Zavarnik (concentrate pot)
The small teapot that sits on the crown of a samovar and holds zavarka, a deliberately strong concentrate that is diluted in the glass with hot water from the tap below. Its whole design follows from that: it is small, it is kept warm rather than heated, and the tea in it is not meant to be drinkable as poured.
Identity
- Category
- Brewing vessel
- Native name
- заварник
- Romanised
- zavarnik, chainik, zavarochny chainik
- Also called
- samovar teapot, concentrate teapot, zavarka pot
- Material
- Porcelain, earthenware or enamelled steel
- Typical capacity
- 300–800 ml
- Skill level
- Beginner
Porosity
Not porous. It contributes nothing of its own to the liquor, so it can be moved between teas freely and washed with detergent without consequence.
Where it comes from
Russian and, with different names and proportions, Iranian, Azerbaijani, Central Asian and Turkish. The concentrate-and-dilute model is shared across the samovar band and the strength conventions are not.
Named here rather than presented as generic equipment. The object belongs to a practice, and TeaHQ describes it from the outside.
If you do not own one
Any small teapot beside a flask of hot water. The arrangement is what matters, not the pot: strong tea in one vessel, hot water in another, strength decided at the glass.
This one is not marked essential. The tea can be made without it.
Brewing methods it is used for
- Samovar service — A strong concentrate held in a small pot, and near-boiling water held separately below it, combined in the glass at the moment of drinking. The drinker chooses the strength, not the brewer. It is the daily method across a wide band of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Iran and Central Asia, and the practices within that band are not one practice.
- Çaydanlık brewing (Turkish double pot) — Two kettles stacked on a hob: water boiling below, leaf steeping in the pot above, and the two combined in a tulip-shaped glass to whatever strength the drinker asks for. It is the everyday preparation in Turkey and much of Northern Cyprus, and it is filed under the samovar family because it inherits that service model, not because the vessel is a samovar.
Tea types it suits
Care and maintenance
Empty the leaf out at the end of the day rather than topping it up indefinitely. A pot kept warm on a samovar for hours with old leaf in it turns dull and flat, and rinsing it out is the single thing that keeps the service good.
Other brewing vessels
- Berrad (Maghrebi teapot)
- Boiling teapot
- Brewing saucepan
- Çaydanlık (Turkish double kettle)
- Chawan (matcha bowl)
- Chinese lidded mug
- Cold brew bottle
- Dagwan (Korean teapot)
- Dobin
- Enamel-lined cast iron teapot
- Gaiwan
- Glass teapot
- Glazed stoneware teapot
- Houhin
- Kyusu
- Nixing pottery teapot
- Plastic teaware
- Plunger tea press
- Porcelain teapot
- Quick-brew infuser press
- Ru-glaze crackle ware
- Shiboridashi
- Silver teapot
- Stainless steel teapot
- Travel gongfu set
- Travel infuser bottle
- Unglazed clay teapot (non-Yixing)
- Western teapot
- Yixing teapot
Sources
This page is TeaHQ synthesis. No external source stands behind the description, the material or the account of how the object is cared for. Where the record names a tradition, that attribution is TeaHQ’s own reading of common practice rather than a citation.
TeaHQ names no maker, brand or shop and has nothing to sell. Nothing on this page should be read as advice to buy the object — the substitute note above exists because owning it is usually optional.