Tea Time: Russian Dolls Team Up to Excel British Clipper Apple Tea

In which way to spend the most luxurious afternoon teatime without getting wallet slim? Having Clipper’s organic apple and elderflower infusion tea, with a vintage Lomonosov teacup, playing around with Russian dolls from St. Petersburg, the total cost of the afternoon time is merely less than EUR 5.

Reminiscent of a summer day, Clipper fabulously fruity infusion tea balances the fragrant taste of elderflower with the sweet flavor of apple. The term ‘infusion’ refers to the process of infusing plants or frits in hot water, that the process in not derived from the traditional way. Clipper’s Infusion collection is all organic and caffeine free, with delicious flavor to boost a healthy and modern style of tea culture.

Besides the tea, Clipper is the first brand becoming fair trade tea company in UK, and put efforts to use unbleached tea bags to keep drinkers’ health. The invention of tea bag was by an American tea merchant Thomas Sullivan in 19^th century. When bagged tea goes in to mass markets around 1970’s, the choice of paper became the main materials to make the bags. A large quantity amount of the modern tea bags are made with blend of wood and vegetables fibers, in order to make them more appealing, some makers bleach the bags with mixture of chemicals. Clipper’s unbleached tea bag is tough brown paper, made from the wood pulp in UK (FSC certified) and cellulosic long fibers, such as abaca from the Philippines. Not only the tea bags, even the label and string attached to the bags are made in UK with unbleached cotton and paper.

For my photo shooting, the Russian Dolls’ exotic and reddish tone is perfect to match with Clipper tea packaging design and Lomonosov teacup. The dolls are made of five, each individual’s facial expression and apparel is independent yet a harmonious collection, they are one of my favourite Russian souvenirs from parents. The first Russian doll set was carved in 1890, inspired from Honshu Doll from Japan, by Vasily Zvyozdochkin, designed by Sergey Malyutin who was a folk crafts painter in Russia. When the Russian Doll earned a bronze medal at Exposition Universelle in Paris, soon after the nesting toy were made in various places across Russia and market to the world. Also called Martyoshka Dolls, it’s ‘object-within-similar-object’ onion metaphor, making one doll a Russian family or a model army. The outermost is usually the most colourful and glamorous, while the innermost is usually a baby girl, with the most innocent eyes, from a single piece of wood. I love the theme of traditional outfits on fairy tale characters of the artworks, my first Russian doll has light orange hair, blue eyes and pinky cheeks, her plump curve-shape wears a golden kerchief, with a poppy and black robe decorated of white and purple flowers and evergreen leaves. Alongside the Lomonosov teacup, they are the best and the cutest companion to the most luxurious British teatime indeed.

Special Thanks: Family Yuan