Romani Tea

Romani Tea is the same as Russian Tea, and is traditionally served with sugar, lemon, fruit, or jam. According to Hancock, many Russian and Eastern European Romani dishes are the same as the region’s  because the Roma in the East have been settled for so long, whereas Roma in Western Europe were nomadic for longer, so the cuisine is more insular and includes a wide selection of game and foraged vegetables, herbs, and berries. At tea time, my grandmother and I like to read each other’s tea leaves, but this is somewhat unusual among Roma. While the women in her family were traditionally dancers and fortune tellers, for Roma, fortune telling (drabaripé) is just commonsense advice (or Samaritan therapy) for gadjé and is not usually taken seriously within the community. Obviously Roma are not innately born with psychic powers; rather, it’s a trade that was born out of poverty and discrimination and practiced in desperate times. However, Roma do believe in healing magic or rituals, called advising, and practice that within the community. Advisors must be able to speak Rromanes, but because our family lost the language in the Holocaust, we’ve mish-mashed elements of drabaripé and advising: we practice tea leaf reading, palm reading, and card reading alongside meditation and energy healing to treat each other (and sometimes clients) holistically. This is an example of how it’s difficult to make generalizations about Roma — we’re all different, and each family will have its own unique kind of Romani culture (just like everyone else in the world). These “tealeaf afternoons” as my grandmother and I came to call them, are a lovely way to unwind with a loved one and speak frankly about what’s going on in each other’s lives.You will need a teapot, two round shallow-bottom teacups (preferably white or a light solid color inside), two saucers, and two spoons. If you want to read the leaves, find a teapot without a sieve, or you can just spoon some tea leaves from the pot back into the tea once you’ve filled your cup.Read How to Eat Like a Real Gypsy here