Yekaterinburg Chinese-tea festival 2026

Two days of continental tea

The festival opens Saturday morning with a session on how pu-erh ages outside Yunnan. It begins with a tasting of three Shēng Pǔ’ěr (生普洱) cakes: one stored in Kūnmíng (昆明), one aged in Moscow, and one kept in a Yekaterinburg cellar for over a decade. The differences — light, dry, almost crystalline — speak to the Urals’ cold, low-humidity continental climate. These aren’t the heavy, humid notes of tropical storage; instead, the tea reveals clean wood, autumn leaves, and a taut minerality like a whisper of the Siberian wind.

In the afternoon, the festival floor opens to eight vendors. Stalls offer Shú Pǔ’ěr (熟普洱), Liù Bǎo (六堡), Fú Zhuān (茯砖), and a small selection of aged white teas. Each vendor has arranged at least one vertical flight — same material, different storage arcs — turning the hall into a living atlas of aging. Members of tea.community can apply with a discount, and early arrivals receive a tasting booklet mapping each tea to its storage coordinates.

Sunday shifts to dark teas and the craft of dry storage at home. A hands-on workshop compares pumidor setups with natural cellar conditions and explains how to monitor humidity in a continental apartment. A second master class dissects a 1990s Shēng cake that spent fifteen years in Ulan-Ude, Buryatia — a vivid example of how extreme temperature swings compress and stretch the leaves’ aromatic profile. For those inspired to deepen their practice, tea.school offers a dedicated course on aging pu-erh at home, filmed across several Russian kitchens.

Throughout both days, tea flows continuously: small-group tastings of dancong, Lapsang, and a rare Jīn Jùn Méi (金骏眉) run in a quieter room. As dusk settles on Sunday, a final roundtable brings all four masters together to discuss what continental storage means for the future of collector culture. The festival closes with a handshake and a cup of 2006 Shēng — mellow, crisp, unmistakably cold-country.

What you get

• Two full days of guided tastings with invited masters

• Access to all master classes and the concluding roundtable

• Printed tasting booklet with continental-storage tasting notes

• Three 10 g samples of aged pu-erh to take home

• 15% discount on future purchases at shop.puerh.app for festival attendees

• Early entry and preferred seating for tea.community members

• Complimentary ceramic tasting cup from local Yekaterinburg potters

Where, when & how

• Venue — Ulitsa Lenina, 50, Yekaterinburg, Russia — main hall and two tasting rooms

• Dress — Warm layers and comfortable shoes; November temperatures average -5 °C

• Food — On‑site tea snacks, local Russian pastries, and a light lunch both days

• Accessibility — Fully wheelchair‑accessible ground‑floor venue with accessible restrooms

• Language — Russian host; all master classes have English‑language translation

• Kit included — Tasting cup, spoon, notebook, and a canvas tote for samples

• Weather note — Early winter conditions — snow possible, please plan for icy streets