Ellen Silverman
So you can't afford to send her around the world? Bring the world to her, in aromatic monthly installments of tea from Sri Lanka, India, China, or Japan. The Porto Rico Importing Company of Greenwich Village, in business since 1907, has put together a
Real Simple Mother's Day special. Give Mom a tea-for-two Brown Betty pot and four quarter-pound tea samples (Earl Grey, Ceylon, Darjeeling, and Jasmine first grade), then follow with a new tea each month from Porto Rico's seemingly inexhaustible collection. (If her cup of tea is coffee, Porto Rico will put together a comparable package with a two-cup French press coffeemaker and five half-pound coffee samples.) The teapot (or coffee-press) package is $45; follow-up subscriptions are $12 a month (for a pound of coffee or a half-pound of tea, shipping included);
www.portorico.com.