The Metamorphosis of Tea. Teahouses and Tea shops in Bucharest

This paper examines the increase of public, non-domestic tea consumption in Bucharest. In order to offer a full picture, I approached the consumer engines in terms of both teahouses’ owners and consumers. I found that most entrepreneurs have established their business in an effort to have a place of their own, quiet, where to practice their passions with people who share the same values and interests. Consumers, in turn, are attracted primarily by the interior space of the teahouses. Their reasons are the most diverse: for relaxation and dreaming, to escape from the city’s violent stimuli, for introspection, for new bodily experiences, to strengthen or build friendship, romantic or business relationships, as well as for the ‘dream’ characteristics of the teahouses’ environment. Both the teahouses’ owners and their consumers may be regarded as varieties of prosumers.