 | The Drink: Teavana brand Cacao Black Mint Looseleaf Tea & Almond Milk The Place: The Wet Stain Studio, Chicago The Art: Teacup and tea saucer stains on heavyweight watercolor paper, micron colored pens. While some people can't stomach breakfast until long after they've woken up, I usually crawl out of bed with a voracious need for food, resembling a low functioning zombie on the hunt for brains. Waking up hungry has its problems however (no, resembling a zombie isn't the only one). Half asleep and starving, I can't function well enough to make a proper breakfast until I've had some caffeine, and first thing in the morning the thought of measuring, grinding, and french pressing a cup of coffee send me groaning back to blanket land. So to amend this situation, I start my morning with a personal pot of Black Tea, and sip my way through social media news feeds until I feel human enough to flip a fried egg. Read More Below~ |
Teavana is a heavenly little shop full of fragrant teas, honeys and crystal sweeteners, and beautifully crafted tea supplies. The Cast iron dragonfly cup and Cast iron leaf saucer were part of a create-your-own set I made this past winter, along with a ceramic, microwavable, personal teapot! There's not much more fun than pouring cute, itty-bitty cups of tea and sipping them from a saucer shaped like a leaf.
Speaking of leaves, you can see the Cacao Black Mint Tea is a loose leaf tea, It's full of dried black tea leaves, dried mint, and little bits of dark cacao which melt away into the hot water. Because black tea is richer and higher in tannins (that stuff that makes tea, coffee, and wine bitter and makes your tongue dry), it benifits from a little milk the same way coffee does. This tea is awesome in the morning! The mint makes your mouth feel fresh, and the caffine wakes you up along with bright, invigorating scent and the naughtiness of getting to have a little chocolate for breakfast~
Speaking of leaves, you can see the Cacao Black Mint Tea is a loose leaf tea, It's full of dried black tea leaves, dried mint, and little bits of dark cacao which melt away into the hot water. Because black tea is richer and higher in tannins (that stuff that makes tea, coffee, and wine bitter and makes your tongue dry), it benifits from a little milk the same way coffee does. This tea is awesome in the morning! The mint makes your mouth feel fresh, and the caffine wakes you up along with bright, invigorating scent and the naughtiness of getting to have a little chocolate for breakfast~
| I have to admit, I won't likely use this heavyweight, hot press watercolor paper again. This paper is very absorbent, stays wet for a long time, and warps dramatically. Any ink or paint used on it bleeds excessively. As someone who likes hard watercolor edges, staining, and detailed pen work, this paper makes it hard to get the crispness I want. It's not you paper, it's me! |  |
So what do you do with a Cacao stain? Put a bird on it!
(or three)
This scan of the finished piece uses Micron Colored Pens in green, brown, orange, and black. I went back with some Copic Caoi markers and added green into the leaves and yellow into the finches. This was more of an experimental doodle, playing with the shapes and layout the cup and saucer stains gave me. Sadly, as cool as the stains were when wet, once dried they were much lighter and a lot of their shape and tone was lost.
Just another reason Wet Stains are better than dry ones c;
-Ali
The Wet Stain
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