Elmwood Inn Fine Teas

Elmwood Inn Fine Teas traces back to 1990, when Shelley Richardson opened a tea room inside the 1842 Greek Revival mansion in Perryville, Kentucky - a building that had served as a Civil War field hospital during the Battle of Perryville and later as a boarding school before its restoration. Over fourteen years the tea room built an international reputation, and in 2002 the UK Tea Council named it the first American tea room included in its 'Best Tea Places' guide. The Richardsons closed the tea room in 2004 to concentrate on the wholesale and retail tea business it had grown alongside it, now run from Danville, Kentucky under son Ben's management. Today the operation centers on a tasting bar and shop carrying more than 150 single-estate and blended loose teas - black, green, oolong, white, herbal and caffeine-free - plus the pots and infusers to brew them. Bruce Richardson, who chronicled the family's early years in tea across several books, later founded Benjamin Press, the company's own imprint publishing further titles on tea history, etiquette and service. Between the tasting bar, the wholesale accounts supplying restaurants, hotels and museums across North America, and the publishing arm, Elmwood Inn functions as much as a tea-education operation as a retailer.