Tea in Moscow or St. Petersburgh

Hi bbk tea blog,

Your post is very interesting.

Thanks! I haven't spent that much time on the trip but I can pass on an update, which reduces to finding one best source so far in the Moychay chain shops.  Perlov in Moscow also seemed nice for blends and basics,  decent upper-middle range teas, but for what tea enthusiasts drink Moychay seemed right. I should add that although I bought four teas from them I've not actually tried one yet, so until I do try them it's still an informed guess.  I'll try to remember to check back in here about that later.

You are welcome.

I finally did try a Russian tea, and lost track that I never added any update here.  That one from the end of December was still in the middle of the trip, so we hadn't been to St. Petersburg.  I'll tell a lot of the story here, to save anyone from needing to click to a write-up elsewhere, but three related to travel and tea do tell a fuller story.

Moychay shops worked out best, which I visited in both Moscow and St. Petersburg.  Perlov in Moscow is nice, and that's the only place I found any actual Russian tea, which I just reviewed, a green tea version.  Green tea is my least favorite category, so I can tell which are good and which are so-so but it's easier to evaluate black teas, oolongs, white, and pu'er according to how it matches my own preference (and hei cha, but you already get the point).  I did buy decent Georgian black tea at a Moychay shop in Moscow, and a nice Nan Nuo sheng pu'er cake at a Moychay shop in St. Petersburg.  I was in couple other shops but didn't really get far.

It was nice having more loose tea than we tend to there than in Thailand, even though I don't drink a lot of what is grocery store level tea.  Here Thailand produces rolled oolongs, so those are around, teas in the same style most common in Taiwan, but better grocery stores in Russia sell decent Ceylon (not great, but ok orthodox tea, teas clearly a step up from the ground-up CTC processed versions, and more blends than we see here).  I bought a Ceylon for me I haven't tried yet, and did drink an Earl Grey, and they liked getting a floral black tea blend at work.

That's most of it.  Shops I saw, Perlov and Moychay, are similar to shops anywhere else in the world.  Teas are more from China than Japan, India, Taiwan, or Sri Lanka (Ceylon), but those can turn up too.  I love Chinese teas best myself so it matches what I like.  I suppose it's a just a subjective judgement to say that Chinese teas are better than those other places but according to my preference they are better.  I loved Russia too, the things we saw and did, even meeting the people, but all that is a broader story that's not connected to this theme. 

I'll mention a few links here, on trying my favorite of the teas first (a Chinese sheng), and then on the only Russian tea, a green, and one that's really just a travel blog.  One last link is to a vendor site, a mail-order option site from a tea producer I've not checked out myself yet.  I reviewed three other teas from that trip but these links tell plenty of the story, and someone in Moscow or St. Petersburg could get a fast start on trying interesting teas from looking at them, or order online from two different sources mentioned (Moychay's outlet and that direct producer link).

http://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.co … n-nuo.htmlhttp://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.co … -from.htmlhttp://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.co … ow-st.htmlhttps://xn----7sbb0bvshvx.xn--p1ai/?v=f9308c5d0596