Mary Alice Higbie opened The St. James Tearoom in December of 1999 after traveling to England to study British teas and to search for vendors. She is certified as a Licensed Tea Consultant by the Protocol School of Washington in Washington, D.C., and has lectured to both large and small groups on the Art and Etiquette of Tea. She is also a Japanese Porcelain Artist and designed, planted, and maintained an extensive, private English Cottage Garden that was the subject of numerous paintings by well-known local artists. Daniel Higbie graduated from Hillsdale College in 1998 with an interdisciplinary bachelor’s in Classical Rhetoric & Persuasive Communication. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Syracuse University with a Master of Arts in International Relations and Global Markets. He was an exchange student at Oxford University and was an Investment Analyst and Strategy Consultant before coming to Albuquerque to assist with the launch of The St. James Tearoom. He is married to a beautiful Ukrainian “princessa” named Nataliya (also the CFO), and they have two boys.