Day 2 with The Traveling Tea Friends

Had an early start on my first full day in Kentucky and was in the dining room enjoying my poached eggs, toast and fruit before 7:30.  There was even time for relaxing in the Tea Parlor with a nice cuppa and my Kindle Fire.

We were off to our tea tasting and shopping trip in Danville, KY around 10.  Bruce Richardson greeted us at his new store, Elmwood Inn Fine Teas.

He gave a very interesting presentation on tea history, cultivation, travels, etc.  His many gorgeous photos of people and places of the tea industry lined the walls of the shop.  His assistant, Lois, brewed several teas for us to try, including a rare Forest White Hawaiian Tea.  My favorite was their signature blend, Mayor’s Cup, which is blended from hand picked single-estate Darjeeling, Assam and Ceylon black teas.

My purchases included a tin of Mayor’s Cup, an issue of Tea Magazine and an autographed copy of A Social History of Tea.  It took great restraint to limit myself to these three items.  There were stump teapots in many beautiful colors, lots of great books and magazines, many blends of teas that I wish I could taste and so much more.

Mr. Richardson kindly posed for this photo with me, answered several questions and talked a little about his trip to Quebec City and the Charleston Tea Plantation.

Later in the day, after our Derby Tea at the hotel, we shopped at The Log House Craft Gallery and the Kentucky Artisan Center.  The photos below are from the latter. 

There certainly were some unusual teapots that I’d like to add to my collection and wouldn’t those metal and pottery fish be perfect for a lake house?  ☺  I did purchase the book Bluegrass Winners (shown in the photo with the red pottery).  There is a lot of information and photos of “Horse Farms Of The Bluegrass”, with each farm providing a menu from one of the parties held at their farm.

One of the highlights of my trip to Berea was the special “Derby” afternoon tea at 1:30 in one of the meeting rooms of the hotel.  It deserves a separate post to best describe all the wonderful Kentucky dishes that were incorporated into the menu.  Linda from Friendship Tea did an outstanding job working with the hotel staff to plan this lovely tea event for us.