Preparation of chifir in an enamel mug

Chifir (Russian: чифи́рь, romanized: čifir', or alternatively, чифи́р) is an exceptionally strong tea, associated with and brewed in Soviet and post-Soviet detention facilities such as gulags and prisons.

Etymology

The etymology is uncertain but is thought to come from the word chikhir' (чихирь) meaning a strong Caucasian wine, or a Siberian word for wine that has gone off and become sour and acidic.^[1]

Preparation

Chifir is typically prepared with 5–8 tablespoons (50–100 ml) of loose tea (or tea bags) per person poured on top of the boiled water.^{[citation needed]} It is brewed without stirring – at least until the leaves drop to the bottom of the cup.^{[citation needed]} During the brewing process, the leaves start to pour adenine and guanine into the water, which does not happen during traditional tea-making.^{[citation needed]} Sugar is sometimes added; the nature of the brew tends to result in a bitter flavor.^[2]

It is to be carefully sipped, otherwise it may cause vomiting.^{[citation needed]} Ultimately, making chifir involves brewing a great deal of black tea and for a long time. It may be left to brew overnight and drunk either hot or cold.

In popular culture

• Irina Ratushinskaya describes the brewing of narcotically strong chifir as a banned activity sometimes undertaken by prisoners, in her memoir of her years as a political prisoner, Grey Is The Colour Of Hope.
• In Vasily Aksyonov's novel Ozhog ('The Burn'), the convict Shilo makes chifir in a tushonka 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.
• In the Gabriele Salvatores-directed film Deadly Code, the character played by John Malkovich prepares and describes chifir to the young Kolyma
• In the novel Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith (1981) the main character Arkady Renko drinks chifir on a train with workers on their way to a work camp.
• Several characters drink chifir in The Kolyma Tales, a collection of short stories about Gulag life by former Gulag prisoner Varlam Shalamov.
• In Jules Verne's novel In Search of the Castaways when the heroes visit Australia, Paganel requests tea made according to local custom, and is served a drink made by boiling half a pound of tea in a litre of water for four hours. Shalamov mentions this in his aforementioned stories to demonstrate chifir' is not a new invention.
• In the book series, Ciaphas Cain, many characters drink a version of Chifir called Tanna.