At the Tea Table with Karen Gardiner of ArtfulTea

Karen Gardiner began her tea career in 2000 when she opened her first tea shop in Florida, Kindred Tea. Six years later she moved to New Mexico and past customers would reach out to her requesting to order their well-loved tea blends. This motivated her to open up an online tea shop, ArtfulTea, in 2007 so that she could continue to provide for her loyal customers and eventually newcomers. Today Karen is still sharing her passion for tea with every cup at her retail shop. When she’s not working at her tea shop, you might find her in her backyard, enjoying a form of meditation with a tea related landscape she created. At the tea table Karen discussed her daily tea rituals, her tea blending space and how she repurposed broken teacups and other fine china.

The kettle is on and I can hear it about to sing. What tea are you going to steep for us today?

Darjeeling. This is an organic blend of first and second flushes from the Happy Valley Tea Estate. It has a wonderful, slightly nutty taste. (We call it “Daily Darjeeling” because it’s affordable enough to drink every day!)

Can’t go wrong with a Darjeeling! Tell me a bit about your tea journey and how your love for tea evolved into ArtfulTea.

My maternal Grandfather started me drinking tea when I was a girl. Back then it was more milk and sugar than tea, but somehow that early experience grew into a lifelong love of tea. I went on to have a career as a lawyer, but was never very happy practicing law. After about a decade, I decided to leave the law in favor of opening a tea shop in Florida. That was 19 years ago! I moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2007 and started ArtfulTea. A few weeks ago, we moved the business into a beautiful new space that is about twice as big as our previous shop, giving us lots of room to continue growing!

90 teas and counting! Take us on a virtual tour of your tea blending space.

Our blending space is located one floor below our retail shop. We finally have a big work space where we can also store chests of tea and plenty of blending ingredients. We have two big worktables there. One table is generally used for packing and shipping our online tea orders, and the other table is primarily used for blending. There are shelves all around the perimeter of the work space for the storage of tea, ingredients and other supplies. If we’re going to blend something, we pull all the necessary ingredients from the shelf and measure them into very large stainless steel bowls, and then blend each tea by hand.

As an artist, tea blender and shop owner, what are some of your daily tea rituals?

I start my day at home with a small 12 oz. pot of tea that I nearly always infuse a second time before I dash out the door to work. At the shop, we always have a couple of hot samples brewed for customers to taste. I will have a small cup of whatever hot samples our staff has chosen for the day, just to make sure they taste good! Later, if I have a tea class to teach, I’ll end up tasting three or four teas along with the participants. After all these years in the tea business, I’m sorry to admit I have to stop drinking caffeine by early afternoon now. But I’m learning to enjoy herbals more and more!

I think it’s incredible that you built a labyrinth of antique teacups and other china in your backyard! What a unique way to upcycle. Tell me more about this beautiful path.

I do have a labyrinth in my backyard that is made of broken shards of china, many of which were from teacups or saucers. When you have a tea shop, there is inevitably some breakage. I was never good at throwing out those beautiful pieces of china, so I began saving them in a bin. When I finally had what seemed like a huge amount, I started building the labyrinth. Once I got started I realized I needed a lot more pieces, so friends and family began bringing me their broken bits as well. The path that you walk on is gravel and grass – it’s the lines that mark the path that are shards of china set in concrete. It’s very sparkly at certain times of day when the sun is shining on it! I walk the labyrinth as a form of mediation.

Speed Round:

Black, Green, Yellow, White, Oolong or Puerh?
Black (or Oolong… I can’t narrow it down to just one!)

Hot, Iced or Cold?
Hot.

Teapot, Infuser or Gaiwan?
Teapot with an infuser.

Straight, Sweetened or Latte?
Straight. (Okay, sweetened if it’s chai.)

Cheese or Chocolate pairing?
That’s a hard one! I love cheese. But with tea I will take chocolate.

You’re stranded on a desert island and you could only bring 3 tea related items. What did you bring?

Teapot (with an infuser!), cup, and a timer. I’m kind of a stickler for steeping the leaves for the proper amount of time.

Find Karen Gardiner & ArtfulTea:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

ABOUT THIS SERIES: Tea tells stories and when connected with humans, more are created. That’s where the idea for this blog series, At the Tea Table, originated. With this series, The Cup of Life asks tea lovers around the world to take us inside their tea lives to share their favourite steeps, spaces, routines and more. Meet some of your fellow tea drinkers here.