Loose leaf tea in an art museum? Unexpected perhaps, but tea—along with its ware and ceremony—has been integral to Western culture for hundreds of years and to Asian culture for thousands!

Currently, TeaHaus loose leaf tea is part of an ongoing exhibit, Elegance from the East: New Insights into Old Porcelain, at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, providing visitors the opportunity to see and smell teas that are similar to what 17th-century Europeans would have been drinking.

Here, curator and scholar Shirley M. Mueller pulls together seemingly disparate strands—the porcelain trade, the neuroscience of collecting beautiful items, miscommunications between cultures, art, and tea—into a compelling narrative!

Enjoy!

(Video provided by Shirley M. Mueller)

Teas shown in video are available at teahaus.com.

For more on Shirley’s exhibit, see my previous blogs:

Tea, Porcelain, and Our Brains—yes, there IS a connection here!

Women and Tea: Making It Their Own

Miscommunication and Mistakes, Fired into 18th-century Teapots and Plates

How Old Is That Teapot? Using Art to Date and Interpret Art

A 1644 Shipwreck and Its Teapots

“Modern” Teapots in a 1700s’ Shipwreck

The Valuable Tea Protected the Porcelain after This Ship Sank in 1752