Do you know about The Met Collection teas? They’re truly unique to Harney & Sons as part of our partnership with the world-famous Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It began back in 2020 when The Met, as it’s known, celebrated its 150th birthday. As part of that milestone event, the museum launched the reopening of its British Galleries, and tea is a big part of those galleries. Because we have been assisting the cafés inside The Met for many years, we already had a relationship with them…so it made perfect sense for the museum to reach out to us about creating commemorative tins and teas to celebrate the reopening of those amazing galleries.
We collaborated with the staff at The Met to create the artwork on these collector-worthy tins. The first three blends we launched for the opening of the British Galleries were Hot Apple Spice Black Tea, Garden Therapy, and a Taste of British History. In addition to enjoying the teas, we thought you might like to know a bit about the artful tins they’re housed in!
- Hot Apple Spice is a sister blend to our best-selling Hot Cinnamon Spice, with those familiar (and delicious) warming cinnamon, clove, and orange flavors with the addition of apple. The tin’s artwork is by the famous French impressionist and painter Paul Cézanne. “Still Life With Apples and a Pot of Primroses” is a piece that you can see when you visit The Met, or you can just show it to impress your friends when they come over for tea!
- Garden Therapy’s artwork comes from Claude Money’s peaceful “The Parc Monceau,” also featured at The Met, as is all the art on the tins in this collection. Much like the scene depicted on the tin, this tisane is a peaceful blend of chamomile, peppermint, and lemon verbena.
- The artwork on Taste of British History was my dad, Mike Harney’s, suggestion to The Met to use their British Galleries teapot artwork, which exhibited over 130 teapots in their Tea, Trade, and Empire gallery. We created this blend to honor England’s fascination with tea – it’s a take on a classic Earl Grey with black tea, green tea, and bergamot oil.
Since that initial launch, we’ve added several teas to The Met Collection:
- Royal Pomegranate Green Tea. Much like the mid-16th century Iznik tile panel artwork gracing the tin, this tea is a simple yet elegant green tea with pomegranate flavor and seeds. Colorful, repeating-pattern Iznik tiles such as these still enliven the walls of mosques and palaces throughout Istanbul.
The mission at The Met is to highlight effective storytelling, whether through paintings, murals, or sculptures. We are thrilled to partner with them as we truly connect with The Met’s message, as art and tea are timeless traditions shared by many.
