Bruce Richardson

Bruce Richardson has been one of the leading voices in America's tea renaissance for over 25 years. The native Kentuckian is a tea blender, writer, and tea historian. He is a frequent guest speaker at tea and cultural events across the globe and a contributing source for tea articles found in publications such as Slate Magazine, MTV, CNN, The Smithsonian, National Geographic, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and the BBC. He has served as Contributing Editor for TeaTime magazine for over a decade. In 2011, Bruce was named Tea Master for the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum, where he is helping define tea's historical role in the iconic 1773 event that helped shape America's destiny. Bruce has mentored or advised over 450 aspiring tea professionals, including Fortune 500 companies as they investigated tea's future in the world marketplace. In 2017, he was named Master Tea Designer for Shanghai's HPLY fashion brand. In 2020, the World Tea Academy asked him to design and source the official teaching kits for hundreds of students located across the globe. His reputation as a tea designer with an artful eye has led to commissions to design signature teas for such museums as the Yale Center for British Art, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, The Peabody Essex Museum, and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Bruce joined London's Jane Pettigrew in producing three editions of the popular reference guide to tea, The New Tea Companion for Benjamin Press and the National Trust of England. Bruce and Jane's latest work is an expanded edition of A Social History of Tea: Tea's Influence on Commerce, Culture, and Civility. Both books are being translated into Chinese to be published in China in 2021. In 2011, Bruce edited and expanded Okakura Kakuzo's classic Book of Tea for Benjamin Press. He has lectured on the subject of Japanese Tea & Art at the UK Tea Academy in London, Centre College, the University of Kentucky, and Yamaguchi Prefecture University in Japan. Bruce is much in demand as a speaker at events across North America and Asia. His most popular lectures are Five Teas That Launched a Revolution, The Tea Things of Janes Austen, and Japanese Tea and The Beautiful Foolishness of Things. Elmwood Inn Fine Teas are available in one-pound bags online at Amazon.