BOSTON TEA PARTY SHIPS & MUSEUM NAMES RICHARDSON AS TEA MASTER

Boston, MA. December 9, 2011… Bruce Richardson, one of America’s best-known experts and sommeliers, has been named the official Tea Master for the new Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum. For over 20 years, Richardson has traveled the world discovering and learning everything there is to know about tea. His travels led him to writing, photographing, and sharing his experiences at tea events across the country.

As Tea Master for the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum, Richardson will be in charge of designing a line of historic teas for sale in the gift shop.  The historic teas will be based on the tea that was thrown into the Boston Harbor in 1773.

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THE BOOK OF TEA

Updated for Today's Audience

by Okakura Kakuzo

Introduced by Bruce Richardson

Press Release

Cover Photo for Press

Both Georgia O'Keefe and Frank Lloyd Wright attribute much of their art spirit to the original The Book of Tea, written in English in 1906 by Okakura Kakuzo. He was born in a Yokohama silk store in 1862 and educated by American missionaries, Harvard-trained professors, and Buddhist monks. With one foot in the East and one in the West, he helped save many of his country's art treasures during Japan's rush to embrace Western culture at the end of the 19th century.

Okakura was appointed the head of the Asian Arts Department at the Boston Museum of Art in 1904, where he discovered the best way to introduce the East to the West was through the common metaphor of tea. It would be hard to find a more fascinating character than this mysterious wise man who became Boston's high priest of art, spirituality, and the unique Japanese concept of teaism. His captivating life crossed paths with countless luminaries of the Gilded Age and he was the guest everyone — especially women — wanted at their dinner parties.

Bruce Richardson has edited and illustrated this classic work for a contemporary audience who see tea as a way of life rather than a commodity.

TEA & ETIQUETTE

Taking Tea for Business and Pleasure

by Dorothea Johnson and Bruce Richardson

Press Release - April 28, 2009

Cover photo for Press

Dorothea Johnson and Bruce Richardson love to share the observation by the head waiter at London’s famed Ritz Hotel who says "He can always spot an American because they have their pinkies gloriously raised to the gilded ceiling as they sip their cup of Earl Grey."

Johnson and Richardson address that misconception and other frequent “tea faux pas” in their new edition of Tea and Etiquette: Taking Tea for Business and Pleasure.

Read on...

Bruce Richardson joins London's Jane Pettigrew for the guide to the world's great teas.  2008 Edition

Named Best New Publication by World Tea Expo 2009

Benjamin Press Announcement

Joseph Simrany endorsement

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Media Contact

Lois Quilligan
Elmwood Inn Fine Teas/Benjamin Press
205 East Fourth Street
Perryville, KY 40468
859.332.2400

lois@elmwoodinn.com