It is shaped into oval or round loaves with longitudinal or criss-crossed scoring.

The characteristic golden or golden-brown color of its crust is achieved by coating the surface of the loaves with sweetened tea essence before baking.

In the 1930s, food specialists in Soviet Armenia wanted to mark the new communist country with a more modern-looking bread.

Even the bakers' patterns on the bread were re-interpreted to fit the Soviet agenda.

The bread's rim was interpreted as an agricultural field and its imprinted lines as tilled rows.