Chifir'
Encyclopedia
Chifir' is a type of strong tea
brewed in Russia
. It is closely associated with the prison system of Russia, and is typically drunk by inmates. It has a mild psychoactive
effect.
wine, or a Siberia
n word for wine that has gone off and become sour and acidic.
s and tachycardia
) and can possibly lead to a cardiac arrest
in case of a large overdose by someone with a weak heart. Sweets can be held in the mouth before, during or after drinking to soften the shockingly bitter taste of chifir'.
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
brewed in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. It is closely associated with the prison system of Russia, and is typically drunk by inmates. It has a mild psychoactive
Psychoactive drug
A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, or psychotropic is a chemical substance that crosses the blood–brain barrier and acts primarily upon the central nervous system where it affects brain function, resulting in changes in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, and behavior...
effect.
Etymology
The etymology is uncertain but is thought to come from the word "chikhir'" (чихирь) meaning a strong CaucasianCaucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
wine, or a Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
n word for wine that has gone off and become sour and acidic.
Preparation
Chifir' is typically prepared with either two or three tablespoons of loose tea per person (if in prison, a matchbox is often used to measure it out) poured on top of the boiled water. It is brewed for 10-15 minutes without stirring - until the leaves drop to the bottom of the cup. It is then drunk, customarily by passing around a single cup from which each inmate takes two sips. Chifir' is drunk without sugar, because it amplifies the effect to the point of being highly unpleasant (intense headacheHeadache
A headache or cephalalgia is pain anywhere in the region of the head or neck. It can be a symptom of a number of different conditions of the head and neck. The brain tissue itself is not sensitive to pain because it lacks pain receptors. Rather, the pain is caused by disturbance of the...
s and tachycardia
Tachycardia
Tachycardia comes from the Greek words tachys and kardia . Tachycardia typically refers to a heart rate that exceeds the normal range for a resting heart rate...
) and can possibly lead to a cardiac arrest
Cardiac arrest
Cardiac arrest, is the cessation of normal circulation of the blood due to failure of the heart to contract effectively...
in case of a large overdose by someone with a weak heart. Sweets can be held in the mouth before, during or after drinking to soften the shockingly bitter taste of chifir'.
In popular culture
- LeningradLeningrad (band)Leningrad , also known as Gruppirovka Leningrad and Bandformirovanie Leningrad , is a popular Russian ska punk band from Saint Petersburg , led by Sergey "Shnur" Shnurov....
mention chifir' in their song 'Svoboda' ('Freedom'). - Aleksandr SolzhenitsynAleksandr SolzhenitsynAleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was aRussian and Soviet novelist, dramatist, and historian. Through his often-suppressed writings, he helped to raise global awareness of the Gulag, the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system – particularly in The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of...
mentions it in his book The Gulag ArchipelagoThe Gulag ArchipelagoThe Gulag Archipelago is a book by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn based on the Soviet forced labor and concentration camp system. The three-volume book is a narrative relying on eyewitness testimony and primary research material, as well as the author's own experiences as a prisoner in a gulag labor camp...
. - Belomorkanal have a song called Chifirok y Papirosa (Chifir' and a Cigarette) on their album Noch Pered Rasstrelom (The Night Before the Execution).
- Nicolai Lilin mentions it multiple times in his book Siberian Education.
- In Vasily AksyonovVasily AksyonovVasily Pavlovich Aksyonov was a Soviet and Russian novelist. He is known in the West as the author of The Burn and Generations of Winter , a family saga depicting three generations of the Gradov family between 1925 and 1953.-Early life:Vasily Aksyonov was...
's novel Ozhog ('The Burn'), the convict Shilo make chifir' in a tushonkaTushonkaTushonka is a kind of canned stewed meat especially popular in the CIS and other countries of the former Soviet Union. It has become a common name for different kinds of canned stewed meat, not all of which correspond to the strict GOST standards....
tin and gives it to Tolya von Steinbock. Tolya falls into a blissful, dreamlike state, but is awake enough to overhear an escape plan being hatched. - Leo TolstoyLeo TolstoyLev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
in his work The CossacksThe Cossacks (novel)The Cossacks is a short novel by Leo Tolstoy, published in 1863 in the popular literary magazine The Russian Messenger. The Nobel prize-winning Russian writer Ivan Bunin gave the work great praise, calling it one of the finest in the Russian language....
uses чихирь to denote both the Causasian wine itself and the youthfulness of the wine, meaning "green wine" as he has it. - Jules VerneJules VerneJules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
's book In Search of the CastawaysIn Search of the CastawaysIn Search of the Castaways is a novel by the French writer Jules Verne, published in 1867–1868. The original edition, published by Hetzel, contains a number of illustrations by Édouard Riou. In 1876 it was republished by George Routledge & Sons as a three volume set titled "A Voyage Round The World"...
mentions Australian tea similar to chifir' (a quart of water, in which half a pound of tea had been boiled four hours).
See also
- Sa'idi tea, a somewhat similar beverage (essentially a 1/9-strength recipe, but consumed in larger quantities) drunk in Upper EgyptUpper EgyptUpper Egypt is the strip of land, on both sides of the Nile valley, that extends from the cataract boundaries of modern-day Aswan north to the area between El-Ayait and Zawyet Dahshur . The northern section of Upper Egypt, between El-Ayait and Sohag is sometimes known as Middle Egypt...
and among Sa'idi people elsewhere.