This article appears in the March 2011 issue of LouisvilleMagazine. To subscribe, please visit loumag.com.

Locavores who have tried the diet that only lets you consume what is grown within a 100-mile radius of your city know that coffee and tea are out of the question.

No, you can’t find coffee that is grown anywhere in the mainland U.S., but thanks to the folks at Red Hot Roasters (1403 Lexington Road), tea’s “food miles” — the distance between you and your food’s source — have shrunk considerably. The roastery now offers tea from the Charleston Tea Plantation in South Carolina — 621 miles from Louisville, in case you were wondering.

Sondra Powell, Red Hot Roasters’ owner, says the Tea Plantation has the only U.S.-grown tea leaves, which come in five varieties: Governor Grey, Charleston Breakfast, Island Green, Plantation Peach and Rockville Raspberry.