bringing style to the art of tea appreciation
There are still some good suggestions on the previous post (2013), but so much has happened in the tea world and my tea life that I thought it deserved an update. curati.co I’m often asked which teas I can recommend and where to buy them. “Where can I find fine quality tea that is fresh and that I can trust to be sourced directly?” Since I don’t sell tea, I provide names of vendors I trust, but inevitably people […]
When I first embarked upon my tea studies at George Brown College in Toronto, I was introduced to an odd little tea vessel – the gaiwan – which looked like a wide-lipped sugar bowl with lid and saucer. I struggled to use it – the lid needed to be positioned in a way that allowed the tea’s liquor to flow in a stream without letting any (or not many) leaves to escape the vessel. The index finger had to control […]
Emma Bridgewater Revitalizes an Industry The Emma Bridgewater website is a feast for colour-hungry tea ware browsers. There are teapots, mugs, cups and saucers in floral, dot and animal themed patterns. My favourite pattern is “Black Toast” – stylized calligraphy floating on a milky background – a classic! Located in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, the pottery has been producing casual everyday pieces for the home since 1985. Her business has helped to revitalize a town that built its reputation on fine porcelain […]
We all have friends and relations who love tea in a special way. We won’t call them tea snobs, but let’s just say that they are very particular about the teaware they use and the way they prepare and sip their tea. Does the following profile match the person whose gift you are puzzling over? not interested in expanding their teacup collection don’t do “Victorian” serious about the quality of their teawares and their tea hard-wired for style and […]
Carpets fit for the Runway When Korhani Home rolled out the carpet at Toronto’s Fashion Week, they had no intention for it to be walked on. Instead they found ingenious ways to evoke style eras through history, reflecting the seasonal designs they are offering. Who would have thought that you could make carpets into capes for masquerade balls or evoke Genghis Khan? Their new collection of home carpets were wrapped around models in ways that would make my fingers bleed […]
Marie Saint Pierre at LG Fashion Week Toronto Marie Saint Pierre is a Montreal, Canada womenswear designer known for free-flowing, artistically inspired garments. Her clothing is a favourite of many of Canada’s cultural luminaries. Her clothes drape, wrap and layer in ways that we don’t expect. I own a few of her pieces; my favourite from many seasons ago – a crisp white taffeta shirt with exaggerated collar and cuffs. They are designed with the urban woman in mind, but […]
Guest post by Gerald Robinson It’s a very tiny hotel, just 3 inches high, and could hold about 4 oz. of loose tea; – a reproduction of London’s Berkeley Hotel. In 1972 the Berkeley Hotel moved from Piccadilly to its present five-star location in Knightsbridge. To celebrate the twenty-first anniversary of the move, in 1993, the hotel commissioned… A Tea Caddy! It’s a rectangular tin container with detachable lid, and is decorated with an accurate reproduction of the hotel façade. […]
If you love the era that brought women the right to vote, a release from the corset and shorter skirts, you will want to visit The Bata Shoe Museum’s latest Exhibit – The Roaring Twenties: Heels, Hemlines and High Spirits. Suffragettes pave the way At the turn of the twentieth century, Suffragettes fought a long battle and endured jail time in North America and England to win the vote for women. They were ridiculed for their severe and some said […]
The One Of A Kind Spring Show visited Toronto recently and The Tea Stylist was on a mission to find hand-crafted teaware. We walked the aisles from A to Q and found some lovely artisan ‘objets’ that I’m sure you will appreciate. Porcelaines Bousquet, Quebec First stop was Porcelaines Bousquet Spotted: a beautiful classic porcelain teapot designed by Quebecker Louise Bousquet, who has been perfecting the art of white porcelain since 1975, including a term of study with Limoges! The […]