I created Mrs. Helen’s Teahouse from my love of luxury tea and my personal quest to find highest quality teas in the international market. I have spent hundreds of hours researching the thousands of tea varieties, perfumes, and individual flavors of the most prominent teahouses in the world. As a certified tea sommelier, I personally select each luxury tea we carry, carefully curating our selection to make the tea shopping experience easy and enjoyable. My goal is to make the highest quality, luxury loose leaf teas and tea experiences accessible for new tea drinkers and experienced connoisseurs.

Mrs. Helen’s Teahouse is named after my maternal grandmother, Helen Clark Lewis who is in the center of my earliest tea Indulgences and memories. I loved having tea in my grandmother’s kitchen with milk and lots of sugar. Our tea was always served with strips of toasted white bread with butter and sugar sprinkles. My grandmother was born in Wallace, Louisiana, a Black settlement, on sugarcane farmland just outside New Orleans. Before completing her high school studies at Booker T. Washington High School in New Orleans, Helen joined the Great Migration, traveling to Seattle, Washington for economic opportunities where she married and raised her family. Mrs. Helen, a school lunch lady at Seattle’s Dunlap Elementary, spent her life dedicated to making sure neighborhood children were fed and prepared to learn. Even after retirement, her personal mission continued as she volunteered in the school kitchen until her passing. Her courage and commitment to service is my inspiration.

Today, as I partake in my regular rituals with teas served in my favorite heirloom teapots and vintage teacups, I am fondly reminded of sharing tea with my grandmother in her kitchen on South Graham Street. I believe every day is worthy of indulgences in high-quality, luxury tea. It is truly the most accessible form of self-care.

I live with my husband Herman in the historic President’s Home on the Wiley University campus and I love to spend time with my family in our family home New Orleans home which allows us enjoy the arts, culture, architecture, and culinary offerings of the majestic city. We have three children and the most adorable Portuguese Water Dog named Langston Hughes.