On New Year's Eve, we enjoyed Russian Tea at the Heathman Hotel. The Heathman is one of Portland's historic hotels, and it's rather swanky, at least by Portland standards. Technically, it is the New Heathman Hotel. The original Heathman Hotel sits a block away and is now a residential complex. However, the original hotel was so successful when it opened in 1926 that the owner immediately began work on a sister hotel which became the New Heathman. The "new" was dropped from the name after the hotel was remodeled in 1984.

The Menu

The Heathman's tea service is an elegant affair held in the hotel lobby, which in December, is nicely decked out for Christmas. There are a number of options for tea. Shawn and I had a black tea called Georgian Caravan. Leann and Anne had a chocolate peppermint tea. The tea was served with sugar and jam. Apparently, Russians like to sweeten their tea with jam. I was unaware of this custom and a bit reluctant to stir jam into my tea in the midst of Portland high society, but next time, I plan to dazzle the crowd with my sophistication. In addition to tea, we enjoyed an assortment of canapés and sweets. Shawn was particularly fond of the bright orange steelhead caviar. The rest of us preferred the eggplant slices filled with walnut paste.

Leann and Shawn

Russian Tea Culture

Russian tea culture stretches back centuries. Tea was originally introduced to Russia by the Mongols. Eventually, a trade in tea emerged between Russia and China along the silk road. Caravans of camels carried furs from the motherland to China to exchange for tea. In fact, one common Russian tea is named Russian (or in our case, Georgian) Caravan. Its distinctive smoky flavor originally came from the campfires burned at night by the caravan drivers.

Russians heated water for their tea in urns called samovars. Many of these are quite beautiful and intricate. The water for our tea was not heated in a samovar, but our waiter did point out several antique samovars on display. You can catch a glimpse of them behind Shawn in this picture.

Russians in Portland

There is actually a large Russian community in Portland. We did not realize this when we moved here, but over time, it has become more obvious. First, we noticed a few small Russian shops as we drove around town. Then Anne became friends with Carol, whose family is Russian. And last year, when we started attending choral concerts by Cappella Romana, we were struck by the numbers of Russians in the audience.