Tea Masters: Harney & Sons Tea

John Harney pours a perfect cup of tea.

Inside a two-story brown building surrounded by neat lawns and a company running trail, John Harney removes the lid from a large, blue plastic barrel, one of dozens of similar barrels at the 89,000-square-foot Harney & Sons tea factory in the northeastern Dutchess County village of Millerton.

A sweet-smelling mixture of green tea, coconut, lemongrass, and ginger perfumes the air. The 120-pound barrel is labeled Bangkok, and its contents represent one of the more than 250 single-estate and blended teas that Harney sells through its catalog, website, and retail shop. Tins of Harney tea can be purchased at luxury department stores and through gift and gourmet-food sellers, including Williams Sonoma and Crate and Barrel. Brewed Harney tea is also available in Barnes & Noble cafes.

In the factory, Harney opens one barrel after another, releasing the warm, bold scent of Hot Cinnamon Spice (the company’s most popular flavored tea); the evocative aroma of Rose Scented (a mixture of Ceylon and Keemun black teas, rose oil, and pink rosebuds), and the tangy, calming fragrance of Mint Verbena (an herbal, not a true tea).

Almost 25 years ago, Harney founded the tea business in the basement of his home in Salisbury, Connecticut, not far from the company’s current location. He had served in the US Marine Corps from 1948 to 1952, attended Cornell on the GI Bill, graduated from the university’s School of Hotel Administration, and run one nightclub and two inns. After operating the White Hart Inn in Salisbury for 23 years, he was eager to start his own family-run business.

While managing the White Hart, he had noticed that guests often asked about the tea he served. In 1960, just before Harney took over the inn, an Englishman named Stanley Mason had asked Harney to purchase tea from him. Mason had opened his own small tea company after retiring from the corporate tea world. Harney didn’t care what kind of tea he served, so he told Mason, a third-generation tea master, “that as long as he [Mason] taught my people how to brew it, then it was fine.”

In 1967, after Harney had been using tea bags at the White Hart for seven years, Mason convinced him to switch to loose tea. Mason instructed Harney and staff how to properly brew and serve the tea, a process that included providing each tea drinker with a smaller, separate pot of hot water. If the brewed tea sat for a while, and consequently became stronger, then the customer could still pour it into a cup and dilute it with water. “We probably became the only inn, and the only hotel, in America that served loose-leaf tea exclusively,” says Harney. “We didn’t have a tea bag in the place.”