Hawaiian Tea Summer 2023 "Black Garnet"

1 ounce bags - intact two leaves and a bud, hand plucked in Summer 2023

A standard setter in true purity of land feeling, taste and scent.  A treasure in tea.

This is another lovely taste of an experiment gone well from Taka's tea making studio at Mauna Kea Tea Farm out here on Hawai'i island.  It takes a good year of curing for this kind of tea to be rather perfect for brewing, so is more than half way there now as of Feb 2024.  This batch has heavier fermentation as well as being from the naturalized tea plants unique to Hawaii with Assam and Bohea genetics.

Since 2010 I’ve been working with, learning from, and increasingly appreciating my friends at Mauna Kea Tea farm here on Hawai’i island. Their style of natural farming, and their values as a tea making family continue to inspire my own life and process ongoing. Here I am very fortunate to offer a Summer 2023 black tea this collection. They don’t wholesale their tea any more so it’s quite a privilege. This is a heavier processing in terms of aerobic fermentation and oxidation.  This tea is a blessing born of pristine land, University of Hawaii “bohea” (or some distant relative of the Chinese “Wuyi”) variety plants were picked in June by hand and made into this all around beautiful red/black tea. Tea processing and brewing deeply inspires my whole artisan endeavor, studying leaves and the land as a way of deepening my “great books” education. If you want to feel, then taste this precious Hawaiian soil, crafted by skillful hands into a classic style tea, then here’s a chance.