Sipping Season

HOME CAFÉ // INSPIRED DESIGNER

FUEL UP! Charge into the day with these red latte mugs, $32/four, from Anthropologie,
metro Detroit area locations, anthropologie.com.


GOOD DAY!

Rev up your morning or cap the evening with a delicious cuppa coffee, tea,
or cocoa, made all the tastier with these accessories

Styled by Giuseppa Nadrowski

 


Product: Anthony Shapiro mug
Price: $32/four
Anthropologie, metro Detroit area stores, anthropologie.com

Product: Bodum Chambord milk frother
Price: $30
metro Detroit area Macy’s stores,
macys.com

Product: Alessi Zucch sugar castor
Price: $60
Hugh Detroit,
lovehughlongtime.com

Product: Nielsen-Massey vanilla extract
Price: $13
Williams-Sonoma, Troy,
williams-sonoma.com

Product: Hobnail cast iron teapot
Price: $70
metro Detroit area Teavana stores, teavana.com

Product: Embossed color block mug
Price: $10
West Elm, Birmingham,
westelm.com

Product: Alessi Neopolitan coffee maker
Price: $520
Hugh Detroit,
lovehughlongtime.com

Product: Alessi kettle
Price: $340
Hugh Detroit,
lovehughlongtime.com

Product: Coffee tea towel
Price: $16
Claudia Pearson,
claudiapearson.com

Product: Norwell 1102 round mariner sconce
Price: $410
Russell Hardware, Bloomfield Hills
russellhardware.com

Product: Demijohn
Price: $159
Arhaus – Troy, Ann Arbor
arhaus.com

Product: Fouta beach towel
Price: $48
Serena & Lily
serenaandlily.com

Eye-Opening Exhibit Brewing at the DIA

SIP SERVICE – An elaborate tea and coffee service at the DIA — Sevres Porcelain Manufactory, Hyacinthe Regnier, Pierre Huard, 1842-43, hard paste porcelain with polychrome enamel decoration and gilding. Top: The exhibit’s curator, Yao-Fen You.

The exhibit’s curator, Yao-Fen You.

We might wait in line for a barista to create our favorite caffeinated morning beverage, or perhaps our automated coffee maker will have a cup brewing just as our alarm clock chimes.

Either way, it’s probably a good bet we wouldn’t do what 18th century Europeans did, though, traveling the high seas  — and even colonizing other nations — in pursuit of the coffee, tea, and chocolate to which they had been introduced in the 1500s and 1600s. You can learn all about these pursuits at the Detroit Institute of Arts’ exhibit Bitter|Sweet: Coffee, Tea & Chocolate, which opens Nov. 20 and runs through March 5, 2017.  The special exhibit explains how those once-novel and exotic drinks have changed and influenced European daily life and global economics.

“We take for granted what was, for Europeans back then, an unknown, mysterious, and expensive experience,” says Yao-Fen You, the DIA’s associate curator of European sculpture and decorative arts, shown above.

This revolution in drinking customs also led to a voracious demand for delicately painted porcelain beverage services, gleaming silver vessels, and other equipage required for savoring these new, hot drinks. Visitors will be able to see 42 objects from the DIA’s own world-class collection, and 26 items that are on loan from major American and international institutions, including (from the Louvre museum) an exquisite coffee grinder made of yellow, pink, and green gold — with an ivory-tipped handle — that belonged to Madame de Pompadour.

What ingredients and serving pieces does You use when she makes her own favorite beverage?

“I love starting out the day with espresso,” she says, “and I have a small collection of cups that I alternate using. Right now, I’m really into a double-walled, handle-less cup that I purchased on a recent visit to the Furstenberg Porcelain Manufactory in Braunschweig, Germany. I just love the feel of the vessel in my hands. I visited the manufactory as research for the exhibition, because the DIA owns a very wonderful 24-piece coffee and tea service by Furstenberg that we’ll be displaying.

“There’s renewed attention to coffee and its origin,” You continues. “Our showing explores the degree to which people have changed the way they start their day. The exhibit is a multisensory experience, and guests can definitely look forward to a taste of something!” dia.org — Honey Murray