Thirstea Cafe NYC

Tea & Sweets

La Vuelta - What a cool yerba maté packaging!

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Santo, a Buenos Aires and London based design firm sends in the beautiful packaging for their latest project:

"“La Vuelta” is a ‘mate’ herb, an infusion that is drunk in southern Latinamerica.  In order to drink it, the herb is placed in a receptacle (the mate) where water is added and one drinks it with a special metal straw (bombilla).  It’s a very old custom which consists of everyone drinking from the same receptacle.  One person drinks it at a time, and then passes it on to the next person.  This action of drinking and then passing the mate along in a circle is called “la vuelta del mate” (“the mate round”). The packs were designed using as reference the fabrics worn by the ‘gauchos’ (Latinamerican cowboys) as ponchos.

Read more from TheDieline.com

Moses Josiah and His Musical Saw

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Last Sunday when I was leaving the Union Square station to go to work, an amusing sound caught my ear. I turned to look and found Moses Josiah playing a musical saw. I had to stop and take a video to share with you because how often do you get to hear a musical saw live?! Hahah... luckily when I asked, Moses told me that he's there every Sunday whenever we want to stop by and enjoy a little bit of his musical talent. He told me he has been playing the instrument since 1947, when he was a teenager. How impressive! :)

The first time I fell in love with the musical saw was during "Delicatessen," the first feature film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet who also directed Amélie ten years later. There is something magical about the instrument that just makes me smile every time I hear it. Here is a clip of the movie, I hope you enjoy it as well. :)

-Helen