Visiting organic farms, building relationships with farmers, traveling to rustic corners of the world, and deciding which teas and herbs to source are the best parts of running a tea company. But this is followed in close second by visiting the cities where tea customs—whether through ceramics, design, and fashion—are elevated to an art form. So this summer, I left New York for Milan to experience tea culture in what is arguably one of the world’s most overlooked tea capitals.
Given Italy is a country more famous for its coffee than its tea, I was pleasantly surprised to see how the experience in the Italian countryside translated seamlessly to the fashion hotspot—while the coffee menus at most places were the same (espresso, macchiato, and so on) I found teas from the world over, whether grown in Japan and China, or tisanes from neighboring Germany and from Italy itself.
Here, join me on my odyssey through Milan’s impressively wide-ranging tea offerings during an early summer visit to the city.
Dégustazione Ristoro e Dispensa
Through a recommendation, I found my first stop for tea in Milan, Dégustazione Ristoro e Dispensa. In the 1960s, Japanese artist Hidetoshi Nagasawa left Japan on his bike and with the help of a few boat rides, ended up in Italy—where his bike was stolen. He remained in Italy for the rest of his life, eventually settling in Milan. Since he passed away, his studio has been converted to an artist residency on the second floor of the cafe Dégustazione Ristoro e Dispensa, run by Lorenzo Castellini. Castellini planted roses and an herb garden to create a space where “you can sit in the afternoon with a newspaper.” The cafe and cultural center also houses a garden and cafe whose offerings extend from tastings of seasonal, bright green Agricola Maraviglia olive oil alongside a cup of iced tea from Wilden, a Milan-based herbal tea company. Accompanying the cafe is a small selection of the items used in cooking, which you can bring home as gifts.
Natalia Criado
Modern Milanese tea culture exists not only in storefronts and tea houses, but through the work of the creative undercurrent running through Milan. Colombian-born homeware designer Natalia Criado has been living and working in Milan for a decade. Her work, which includes a line of silver plates and rose quart teapots with accompanying cups, is informed and inspired by the rituals that typically accompany the drinking of tea from around the world.
Villa Clea
Co-founded by director Alessandra (Allina) Pelizzari Corbellini and architect Matteo Corbellini, Villa Clea hosts multidisciplinary artists, fashion shoots, and Airbnb guests in a conceptual space that Corbellini designed to accommodate the many uses we have of home today. Just a few minutes away from Fondazione Prada, the property is stocked with a kitchen of white teaware and teapots complementing the interiors—a serene way to start the morning in a neighborhood that is home to many of Milan’s young artists.
Linda Calugi
While having aperitivo with Criado and the Corbellinis, I also met ceramicist Linda Calugi, whose signature style includes enormous organic vases in earth tones. She has also ventured into cups and teaware, designing the tablescapes for the roving pop-up dinner series We Are Ona during Milan Design Week, and taking custom orders for home collections.
Portrait Hotel
After dinner, I went back to the Portrait Hotel. One of Milan’s newest hotels, it’s also found in one of the oldest seminaries in Europe. Past the photographs of Audrey Hepburn wearing Ferragamo (the Ferragamo family owns the property), I was greeted with in-suite cups of chamomile tea and berry pastries. But tea lovers will be drawn to the Portrait not only for its extensive in-room and restaurant tea offerings, but also for the Longevity Spa. On my first morning at the hotel, I embarked on a cryotherapy treatment, during which I put on a Norah Jones song before entering the -95 degree celsius room in my bathing suit, staying warm by swaying and singing. (Needless to say, I was very much awake after that.) Afterwards, I took a break by the underground pool resembling an ancient cistern with a cup of herbal tea—the choices were Body, Balance, and Vitality—before undergoing a biohacking treatment, which quite literally felt like floating in a womb while listening to wave sounds through headphones. The most serene part, though, was getting back to the marble bathroom in my room, where I drank cups of mint tea as I dried my hair and did my makeup, getting ready for the day ahead.
La Corte Romanengo
Originally opened as a spice shop in Genoa in the late 1700s, La Corte Romanengo is a hidden gem, with interiors that recall a candy box. Designed by the Madrid-based firm Cousi Interiorismo, a cinder-red spice and tea shop sits next to a forest green confectionery, separated by a quiet, bright yellow alley leading to the tea house itself. The rich design and velvet furniture house a spice-forward tea collection: Our black Ceylon tea came with anise seeds to put inside, which went perfectly alongside the house-made orange blossom ice cream with candied violets. After tea, I returned to the shop and left with three bags full of candied plums, chocolate-covered clementines, sweet fennel, jars of spices from Java, eight bars of chocolate with varying levels of cocoa, tonka beans, and lapsang tea. I look forward to returning to Milan just to visit this shop again.
Terroir Milano
Gabriele Ornati opened Terroir Milano in 2017 to showcase artisanal food producers: alongside the fresh produce on offer, there’s also gourmet pasta, Italian pistachio paste, and of course, tea. The thorough selection ranges from the Japanese staple Ippodo (Ornati’s wife is Japanese and they have imported the brand from the very beginning) and Korean brands, to Milan-based Wilden and a brand called Pflegerhof that grows herbs in the Dolomites. Across the street is Eastern Tea Leaves, a tasting room for the Chinese tea brand which is also carried at Terroir, open by reservation only.
Clori
I came across Clori entirely by accident, on a search for velvet Venetian slippers—which, incidentally, they do not carry—but wound up staying for over an hour chatting with the owner, Francesco, whose forest green Fiat sits cinematically parked in front of the store. The flower shop carries everything you’d find in a French country store: linens, flannel shirts, raffia bags, and of course, vintage teapots and cups. The teaware and vintage textiles have a muted ’70s feel and the linen napkins and tablecloths are worth going home with. Walking back to the hotel and peering into hidden alleys, I was reminded of Entryways of Milan, a book recommended to me by my friend Riccardo Sossella, who advised me when traveling to the city to always “keep your eyes peeled as you walk down the streets, and try taking a peek inside the many entryways.”
