Tea Blog

If you want to peruse the full range of Lisa Boalt Richardson’s tea-related achievements, consult her web site here. There are quite a few of these achievements, but we’ll just touch on some of the highlights. She claims to be “one of the first 15 in the world to graduate from the Specialty Tea Institute (STI) with a ‘Certified Tea Specialist’ title in 2008” and has trained and worked with various other tea organizations.

Then there are the books. There’s Tea with a Twist: Entertaining and Cooking with Tea, which came along first, in 2009, and in which the author “inspires readers to set their tables for fun and serve up any of her eight contemporary tea parties.” The next year saw publication of The World in Your Teacup: Celebrating Tea Traditions, Near and Far, which finds the author “leading tea-lovers on a fact-filled, taste-as-you-go journey around the world.” The latest of Richardson’s books, which is so recent that it’s not even out yet, is Modern Tea: A Fresh Look at an Ancient Beverage, which is set to be released in late 2014. Richardson has also been featured in or written for such august publications as the New York Times, Woman’s Health, Real Simple and Cooking With Paula Deen, as well as many, many others.

In an interview with the National Geographic Intelligent Travel site, Richardson said that her love for tea came about first because she liked the taste of tea. Following that she became enamored of the contemplative aspects of tea drinking and culture and the ability it gives one to slow down. Finally, she said, “When I really began to study tea as a career, my interest in tea grew to discovering and loving tea traditions and culture from around the world. Learning where tea is grown, who grows it, and how it is experienced all over the globe became fascinating to me.”

When asked her favorite tea, however, Richardson declined to pin things down, citing some of the following as favorites, “Darjeeling first flush, keemun, golden monkey, oolongs of all kinds, jasmine pearl green tea, and dragon well.”

See more of William I. Lengeman’s articles here.

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