If you look closely at these photos (you might need a magnifying glass), you will see that it isn’t English written on the packaging. It’s Russian. Yes, yes, as in, from Russia. Hello.

Some friends went to St Petersburg (yes, Russia) and Moscow. There’s no “cow” in the pronunciation of Moscow, and I know that you wanted to know that. As a treat for me, they brought some tea from Russia, and we had a tea party. One of the teas was a green tea with tropical and floral overtones, and the other was a black tea. Both were quite nice, although the black tea had a nice tart tang to it that seems to be lacking in other black teas that I have recently tried. Whatever it was, I liked it. 

The Russians are tea drinkers. They brew wonderful teas. The same cannot be said for their coffee. So their history of producing tea goes back a long way, just as the history of tea goes back to ancient times. 

You would know information like this if you attended the NW Tea Festival, Oct 5 & 6, at the Fischer Pavilion at Seattle Center. 

It’s an opportunity to learn about, and taste, teas with which you may not be familiar. I am not guaranteeing that there will be Russian tea there, but there will be familiar and not-so-familiar tea to taste, vendors to meet, information to learn, and a good time to be had by all.

Maybe you will meet some Russians.

The NW Tea Festival, Oct 5&6, Fischer Pavilion at the Seattle Center.