Greetings! I write a tea blog and someone mentioning plans to travel Kazakhstan made me curious about what types of tea are produced or drank there. Just a bit of internet research seemed to indicate production is limited (or likely tea can't be grown there) but consumption of various imported teas is significant. Can anyone provide input about that, what types are preferred, and what are local, traditional variations?
I'm from the US and live in Bangkok, so this review is a bit random. I've traveled around Asia a lot (to Indonesia last, last month) but I'm not sure when I'll ever make it to places other than the Southern and Eastern Asian countries.
I moderate an international-theme tea group on Facebook but discussion tends to focus more on Western imported tea consumption from places like China, Japan and India. I've tried two teas from Nepal (or four, counting two commercial versions, but blogging usually relates to better specialty teas), and lots from smaller producer countries like Indonesia, Cambodia, and Korea, but of course none yet from Kazakhstan, but again it seems like tea isn't produced there, only drank there.