· 4-minute read
Armudu glasses and jam: how tea is drunk in Baku
We leave a kettle and two armudu glasses in every room. Guests ask why the glass has that shape and where the sugar goes. Here is the answer.
The armudu glass is named after the pear, armud: narrow in the middle, wide at the bottom and the top. The tea stays hot below while the rim cools quickly and does not burn your fingers. It comes on a saucer, without a handle.
The sugar goes in your mouth, not the glass
By the old custom the sugar lump does not go into the glass: you dip a piece in the tea, bite it, then drink. Jam comes apart too, in a small dish: white cherry, fig, walnut, apricot. A spoon of jam, a sip of tea.
A slice of lemon is on the table, but not everyone takes it. Thyme or a rose petal goes into the brewing tea: a custom of the mountain villages.
The colour
Well-brewed tea is clear and dark red. If it is cloudy, it has boiled too long or stood too long. Tea is poured fresh from the samovar or the teapot, brewed for five to seven minutes.
At Anjir a samovar stands on the breakfast table, and one of the jams is made from the figs of the courtyard tree.
The breakfast table
