My father was the first of his family born in the U.S. (he was the
youngest of six siblings) and he explained to me once that the sugar
cube used in drinking tea was what we would call rock candy. Much more
solid. Some Asian markets will have the old-style sugar cones, which
are also similar to what they used in Russia.

dmh

Rick Chappell wrote:
> First, let me expound upon the extreme privelege I have of making the
> first relevant cross-post between rec.humor.jewish and
> rec.food.drink.tea (if I'm wrong please don't tell me - I wouldn't
> admit it anyway, as my wife and students could tell you).
>
> "Sucked through a sugar cube"? Have you ever tried it? I did, once.
> I obtained my Russian tea. I heated up my samovar. I got my zavarka
> and boiling water in proper combination poured into a finjan, not a
> yahrtzeit glass since we very fortunately have not been in need of the
> latter. I delicately rested the sugar cube between upper and lower
> incisors (facilitated by my slight, though not unsightly, prognathism
> - surely produced, as my mother warned me, by indiligence in wearing
> my retainer as a teen) and then:
>
> Disaster. The cube crumbled faster than a Republican congressional
> caucus after an indictment. I was left with a mouthful of granulated
> sugar in tea, unable to spit it out because a child was attentively
> staring at me across the table; the very child whom I had previously
> sternly lectured about keeping his food in his mouth and that, even
> though the poodle would appreciatively lick premasticated pizza off
> his fingers, this is still considered bad manners.
>
> I have heard that hard candies are permissible. Also, I'm sure that
> if I stroll the back alleys of certain Slavic neighborhoods in Chicago
> I can find a fellow with a Rasputin beard and shiny dark eyes who'd
> sell me a bag of crystal suc. In the interim, I'm doing quite nicely
> with a spoonful of cherry jam admixed (and a "bissel schnapps" when
> the wind blows fiercely off the lake).
>
> Best,
>
> Rick.
>
>
> Bob > wrote:
>
>>Remember how your grandmother used to cook? Where is that cooking now?
>
>
> ... Numerous savory but ultra-high cholesterol details deleted ...
>
>
>>Since we couldn't have milk or any dairy products (milchiks) with our
>>meat meals (flayshiks), beverages consisted of cheap pop (seltzer in
>>the spritz bottles), or a glezel tay (glass of hot tea) served in a
>>yohrtzeit (memorial) glass, and sucked through a sugar cube held
>>between the incisors.
>
>