There’s a certain ritual to making a pot of tea – waiting for the water to boil, and allowing the tea leaves to steep for just the right amount of time before finally savouring the soothing beverage, preferably with a serving of scones and jam.

While coffee can take just as long to make, its preparation is usually left to baristas, who serve the beverage in disposable cardboard cups to time-poor folks in a hurry to get on with the day. To restore a sense of tradition to the act of making coffee, Italian designer Luca Nichetto designed the Sucabaruca coffee set for Canadian gallery and store Mjölk. The coffee set, which is somewhat reminiscent of a tea set, was conceived after the husband-and-wife team of Mjölk asked Luca to design a product for their gallery that was crafted from only local resources.

Starting with the theme of ceremony, Luca began to consider the cultural connections between Canada and his homes in Stockholm and Venice, and coffee immediately sprang to mind. His reimagining of the coffee set harmonises Italy’s revered tradition of drinking coffee with North America’s filtered-coffee obsession. Continuing the theme of referencing cultures from around the world, Luca designed a cone-shaped body to be reminiscent of the character Carmencita from the Italian TV show Carosello and created three colour palettes that pay homage to fashion designer Martin Margiela, Japanese architecture and artist Jean-Paul Goude. The ceramic set is embellished with hand-engraved patterns to highlight its svelte design, and the tray is manufactured from Canadian maple wood, which is carefully carved to reveal the unique pattern of its grain.