Chaumet Debuts Sensory High Jewelry Inspired by Tea, Saffron, and Vanilla

Chaumet has pushed its nature story into more sensuous territory, turning tea, coffee, saffron and vanilla into 46 high-jewelry creations unveiled at the Abbaye des Vaux-de-Cernay, a former 12th-century Cistercian abbey near Paris. The gala dinner drew Song Hye Kyo, Li Bingbing and Sophie Marceau, but the real headline was the shift in mood: this collection, A Journey Through Nature, treats aroma and taste as design language, not just botanical inspiration. It is the first Chaumet high-jewelry collection made entirely under creative studio director Olga Corsini.

The clearest statement piece is the Tea Field necklace. At its center sits a 23.81-carat Colombian emerald, framed by geometric cascades of white diamonds and closed-set round gems that bring the total weight to 43.30 carats. The effect is less literal flower-bed than aerial landscape, with the emerald reading like a vivid pocket of green and the diamonds sketching light, movement and water around it. For readers watching for ideas that could filter into more accessible gold jewelry, that abstraction matters: the most adaptable cues are the surface textures, curved lines and layered color stories, not the one-off carat count.

Chaumet said the collection was created in its 12 Vendôme workshops in Paris, a reminder that the house still leans on old-world craftsmanship even as it stretches its vocabulary. Founded in 1780, Chaumet says it has more than 240 years of history, with Empress Joséphine as its first great client and enduring muse. That lineage helps explain why the maison keeps returning to nature, but with each season the reference points are becoming less literal and more atmospheric.

The collection follows Chaumet’s 2025 Jewels by Nature, a 54-piece high-jewelry line shown at Villa El Bosque in Marbella and divided into Everlasting, Ephemeral and Reviving. That earlier suite was described as an ode to threatened flora and fauna. A Journey Through Nature feels like the next step: instead of reproducing petals and stems, it translates freshness, warmth and spice into form. For gold jewelry outside the high-jewelry tier, the most usable idea is simple and strong: tea and coffee suggest texture and depth, while saffron and vanilla point to softer tonal gold pieces that rely on color and finish rather than spectacle.