As every tea drinker knows, there’s an art to brewing the perfect cup…but tea has also influenced the world of fine art as an inspiration to artists, as the subject of artworks, and even as an art medium. So let’s put on our docent hats (you’ve got one of those, right?) and take a closer look at a few ways tea and art have intersected over the years.
Tea as a Medium
There’s no doubt that tea can inspire artists…but it can also become a medium for self-expression. If you’ve ever been handed a matcha latte with a steamed-milk design on top, you already have some idea of what I’m talking about.
Chabaixi: Design on Tea
Chabaixi (which translates to the “hundred tea show” or “100 tricks with tea”), is similar to latte art in concept. First, hot water is poured over fine powdered tea. As more hot water is slowly added, the tea is whisked by hand (a process known as “diancha”) to create froth. Finally, clear water is used to draw calligraphy, flowers, or other designs on the surface of the froth.
Perfected during the Song dynasty (960-1279), the art form had declined during the Qing dynasty (1655-1912), eventually falling into obscurity. Zhang Zhifeng, a master of tea science, recovered this ancient cultural heritage in 2009. More recently, the technique gained greater public awareness when it was featured on a Chinese TV show called A Dream of Splendor. Set during the Song dynasty, this popular Chinese historical drama focused on a woman running a teahouse with two friends.
Modern latte art is made through a similar process. First, a cup of tea (often matcha) is prepared and whisked until smooth. Next, the frothy milk is steamed and poured carefully into the cup, providing the medium for design (which can be achieved with a toothpick, skewer, or a special latte art tool). You’ll find some recipes for tea lattes on our blog, Lattes: They’re Not Just for Coffee Anymore.
Which kinds of teas are good for making lattes? You might start with our Matcha Iri Genmaicha, a concoction that your humble writer added to our catalog years ago. The Bancha (or “cha”) leaves and brown rice (“genmai”) that comprise Genmaicha are coated with Matcha green tea powder, and the results were a big hit at our Millerton shop. The aroma of roasted brown rice (with vegetal undertones and hints of citrus) is complemented by the wonderful vegetal flavors, reminiscent of roasted spinach and artichoke.
If you love chai, our Chocolate Chai Supreme makes a wonderful latte. We start by blending Chinese and Indian black teas, then add ginger root, cardamom seeds and pods, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Finally, we swirl natural chocolate, cardamom, and vanilla flavors through the blend. The chocolate-and-spice aroma, coupled with the delicious taste of chocolate, cardamom, and vanilla, create a one-of-a-kind tea experience you won’t soon forget.
Our Earl Grey Supreme is also a great choice. Made from a higher grade of black teas, oolong teas, silver tips from white tea, and extra bergamot, citrus aromas predominate in this blend…and the lemony flavors are perfectly balanced with the delicious tea base.
Painting with Tea
We’ve established that you can use water or steamed milk to paint on tea…but if you’re looking for results that are a little longer lasting, you can also paint with tea, creating liquid pigments which can be brushed onto a surface like watercolors.
Darker teas (such as black teas or Pu-Erhs) work best for this purpose, although tisanes containing hibiscus or beetroot may also be used to produce more reddish tones. To create your pigment, you may want to use more tea than you typically would when brewing a cup to drink…and you’ll also want to steep it longer than usual. Strong tea will produce a darker tint.
You can also use matcha to create an effect closer to that of green acrylic paint. Just be sure to sift the powdered tea first (to eliminate any lumps), before you create your “paint” by adding a small amount of water to the powder.
One word to the wise: be prepared for your finished artwork to lighten as it dries (and for the matcha’s vibrant green tint to turn brown over time).
Which Harney & Sons teas are appropriate for use for pigments? I’ll admit I typically think of teas more in terms of drinking them than painting with them, but here are a few suggestions.
Our English Breakfast tea is a best-seller for its taste…but the dark brown liquor produced by this China black 100% Keemun should also make a decent pigment. Assuming you’re drinking and not just painting, you’ll enjoy this brew’s toasty aroma, as well as its strong, simple flavor (which includes hints of toast and honey).
The broken dark red leaves in our Hibiscus tea produce a brilliant red liquor. Taste-wise, this caffeine-free herbal infusion offers an intense, tart citrus flavor with notes of floral sweetness.
Going for the green? Once you’ve dissolved our Organic Matcha powder into water, you’ll be rewarded with a brilliant emerald liquor. As for the portion you don’t paint with, you’ll enjoy an aroma and flavor reminiscent of casaba melon, with light vegetal notes of spring lettuce.
No Stain, No Gain: Using Tea to Dye Paper and Textiles
Tea staining is a popular technique used to give paper an aged, parchment-like appearance. It’s commonly used in crafting projects like journaling or scrapbooking, and it’s not hard to do.
Start by brewing a strong batch of black tea (or tea that includes turmeric, that adds an extra yellow tint). The more tea you use, the deeper your color will be. Let the tea steep for at least five minutes, then pour it into a tray big enough to accommodate a single sheet of paper (preferably thicker paper that won’t tear easily).
Soak your paper for at least three minutes…or longer, if you want to create a deeper tint. Once the paper is removed, you can dry it between paper towels, with some heavy items placed on top to prevent wrinkling. If you want a more brittle texture, you can place the paper on a cookie sheet in an oven preheated to 200°F, and leave it there between five and 10 minutes (while watching it to make sure it doesn’t burst into flames or anything).
