The Desirode tea accessories collection & a touch of tea

How was the Desirode & un air de thé tea accessories collection born?

This month, Gregory tells us about the birth of this beautiful collaboration between Bordeaux-based ceramic artist Desirode and the Un Air de Thé brand. The interview will be followed by a filmed tour of the artist's studio in Lormont.

collection of tea accessories, craftsmanship made in Bordeaux

A glimpse of the "Desirode & un air de thé" tea ceramic collection. Photography by Dolcescena.

What is this new collaboration that we can currently find at Un Air de Thé?

The initial idea of creating a range of tea accessories had long been on my mind, Lesly, my colleague, and I. We had in mind to offer our customers cups, teapots, matcha bowls, and other utensils that would represent our philosophy around tea by incorporating elements that seemed important to us. Essentially, there was art and aesthetics, quality manufacturing, the use of environmentally friendly materials, and accessibility for all.

But to bring this adventure to life, we were missing the artist of course, and that's where the ceramic artist Désirée Castillo alias Desirode came into play with us.

Desirode's work in his ceramics workshop in Lormont

Desirode makes her ceramics by hand in her workshop located in Lormont. Photographs Dolcescena

Why did you choose to work with Desirode?

We met Désirée at an exhibition she was hosting at Labroom, a renowned contemporary art space in Bordeaux. We fell in love with her work. We were immediately captivated by her energy and kindness; Désirée is a radiant person who naturally inspires a desire to get to know her. During this event, we were able to chat and share a moment together, where Désirée explained her work philosophy, her artistic vision, and her focus on recycled and recyclable materials. It resonated strongly with us.

Désirée being from Bordeaux, she naturally decided to use French soils for the manufacture of her ceramics, she also uses ashes from local wood to bring her works to life. It's a complete life cycle in a way. It was at this precise moment that we had the idea to ask her if she would be interested in collaborating by starting a project of manufacturing accessories around tea with us. She smiled, she told us that she had not really experimented with the world of ceramics for tea, we answered that we neither, that we had never worked in this direction but that this adventure could be the way to bring together our passions and make something come from them. Apparently the idea seduced her!

workshop of the ceramist Désirée

Photograph taken in Desirode's studio. Dolcescena photography.

How did you work together?

We met at a meeting in our Bordeaux boutique, the idea was that we could introduce Désirée to our working world and that she could immerse herself in our tea spirit and we then visited her manufacturing workshop, we in turn immersed ourselves in her world and understood the artistic sense and the technical aspect that she had in her work. After this phase of mutual knowledge, we were able to develop our main outlines of future collaboration.

We decided together on the first object to be made, a matcha tea bowl . For this, we brought together all our skills in our respective fields: The art of manufacturing and its constraints on Désirée's side and the technicality and aesthetic aspect of the object due to my job as a tea sommelier . Indeed, for the manufacture of a tea object, it is necessary to take into account both the desired artistic sense and the technical aspects making the object perfectly adapted to its intended use. It took us months and many manufacturing tests for our matcha tea bowl to find its shape, its color, its identity and its spirit.

A cup from the "Desirode & un air de thé" collection was created in the workshop. Each item bears the symbol of the Maison un air de thé's tea plant. Photograph by Dolcescena.

And so our series of three matcha tea bowls in three different colors was born. And now, we have created a whole series of tea accessories: cups, saucers, tea measures and other objects are currently being developed.

matcha bowl a tea air

Chawan (bowl for preparing Matcha tea) from the Desirode & un air de thé collection. Photography by Dolcescena

What tea did you make during your visit?

During our visit, we wanted to introduce Désirée to a premium tea. It was an Oolong tea, the Oolong Dong Ding from Taiwan, a high place of this much-loved tea family. This type of tea, which is entirely handcrafted, was necessary to combine with the equally handcrafted object made by Desirode.

tasting an Oolong tea at the Desirode workshop

Désirée Castillo and Grégory Lehoux enjoy Taiwanese tea at the Lormont workshop. Photograph by Dolcescena.

Where can we find this collection?

You can find this collection in our Bordeaux Boutique-Atelier at 33 rue Buhan near the Grosse Cloche in Bordeaux and also in our Pau boutique at 2 rue des Cordeliers (Quartier du Château) and also on our e-shop at unairdethe.com

Desirode's workshop is well guarded