We had a delightful springtime lunch at the Patisserie Lenox in Lenox, MA, and I was very happy to see a real Russian samovar! 

I couldn't drink 12 cups of tea, but I did ask about the samovar. It is an authentic Russian samovar and they serve tea in the authentic Russian samovar method: the main body of the Samovar is filled with hot water, and the top has a smaller vessel filled with a very strong concentrate of your chosen tea.

To serve, you put some of the concentrate in your cup and then add hot water to dilute to your desired strength.  

In the old Russian novels they drank tea in some interesting ways, like with jam instead of sugar, or through a sugar cube held between the teeth.