Shop
Berlin
Taste for Tea
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Jens de Gruyter’s Berlin store invites us to explore the world of specialty teas. Words Riya Patel Photos Ludger Paffrath
Customers pick their own path through the P&T store, discovering teas on islands and in shallow drawers.
Tea connoisseur Jens de Gruyter travelled the producing countries of Taiwan, China and Japan, gathering rare finds and researching the Oriental tea-drinking culture, to create a new kind of retail experience back home in Berlin. Designed with Fabian von Ferrari, the P&T store makes the experience of tea shopping, according to De Gruyter, ‘a learning process rather than just a transaction’ – pioneering an alternative to what he sees as an outdated over-the-counter approach. Teas are set out on islands, with banks of shallow drawers beneath them that contain further specimens for the customer’s exploration. A museological approach sees each tea presented as a curiosity in dried-leaf
form, to see and smell, with a short text to explain its origin. Customers pick up cards corresponding to their preferred teas and take them to a tasting station, where an assistant makes up a brew. An eclectic collection of pots and cups complements the islands, along with light fittings that frame antique Asian lanterns within a black metal cage. There’s an understated logic to the interior but no strict sense of formality. ‘We really wanted to foster the feeling of discovery,’ De Gruyter says. ‘Part of the store is laid out for you, and part of it invites you to go a little deeper.’ fabianvonferrari.com
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