The Russian Tea Room NYC

The New York weather report today says 31°F (Feels like: 25°F) so I can still talk about tea...Russian tea..Kusmi Russian Tea in fact.

I first encountered Kusmi Teas at the Salon du Chocolat (they have a chocolate tea) and a day later at Le Festival de The.They had this fantastic "sniffing" display so you could easily find the tea you love. 

Kusmi Tea was founded in 1867 in St-Petersburg, by P.M Kousmichoff, supplier to the tsars. In 1917, at the time of the Revolution, they moved to London and Paris.

They're boutique is at 56, rue de Seine and they've just opened a tea room, so I'll be doing research next week...

Kusmi Russian Teas begin with big-leaf teas from Ceylon, India, Java and China. They uniquely blend these tea leaves with scented aromatics originating from Grasse, France's perfume center.
For example:
Anastasia Tea is a Russian blend of Ceylon and China teas scented with orange, bergamot, lemon and lime
Prince Vladimir is a blend of Ceylon and China teas with scents of orange, lemon, vanilla, grapefruit and spices
The Bouquet de Fleur blend is a blend of China, India and Ceylon teas with 8 different aromas, including lemon, bergamot orange, lime and mandarin orange
Petrushka Tea is a blend of Ceylon, cardamom, cloves, almonds and rose

For research purposes I tasted a Russian tea with blinis, sour cream and sour cherries...

Here's the demise of my research = YUM!

You put the sour cherries into the tea as well as in the blinis...

My research was to gather info on Russian Tea Service for another menu cover for The Russian Tea Room.

Podstakannik is Russian for tea glass holder and means "under the glass" or "for the glass"

Chai is the word for tea

Chainaya lozhka is teaspoon

Sahar is sugar
Zavarka is strong tea

They have a huge collection of rare Russian Samovars at RTR...

Vetka is the handle of a samovar's faucet. Literally "branch" (as of a tree)

So now you're ready to go for tea at The Russian Tea Room!

BTW I noticed Paris weather today is 39°F (Feels like: 32°F)
Do you think they heard I was coming and are trying to make the transition easy for me? :(