Laboratoria Paravicini
Those searching for completely singular ceramics need look no further than Laboratoria Paravicini. The arrangements of hand-painted plates, cups, and teapots live in a quiet, lush courtyard. While the studio is open for visitors to pursue the permanent collections (with themes ranging from Zodiac to Italian Views), the studio also offers custom designs, ideal for commemorating an occasion or for gifting.
Officine Saffi
In Milan’s Chinatown, the newly opened Officine Saffi hosts artist residencies, shows for contemporary ceramic artists, and works on special projects like ceramic candles for Bottega Veneta and sculptures for the Standard Hotel in New York. “We don’t have galleries devoted to ceramics in Italy,” explained director François Mellé, “So we’re bringing that here.” In addition to the ceramic art, which occasionally falls into the realm of functional teaware, the team is currently building a bar with walls made of porcelain with images pulled from historic tableware. One painting on the wall is a replica of a print from a centuries-old golden tea cup.
Marchesi 1824
Milan’s most famous tea shop, Marchesi 1824, hosts a traditional afternoon tea service in three locations. While the original location may be charming and quieter, I made a reservation at the opulent Galleria branch to catch up with a friend. We marveled over the jars of candies, our sweet and savory trays of tea sandwiches and pastries, and the jungle oolong tea that we chose to share. If you know that you’ll be in the city center, make a reservation in advance to avoid the line.
Centro Botanico
“Nature never hurries and it’s always on time,” reads a hand-painted mural inside of Centro Botanico. Equal parts health-food store, apothecary, and grocer, Centro Botanico is a wellness-lovers dream, with the freshest fruit, bouquets of drying herbs, and Italian tisane line Vegetal Progress. (I also got a kick out of the gently drawn squirrels, kangaroos, peacocks, and other animals on the packaging.)
Ginori 1735
Since the 18th century, Ginori has produced ornate and functional porcelain in Italy and the flagship in Milan is a must-visit for inspiration, if nothing else. The tea sets range from ultra-contemporary, to classic granny-chic styles, to nautical themes. Meanwhile, their teapots come in a kaleidoscope of colors, including malachite, periwinkle, and vermillion—as I write this, I regret not getting myself a set.
Mandarin Oriental
While checking in to the Mandarin Oriental, we were welcomed with cups of berry iced tea. The hotel carries La Via del Tè, a Florence-based tea shop with a location in Milan that boasts a tea garden near Lake Maggiore. The farm is the only one in Italy that grows Camellia sinensis, the tea plant. During afternoon tea in the Mandarin Garden, I tried the licorice and fennel tea, one of my fav. Ask and the hotel will have herbal tea ready for your in-room during wind-down service. We left for dinner and drinks and came home to wash our faces with hand towels that had our initials embroidered on them, then had tea looking out the window into the leafy courtyard.
Bar Luce
My husband plays on a pinball team at home in Brooklyn, so I was most excited to visit the Wes Anderson-designed Bar Luce, in Fondazione Prada to check out the Steve Zissou-themed pinball machine. It turns out the machines only take lire and francs—but despite having to sit out pinball, the cafe is worth a tea break from the museum to sit in pastel green chairs for cups of Earl Grey along with tiramisu, ice cream, and pistachio pastries.
Villa Necchi
I first discovered Villa Necchi by watching Tilda Swinton’s I Am Love (and later, House of Gucci). Visiting it for the first time in person, amid the meticulously designed rooms, I was delighted to discover the remnants of a family of tea drinkers. There are tea sets in gold, porcelain, silver; tea cups in the paintings on the wall; and perhaps my favorite of all, a plastic red tea set on an unassuming tray in the staff area. In a home-turned-museum where you can’t help but contemplate how a family lived, you can immediately picture them gathering in the garden room, gossiping around cups of tea.
Aria Retreat and Spa
No visit to Milan in the summertime is complete without a trip to one of the neighboring lakes. Tea lovers in search of respite can look no further than unassuming Lake Lugano, where the recently opened Aria Retreat and Spa offers ayurvedic teas to drink after sitting in the wooden sauna with a glass wall with unobstructed views of the lake. Here, we had black tea with a decadent breakfast overlooking the lake while watching a colony of cormorants fly in and out of the hillside.
Afterwards, we rented a boat with a skipper and spent the afternoon drifting past charming lakeside homes and stopping between cliffs to jump in the water. The day ended with a beautiful 11-course dinner with wine pairings at the onsite fine dining restaurant La Musa. Feeling well-rested and refreshed from the stay at Aria, I returned on the train back to Milan for—you guessed it—more tea.
Pan Milano
While tea lovers of all palettes can find an excellent cup of tea in Milan, the perfect matcha exists at Pan Milano. And even though I noticed after ordering bottled iced tea on several menus that they always taste like lemon or peach Snapple—seemingly regardless of the brand—what I found most exciting was the range of European grown herbal infusions grown throughout the city. While completing my doctorate in naturopathic medicine, I focused heavily on Western herbalism, the practice of which originated with European herbs like licorice, fennel, mint, and chamomile. The way that these plants continue to have cultural significance through tea and the vessels in which we drink them is beautiful to me.
As I left Milan, I began to imagine making a life in the city with my own tiny herb garden. I would cut several sprigs of chamomile, mint, and lavender and throw them in this green Dolce and Gabbana teapot—then I would pour hot water over them, and wait.
