Some Russians shun coffee as Western in favour of traditional tea

Entrepreneurs are reviving old traditions to attract modern customers

Moscow, which for decades has run on caffeine, could be rediscovering its taste for tea as some shun coffee as a Western introduction and embrace the more traditional drink.

Andrei Kolbasinov, founder of retro-chic teahouse chain Nitka, which means "thread" in Russian, says his business is all about trying to resurrect Russia's lost tea-drinking culture.

"We are trying to revive modern Russian teahouses," he said. "Before the (1917) Revolution, there used to be a lot of them in Russia, especially in Moscow. Unfortunately, they all disappeared during Soviet times," Kolbasinov said.

"Five years ago there were just coffee shops everywhere. We try to imagine how teahouses would look, had they continued existing," he said.

His company runs three teahouses in Moscow and two more in other cities.

While Russians are some of the biggest consumers of tea worldwide, they mostly do so at home, typically accompanying their brews with jam, lemon, and sweets.

As in the rest of Europe, busy city dwellers are more likely to grab a coffee on the go than opt for a cup of tea.

But with the country at loggerheads with the West over the conflict in Ukraine, even a simple tea shop reflects how the country has changed over the last three and a half years.

Nitka customer Kirill, who did not give his last name, said: "Tea is ... well, it's more Russian I guess. It has this home warmth and cosiness."

Kolbasinov said the rising popularity of his teahouses represented "a turn inward", as Russia rediscovers its own cultural traditions.

Though a part of Nitka's tea is Russian grown, Western sanctions against Russia have complicated the country's tea imports, said Kolbasinov.

For instance, some of Nitka's tea is sourced from Nepal, but sanctions have interfered with the complex supply chains that bind Russia to the landlocked South Asian country.

Far more of the tea comes from Russia's neighbour and ally China, and from Georgia, where much of the Soviet Union's tea was grown before 1991. Neither country has imposed sanctions on Russia, and both have deepened economic ties with Moscow since 2022.