Short answers, pulled from the story.
Russia received its first recorded gift of tea in 1638 when a Mongolian ruler presented four poods to Tsar Michael. This gift weighed between 65 and 70 kilograms of dried leaves.
The peak year for Kiakhta tea trade occurred in 1824. Caravans reached their highest numbers in 1860 before declining with the completion of the first Trans-Siberian Railway leg in 1880.
Camel trains used on the Tea Road took sixteen months to deliver goods between Russia and China via this route. The difficult journey made tea extremely expensive and available only to royalty and the wealthy until train service reduced delivery time to seven weeks.
Wissotzky Tea became the most prominent firm in the Russian Empire by the late 19th century. Early 20th-century records show Wissotzky was the largest tea manufacturer globally.
Electric kettles became the norm starting in the 1990s after gas stoves largely replaced the samovar in newly constructed apartment buildings. This transition marked a shift away from traditional heating methods used for centuries.