Fireweed alias Ivanchai

Reviving an old - and delicious - tradition!

Fireweed, commonly known by its Russian name as Ivanchai (literally: Ivan’s Tea), was once massively popular across Europe before Chinese and Indian teas were more widely available or too expensive for most people to afford. Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries exported tons of this tea, especially to Great Britain where it was universally popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, before trade routes were destroyed by wars and the instability of the USSR and when Chinese teas became easier to access. Our Ivanchai comes from the deep forests of Valgamaa, Estonia, harvested and partly processed by hand and carefully fermented, just like they used to in the good old days but which few do nowadays.