I love 888 Black Tea Dust by Thong Guan. I used to make teh tarik with the run-of-the-mill tea bags, and I had to use three bags per mug to make the tea look dark enough after I mix in the condensed milk. After I moved to Sarawak, I was introduced to ‘Teh C’, which is tea with evaporated creamer. The best thing about ordering a Teh C is that you can request it ‘kosong’, which means without sugar because evaporated creamers are not sweet to begin with.
The restaurants used a type of tea dust called 888. This is when I was introduced to the brand. I found a small tin at nearby supermarket, brewed a cup, and the epiphany struck me: this was the magic stuff those mamak restaurants use to make teh tarik!
My Daily Addiction: 888 Black Tea Dust
Needless to say, I drink this stuff daily (I’ve since found a huge 2kg pack at Giant, hehehe). So much so that I had to cut my daily intake because of, er …. digestion problems.
My addiction to 888 tea aside, I always had to deal with leftover tea at the end of the day.
A few days ago, I had an idea. I took my sketch book and stained the pages with the tea I had left for the day. I think I must’ve gave the pages 5 or 6 coats of the strong stuff. Staining paper with tea will give it a vintage, old parchment look.
Tea-stained Pages
It just so happened I found some Faber Castell 9000 pencils that night …. at the local small supermarket of all places. So I used my new 6B and 8B pencils, together with a white color pencil for a sketch on my tea-stained paper:
"Titania", Graphite and Color Pencil on Tea-Stained Arches 90 lb HP (4"x6")
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nice pic…it could probably go to the museum…
I love your artwork – so beautiful, graceful and soulful. Thank you so much for sharing your art and your discoveries re mediums.