Tea that makes a dark, strong liquor is preferred - not that such liquor is used, but that the greatest possible quantity of tea-coloured water may be drained from the teapot by refilling it over and over again from the samovar.
Bottled water To prevent locals refilling bottles of water from their restaurant sinks only drink sparkling water and as above use a sanitary straw.
No user intervention such as refilling a reservoir is required.
It's a good idea to have three or four buckets of clean water so you're not constantly dumping and refilling a single bucket.
Packets are ideal for refilling jars and reduce the amount of packaging that might otherwise end up in landfill.