Once your paper has dried, you can use it as a background for writing or artwork (or as distinctive wrapping paper).
Dyeing Fabrics
Tea dying can also be used to dye fabrics, provided they are made from 100% natural fibers. Cotton is a perfect fabric for this (although the process can also work with linen or silk). Polyester? Not so much.
Before you dye fabric, pre-wash them to remove any manufacturing residues that could interfere with the due.
Start by bringing water to boil in a stockpot, then add loose leaf tea (using two teaspoons of tea for each cup of boiling water). After the tea has steeped for 20 minutes, strain the water to remove all the tea leaves.
Now it’s time to put the fabric in. Push it all the way into the water (moving it around to ensure the fabric is evenly covered), then leave the fabric in the tea water bath for 10 hours or so.
Next step: pour out the tea water, wring out your fabric, and put it back in the pot. Now pour in one cup of white vinegar, adding cold tap water until the fabric is once again covered. Let the fabric soak in the vinegar mixture for another 30 minutes, then remove the fabric again.
After squeezing out the fabric thoroughly, put it into a clothes dryer on a low heat setting until it’s completely dry. Finally, iron your fabric to remove wrinkles.
When selecting teas for dyeing, you’re really looking for brews that will give you good colors. So we’ll start with our Malawi Black Treasure, an affordable black tea from the Satemwa Tea Estates in South East Africa. Besides a medium brown liquor, this tea offers an aroma and flavor that suggests honeyed toast and stone fruit compote.
Scottish Morn may be our strongest tea, brewing a very dark brown color. A mix of Assam and Ceylon teas creates a strong, simple tea.
Lastly, for those seeking a more yellowish tint, our Organic Turmeric tea offers a cloudy orange liquor…as well as the spicy aroma of ground turmeric, and a pleasantly bitter earthy flavor.
The Whole Package: Art with Teabags and Wrappers
Our paper teabags to be compostable…but there are some who might consider that a waste of perfectly good art supplies
Artists such as Ruby Silvious have repurposed used teabags, emptying their leaves and using them as mini-canvases for painting.
Even tea’s packaging can be used as an art medium…as was beautifully demonstrated in September 2017 and June 2018, when artist and visual merchandiser Polar Buranasatit used Harney & Sons wrappers to create unforgettably colorful displays in the windows of our SoHo shop.
In case you’d like to try your hand at teabag art, I have a few colorful options ready to suggest…starting with our Tropical Green tea. This combination of fine, handpicked Chinese green teas has been augmented with pineapple flavor. Try it hot for breakfast, or cold on a summer afternoon, before you use the individually wrapped teabags to stage your masterwork.
Not a pineapple person? Try our Jasmine tea, made from a pouchong tea that’s been plussed up with fresh jasmine flowers, per Chinese tradition. Over this brew’s vegetal base, a strong floral presence enhances both its aroma and its flavor.
Love the teabag, but don’t need the caffeine? Our Raspberry Herbal tisane is a mix of rosehips, hibiscus, orange peel and raspberry flavor that can be enjoyed hot or iced. The fruity flavor of this blend is complemented by its strong aroma, reminiscent of (spoiler alert) raspberries.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
No tea art blog would be complete without noting that we had the honor of partnering with New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art back in 2020, when it turned 150 years old and launched the reopening of its British Galleries (which, incidentally, include a display of more than 100 teapots).
We’d been assisting The Met’s cafés for years, but it was still a thrill when they asked us to help them commemorate the galleries’ reopening. We responded with The Met Collection: a curated collection of custom blends, packed in artfully presented tins.
Our Taste of British History Blend, a unique take on Earl Grey, is a mixture of black and green tea with bergamot oil. The lemony aroma and citrusy bergamot flavors pay tribute to England’s long-standing fascination with tea (while the tin’s exterior features teapots from the British Galleries’ Tea, Trade, and Empire gallery).
Our Garden Therapy Herbal Tea blends chamomile, peppermint, and verbena…a blend that would have been perfectly suited for French artists of the late 1800s like Claude Monet (whose painting The Parc Monceau appears on the tin). Displaying a light green liquor, this tea offers a floral, minty aroma with flavors to match.
A sister blend to our best-selling Hot Cinnamon Spice, Hot Apple Spice Black Tea (sold in a tin that reproduces Paul Cézanne’s Still Life with Apples and a Pot of Primroses) offers the aroma and flavor of spiced apples, as well as cinnamon, clove, and orange notes.
Packaged in a tin featuring mid-16th century Iznik tile panel artwork, our Royal Pomegranate Green Tea is a light, layered blend of detoxifying green tea with pomegranate flavors (adding a distinctively fruity aroma and flavor).
If all four of the aforementioned teas sound good to you, The Met Gift has collected them in a handsome black and gold gift box…but you won’t want to forget about our Botanical Blend Earl Grey. A more recent addition to The Met Collection, this russet-liquored mix of black and brown leaves possesses a lemony bergamot aroma with classic citrus flavors. The artwork for this tin was adapted from John Singer Sargent’s painting of The Wyndham Sisters: Lady Elcho, Mrs. Adeane, and Mrs. Tennant.
Refreshing Palates and Palettes
While we admire art inspired by tea (and art created with it), we remain devoted to our own craft: blending delicious teas that delight the senses and elevate the everyday. Why not put the kettle on now, and take a few moments to enjoy some art appreciation of your own?
