Chosen for cultivating tea traditions
The Kyiv Tea Club is one of these special places you’re not very likely to walk into from the street, both because it is tricky to find and because it is designed for tea connoisseurs. It specialized in authentic tea ceremonies, featuring the most exquisite types of tea. It is not a cafe, it serves tea, and nothing but tea.
Strangely enough, the aim of my first visit to the Kyiv Tea Club wasn’t tea. I was going to take part in qigong, a section of traditional Chinese medicine that specializes in coordination of different breathing patterns with various physical postures and motions of the body. The seminar was held at the Club.
Finding place wasn’t easy. If you are going by metro, it’s best to get out at Lybidska. When you get to 7 Druzhby Narodiv, just turn into the arch that leads into the yard of the building, and walk to the fourth porch on your left. The apartment you need is on the ground floor – there is an indication on it. You have to ring the door bell, and an assistant in Chinese dragonembroidered clothes will come to meet you at the door.
When you start to go down the steps, smelling sandalwood and feeling the atmosphere, you cannot help but start to relax to a peaceful state of mind.
After a cup of tea following the seminar I was as fit as a fiddle and ready to face the rest of the day, whatever it brings. So, I discovered the best way to come to my senses after any sort of stress – all I have to do is pay a visit to the Tea Club for a cuppa.
To secure yourself and your friends a cosy spot at the Tea Club, you should make a call ahead of time, give the number of visitors, your estimated time of arrival, and whether you would like to just drink tea, or have a full tea ceremony. If you plan to bring a big company, make sure you book a place because on weekends and in the evenings it gets quite busy. You can choose from a large stand of Chinese tea starting from cheaper types for every day drinking (Hr 17 to Hr 25 for 10 grams, on average) to rare species costing up to Hr 60 per cup.
If you are new in the world of tea, you should know that teas offered at the Club have only natural flavors – none of those “Strawberry Fields” and “Cherry Blossoms” so popular in regular cafes are to be found there. No sugar, honey or milk, either.
It is recommended to start from the basic types of tea – green, yellow, oolong , or “bluegreen tea,” that stands in between green and black, then white, black and red. They all differ in age, growth area and lots of other criteria the consultants will tell you about.
There are several types of tea with names that indicate the presence of flowers, for example, jasmine tea. The trick is that the tea doesn’t necessarily contain any jasmine, but instead it gets its flavor due to special processing technologies. Another peculiarity of their tea list is the presence of teas with herbs – rose, cinnamon tree, special tea chrysanthemum, and plum tree flowers.
As you can understand, making a choice there isn’t easy, but you can get all the assistance you need, just don’t hesitate to ask questions. Besides, the Tea House offers only tea, there’s no food on the menu, so it would be better to have a snack beforehand. The reason they don’t serve food is that you need to keep your receptors fresh to be able to taste and smell all the nuances of the drink. That’s why, if you’re a smoker, you should also refrain from smoking for 20 minutes before tea tasting. Naturally, smoking is prohibited at the club.
If you like the tea ceremony, in addition to the actual leafs you can buy all ceremonial equipment for Hr 320, as well as exquisite, delicate tea sets (Hr 540 and 810), adorned containers for storing tea (Hr 118), and tea pots (up to Hr 900).
To make a present for your tea loving friends you can buy a gift certificate (Hr 100 and 200), which is valid for a year and can be redeemed for tea drinking, tea ceremonies, massage, concerts, and lessons on how to conduct a tea ceremony.
However, the Tea Club is not just about quiet private tea ceremonies – it offers lots of events throughout the year. There you can practice qigong, yoga, attend classes on psychology based on Eastern philosophy, get massage. In addition, you can watch movies and animations every week and take part in Eastern holidays.
Finally, a few more things to know before setting off to the Tea Club – you will need to switch off your mobile before entering, take your shoes off and change into slippers (if you wish) in a special room. It’s also recommended that children stay at home because they can get too active in the club due to the rich energetic of the place, making it hard to relax for you and your friends.
Tea Club (7 Bulvar Druzhby Narodiv, entrance from the yard, 4th porch, apartment No. 60, 451-4283)
