As I mentioned in my last blog, tea friend Storm sent me a selection of teas to try. Last time I reviewed the delightful "Autumn Crescendo," from the Glenburn Estate in Darjeeling. Today, I am reviewing a tea from Hawaii. I will not name this particular tea, because I am not giving it a good review, and I in no way want to damage their reputation, nor discourage them from their efforts.
I've tried tea from Hawaii before, and did not care for it. I was very pleased to try this one, hoping to have a different experience. Sadly, it was the same. The tea grown in Hawaii did not deliver. The processed leaves appear to have good quality, with a lovely, curly, hand-rolled appearance. The aroma of the wet leaves is somewhat floral, with a hint of sulfur detectable. (This particular tea was subjected to some vog from a nearby volcanic eruption.) I brewed it for a generous two minutes using water from the tetsubin. Unfortunately, the brew was very light in color, aroma, and flavor. There is some mild sweetness and savoriness, but overall, the tea is lacking. This tea reminds me of my own efforts in producing tea, and this is an outcome I associate with improper rolling of the wilted leaves. The tea left me feeling like my tea need was unfulfilled.
I have no doubt the Hawaii growers have great growing conditions, and have taken great care of their plants. I have visited the Charleston Tea Plantation in South Carolina, and the tea produced there is similarly disappointing, although of much lower overall production quality than this tea from Hawaii. A commercial tea produced here in Oregon is more flavorful than the Hawaiian tea, but still falls far short of its promise.
What is going on with American tea? In my research, I've concluded that tea production requires two distinct areas of expertise: cultivating tea, and processing tea. Each of those disciplines requires a lot of study, trial and error. In Asia, there are deep wells of knowledge available throughout the tea lands, and even humble tea can be massaged to yield flavorful brew. My intuition is the tea efforts of Hawaii and North America are too young, and lack sufficient intergenerational knowledge to produce outstanding tea. We can see this effect as well in teas from Kenya, which I believe show a lot of promise, but remain rough around the edges.
I will continue to support American tea efforts, in part because I believe in supporting "local" economy, but also because I have every faith in this land's ability to produce outstanding tea. So while American tea does not yet earn a place on my list of most-loved, my deep respect and gratitude goes out to the scrappy Americans who are propelling the efforts. I look forward to sipping the first truly great American tea.
UPDATE Oct 13, 2018: The tea friend who sent me this tea suggested I let it steep for 3 to 5 minutes to allow the flavors to develop. In experimenting with my own teas, my experience is the flavors come up in the first two minutes, or they don't. Yet, I wanted to give this tea a fair shake. Today I brewed it for four minutes. The results: the brew was darker, but no more fragrant. The tea had a thicker mouthfeel, so it felt more substantial. The flavor was slightly more pronounced, but primarily in the range of bitter. Also, despite use of the tetsubin, astringence overwhelmed the experience. So overall, while a longer brew time did give the tea more impact, I cannot say it was a great improvement. Unfortunately, I stand by my original review.
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