When you think of Hawaii, you probably don’t think of tea. But in recent years, Hawaiian growers have been learning and cultivating some fine and rare teas. Rare for many reasons: the atypically low elevation at which they are grown, the small size of the planting areas and the aim of integrating the fields into the existing landscape.
For a short while in 1887, the Hawaiian Coffee and Tea Company had a small plot in Kona but it was abandoned for financial reasons. In the 1960’s there was a small crop at the Lyon Arboretum on O’ahu but it was not considered commercially viable.
In the 1980’s, the sugar cane industry in Hawaii was at a decline and it was then that farmers began to turn to tea. Francis Zee of the US Department of Agriculture Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center (USDA PBARC) and Milton Yamasaki from the University of Hawaii began researching tea as an option.
From that point, it has been a world of exploration and discovery for everyone involved. It has been a journey to find areas of Hawaii that will produce tea, decide which of the many kinds of tea are most suited to grow and how to manufacture and develop a finished product that is sure to please.
There are many people who have been working diligently over the past several decades to cultivate not only some special teas but also Hawaii’s place within the tea industry.
Takahiro Ino is a certified Japanese Tea Instructor and co-owner of Mauna Kea Tea with his wife Kimberly. Their processing style is the traditional Aoyagi, or green willow. The style is well-suited to their organic farming practices that utilize the natural terrain of Hawaii and stray from the use of fertilizers and pesticides. The Ino’s also use weed growth to understand the soil’s suitability for certain types of tea.
In Volcano Village, at 1300 meters, Eva and Chiu Lee cultivate white teas from bushes grown on their shady property. They have also left native trees to assist in the growth of tea leaves which is not a typical practice in many areas of the world but provides a distinctive taste. Eva and Chiu have been also been exploring with green teas and utilizing a Japanese ‘jotan’ table and find it important to learn from world leaders in tea production.
The Hawaii Tea Society, founded in 2002, aims to assist new tea growers and promote the production of tea in Hawaii. With continued research and outreach to reknown manufacturers of tea worldwide, these dedicated individuals and many more are working to brew something special and exciting for Hawaii and for tea lovers everywhere.