into a saucer to cool it. His note pointed to an
> article in the New York Times "After the Imperial Presidency" dated
> November 7, 2008. Here is an excerpt:
>
> "Why did you pour that coffee into your saucer?" Washington reportedly replied.
> "To cool it," Jefferson answered.
> "Even so," Washington said, "we pour our legislation into the
> senatorial saucer to cool it."
>
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ADS-L;7NSNhw;200811092313420500B
> Short version:
> http://goo.gl/u5k5z
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/magazine/09power-t.html
> Short version:
> http://goo.gl/7xC0q
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 8:57 PM, Barbara Need<bhneed at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> There does not seem to be a discussion of this, at least not by
>> searching for saucer tea--There is a reference in May 2010 (Wilson):
>>
>> though *we* always used "deaf" in our household, *many* very close
>> relatives and family friends used "deef," a phenomenon almost as
>> startling as seeing these same people drinking coffee and tea from the
>> saucer after pouring it from the cup.
>>
>> And another in July 2010 (also Wilson) about his reaction to hearing
>> someone younger than he using _for to_:
>>
>> the way that seeing East-TX country cousins pour coffee from the cup
>> into the saucer and then drink it from there caught my eye.
>>
>> Barbara
>>
>> Barbara Need
>> Ithaca
>>
>> On 9 Mar 2011, at 6:00 PM, George Thompson wrote:
>>
>>> I'm sure that this topic was batted about here recently, but the ADS-
>>> L archives do not seem to cover very recent material, so I can't
>>> confirm my memory.
>>>
>>> In any event, the practice is alluded to in "Etiquette BLues", by
>>> The Happiness Boys, receorded in the mid or late 1920s,

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