October 14, 2022

Tea at the Top


Tea at the Top
A great way to start the day. The Russian Life files

Russians love their chai – 45 percent more than they love coffee, apparently.

A study published by Russian retailer Sbermarket found that Russian shoppers buy tea almost 50 percent more often than they buy coffee. This is surprising, given that Russia has always straddled the tea-coffee divide.

The study looked at data from January 2021 to the present. Researchers found that coffee consumption jumped 210 percent in the winter months, and tea intake increased by 188 percent.

Also notable is the breakdown of how Russians consume coffee: more than half of the coffee consumed by Russians is in the form of instant crystals. 23 percent is ground beans, and 9 percent comes in capsules, like Keurig pods.

Perhaps the swing towards tea is to be expected, as international sanctions have hurt coffee imports to Russia amid growing global tensions.

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