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Kimberly Brown was enjoying the House of Blues' Gospel Brunch when she got the news. The events leading up to the World Tea Championship in Las Vegas had left her drained. Because of a minor family emergency, she had been unable to attend the award ceremony the night before. It was just as well. As far as she knew, her bottled tea, KimBees, hadn't garnered any awards.

Still, the experience of this prestigious annual event in April that brought together tea vendors from around the world had been fantastic. And now she was winding down with some good gospel music and a fabulous buffet. That's when she got the text message notifying her she'd won the first-place award for Iced Tea Class Ready-to-Drink Best Packaging.

"I went crazy. I started screaming and clapping," Brown says. "People around me started laughing and clapping."

No doubt they thought Brown had been filled with the Holy Spirit.

Brown quickly learned that she had also won second-place for her Lemon-Raspberry flavored tea and third-place for her Almond flavored tea, both in the Ready-to-Drink Sweetened Green Tea category.

Not too shabby for someone who had only been making and marketing bottled tea for less than a year.

Brown is the owner of Basketdoodle Cafe (317 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive; 574-3294), a boutique specializing in gift baskets in Greensboro's mixed-use development of Southside.

But last year, at the urging of her father, Brown began bottling and selling her sweet black tea under the name of KimBees. Her tea is made with cane sugar rather than corn syrup and can be served cold or hot. She soon added bottled sweet green and expanded her shop to include a cafe offering coffee ($1.50), fruit smoothies ($3) such as Pomegranate-Blueberry and Strawberry, wine and even wine smoothies (usually $5, but priced according to wine selection) pairing white wine with fruit such as peach and red wine with strawberry.

Brown grew up in the kitchens of her extended Texas family, cooking and eating fresh produce, eggs and dairy.

"I can be in the kitchen and have a sense of peacefulness," she says. "I just love it."

Her baked goods include pound cake (banana and blueberry) and Juanita's Croissants (a family recipe). Sliced pound cake with blueberry topping and whipped cream becomes a Warm Cake Sundae. There's also black walnut, amaretto-peach and carrot cake.

But it is KimBees tea that is fast becoming a cottage industry, thanks in part to a group of enterprising students from Bennett College. Brown, an A&T alumna in manufacturing who has been a copy editor for USA Today and a consultant for companies such as BellSouth and General Motors, works closely with an entrepreneurship program at the college. She fosters students and provides them with internships in her growing businesses. It was the students who provided the innovation and creative drive to expand the tea beyond the retail aspect.

"I enjoy working with the students to get the tea done. It's all local," Brown says adding that her dream is to build a manufacturing facility in Greensboro (for now, the tea is bottled elsewhere) to provide job opportunities for local students.

But Brown is not one to rest on her laurels. She's in perpetual motion growing her businesses, being a board member of Downtown Greensboro Inc. (she chaired the Bicentennial Birthday in Center City Park last year), constantly researching ways to make her products more healthy and earth friendly, and fostering the entrepreneurial spirit.

"Without a lot prayer, it couldn't have happened," she says. "God makes it happen first. And then it's ours."

For information on KimBees tea, visit www.kimbees.com.

Benefit wine tasting

A wine and beer tasting to benefit the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Earth Fare Market & Cafe (2965 Battleground Ave., Greensboro; 369-0190).

There will be appetizers, music and a raffle. Cost of admission is just $5.

Burgundy wine dinner

Zeto (335 Battleground Ave., Greensboro) will host sisters Laurence Jobard and Mireille Desmonet of Domaine Gabriel Billard for a Burgundy wine dinner at 7 p.m. June 24 at Printworks Bistro in Greensboro.

Cost for the event is $125. Call 574-2850 for reservations and log onto www.zetowines.com for details.

Wine dinner, lunch deal

Rediscover Pinots with a four-course wine dinner at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at The Undercurrent (327 Battleground Ave., Greensboro; 370-1266). Cost is $55.

The restaurant also is offering $8 lunch combinations that include a cup of soup or salad and half Almond Chicken Salad or Port Salut sandwich along with a choice of side.

Chinese dinner with wine

Full Kee Chinese Restaurant (3793 Samet Drive, Suite 145, High Point; www.fullkeerestaurant.com) will offer two four-course dinners paired with wine provided by The Vino Shoppe in High Point. The dinners are Monday and again on June 29. Cost is $75, which includes gratuity and tax. For reservations, call the restaurant at 841-1895 or The Vino Shoppe at 885-0081.

By the way, Full Kee has joined the Keep It Local campaign. The initiative is a loose cooperative of locally owned and operated fine dining restaurants that are cross-promoting what they have to offer to the budget-conscious diner.

The initiative is a loose cooperative of locally owned and operated finer dining restaurants who are cross-promoting what they have to offer to the budget-conscious diner.

Here are the restaurants participating in Keep It Local. All are in Greensboro unless otherwise noted:

Bert's Seafood Grille (4608 W. Market St.; 297-4881), Bistro Sofia (616 Dolley Madison Road; 855-1313), Cafe Europa (200 N. Davie St.; 389-1010), Liberty Oak (100 W. Washington St.; 273-7057), Madison Park Cafe (1310 Westover Terrace, No. 107; 275-3755), Marisol (5834-E High Point Road; 852-3303), Rim Tapas and Wine Bar (219 S. Elm St.; 230-2055), Riva's Trattoria (257 N. Greene St.; 334-9989), Sweet Basil's (620 Dolley Madison Road; 327-0023), Table 16 (600 S. Elm St.; 279-8525), The Bistro at Adam's Farm (5710-M High Point Road; 294-4610), The Undercurrent (327 Battleground Ave.; 370-1266), Solaris Tapas Restaurant (125 Summit Ave.; 378-0198), Full Kee (3793 Samet Drive, Suite 145, High Point; 841-1895).

Temporary closing

Marisol (5834 High Point Road, Greensboro; 852-3303) will be closed June 22-27.

Longtime Chef Stephen Schneider will be out of town for medical tests at John Hopkins Hospital. Schneider says the tests are in regards to some recent health issues but he hopes to be back in the kitchen soon.

The restaurant will also suspend lunch for the month of July.

Outdoor seating

A mural created by local artist Eric Moss highlights a new patio at Riva's Trattoria (257 N. Greene St., Greensboro; www.rivastrattoria.com).

The small area offers seating for eight.

Contact Carl Wilson at 373-7145 or carl.wilson @news-record.com