Year: 2011

Nogg Chicken Coop

Handcrafted in the U.K., nogg is intended to appeal to domestic farmers who can afford to keep their chickens in something more stylish than a wooden box. When I first saw this egg-shaped chicken coop, I had a serious discussion with my husband about the feasibility of raising chickens in our New Jersey backyard — but we decided we couldn’t tolerate moving them into our basement for the winter. What’s great about the nogg though, is that you can almost justify getting it just for its sculptural form alone; the chickens can come later. Built to house two to four chickens, nogg is handcrafted in batches of 20 from sustainably sourced cedar. A collaboration between furniture designer Matthew Hayward and creative director Nadia Turan, this chicken casa is fox-proof, offers easy access to the removable base tray inside, and sports a glass roof that twists and lifts for easy ventilation. At nearly 2000 british pounds including VAT (over $3000), nogg is certainly a luxury (and one that animals are going to poop on after all), but think about it …

Kusmi Tea

I tend to judge luxury food items this way: I must want to eat the packaging along with the product inside of it. The Kusmi Tea company has been making its traditional Russian style tea for 140 years, but I only just discovered them after they announced they will be available in the Bloomingdales in Manhattan (they also have a U.S. flagship store on Third Avenue). The tea bags are lovely — they come in a muslin bag with a delicate string, and they seem almost too nice to be disposable. I am also drawn to the colors of the packaging, which are bright and floral but not overtly feminine. The entire design is very modern and clean, right down to the teabag tag which instructs you how long to steep the bag and at what temperature. I sampled the best-selling Detox, a blend of mate, premium green tea, and lemongrass flavored with lemon. I usually make my own lemongrass tea, after I got hooked on it during my trip to the Seychelles, but this …