Sorry, a mistake - not USD 2,600, but RUB 2,600.

Sasha.

"Alex Chaihorsky" > wrote in message
.. .
> People at this forum may find it interesting that Chinese tea and Chinese
> tea culture is becoming very trendy in Moscow and SPB and in Russia in
> general. The contrast with traditional Russian black tea culture of the
> past for me after almost 20 years of absence was staggering.
> While "normal" people still drink black Indian and Ceylon as their
> everyday tea, tea shops, tea room and tea clubs with great choice of
> Chinese, Japanese and other exotic teas are becoming more and more popular
> and increasingly expensive.
>
> I have not been in tea clubs in Moscow, which are more "opulent" and
> expensive than the ones in SPB, but visited two in SPB, my former
> hometown. They call themselves "Tea Culture Clubs" and are quite small and
> very Spartan from the point of view of furniture and space. You drink tea
> sitting on the floor on mats or pillows in a space that is created by
> hanging bamboo mats which divide a room 300 sq.ft into several such "tea
> spaces". Its quite minimal.
> The tea selection is quite the opposite. The menu or "tea card" consist of
> several pages and probably about a hundred or more teas, almost
> exclusively Chinese, most of them oolongs. The prices are "per person" and
> vary from couple of hundred rubles (27 pub /USD) or 7-10 USD to tens of
> thousands of rubles or several hundred USD. You can drink it any way you
> want but the common way is gong fu, which you can do yourself or it will
> be performed by the host. The price is the same. Gong fu sets include
> everything, quite good quality, quality yixing, wenxiangbeis and
> pinminbeis, chahai, tea tools, everything, including yixing "toys" - pigs,
> toddlers, bulls, etc.
>
> There were three of us and we had two teas in about 2 hours and the check
> was for USD 2,600 (almost USD100 or $30/person). We tried the cheapest
> oolong (dull and old) and a "value" one which was average-to-dull. Keep in
> mind that an average salary in SPB is probably USD 300/month.
> Also, you can get quite a good three-course meal in a decent restaurant
> for this money.
>
> I performed the gungfu myself both times, but was not able not to overhear
> the talk over the gungfu performed by the host next "cabin". The
> introduction to Chinese tea, the description of gongfu, the comments he
> was making were a mix or "tea religion", very superficial knowledge and
> spiritual marketing. I was told that some clubs in Moscow host very
> knowledgeable people, have calligraphy classes and even publish their own
> tea books but still, too many buddhas, "spiritual" music, incense,
> "guru"talk.... It looks like my former countrymen need some kind of a
> church atmosphere to part with their money more easily. It was sad. One
> thing I liked, though - there were no food at all, not even "tea snacks".
> Mate is also gaining popularity fast and is crazy expensive (about 20
> times what we pay here in an ethnic Latino shop).
>
> The popularity of these tea clubs is skyrocketing. I expect (and was asked
> to assist, but declined for now) the new generation of tea clubs with more
> business atmosphere will spring up in a very near future. The knowledge
> will increase and most probably the Chinese business people will start
> paying attention and open such clubs in Russia. As of now (according to my
> knowledge) these clubs are owned by Russian tea admirers.
>
> Tea shops (which are numerous) selections are quite opulent, prices about
> three to ten times higher than here in the US, salesgirls are slow and
> their knowledge is superficial. However if the owner happens to be
> present, you will have a chance to talk to a very knowledgeable, quite
> sophisticated, very interested in tea individual.
>
> Russians I talked to would express immediate and very vigorous interest in
> things tea as soon as you start such conversation. Tea is definitely "in"
> and "hip". There are several good tea web sites where very knowledgeable
> people share their experiences and even get together once in a while (we
> are talking people traveling hundreds of miles for three-4 days of tea
> drinking) bringing unbelievable quality teas with them and having such
> "tea happenings" at least once a season. Some of these web sites have very
> large and deep knowledge databases on all aspects of tea. The tea web
> site of a small private university in Pskov - tea.volny.edu is one of them
> where yours truly posts quite a lot.
>
> Sasha.
>
>
>
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