John Harney would have been 96 today. - Before there was Harney & Sons, he was a Connecticut innkeeper who knew little about tea. In the 1970s John Harney, or Papa John as most people knew him, was running the White Hart Inn in Salisbury when he met Stanley Mason, a Londoner who blended and packaged loose leaf teas under the name Sarum Teas. Stanley asked him to serve it at the inn. Guests soon began asking where they could buy it. Before long, Stanley began teaching Papa John everything he knew about the tea trade. - Years later, with Stanley gone and the inn sold, Papa John was 53 and starting over in the basement of his ranch house with six teas: English Breakfast, Earl Grey, Darjeeling, Gunpowder Green, Formosa Oolong, and Irish Breakfast. - Forty-three years on, we are still carrying on his mission of blending great-tasting teas. - Happy birthday, Papa John.